Anthony McCarten
Encyclopedia
Biography
Born in 1961 in New PlymouthNew Plymouth
New Plymouth is the major city of the Taranaki Region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after Plymouth, Devon, England, from where the first English settlers migrated....
, Anthony McCarten's novels have been translated into 14 languages. His first novel, Spinners (Picador, 2000), was voted one of the top ten novels of that year by Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine. His third novel, Death Of A Superhero, won the 2008 Austrian Youth Literature Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 German Youth Literature Prize. "Not since Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum has the pains of growing up been rendered this powerfully." Blick, Zurich. "A fantastic novel and a small revoltion for the literary form. This novel makes one sick with yearning for more such texts, which are sensitive without being kitschy, which don't mistake coolness for cynicism, which don't pretend that movies, comics, video games, internet just don't exist.. It is impossible to present our modern world of perceptions more adequately and vividly." Der Spiegel (Online). A major motion picture, from McCarten's screenplay adaptation and starring Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie Sangster, Death Of A Superhero had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011.
In 2005, McCarten adapted his second novel, The English Harem, for the screen. It was broadcast on ITV in December 2005 starring Martine McCutcheon
Martine McCutcheon
Martine McCutcheon is an English singer, television personality and Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress. McCutcheon had minor success as one third of the pop group Milan in the early 1990s; however, it was her role as Tiffany Mitchell in BBC's EastEnders that made her a household name in the UK...
and Art Malik
Art Malik
Art Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
. Novelist and three times Booker finalist, Timothy Mo
Timothy Mo
Timothy Peter Mo is an Anglo-Chinese novelist. Born to a Welsh-Yorkshire mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10 before he moved to Britain, studying at St John's College, Oxford.He self-publishes his books under the label "Paddleless Press".- Novels :*The...
, named The English Harem his Novel Of The Year.
His fourth novel, Show Of Hands, was published in Europe, and in the US by Simon and Schuster in 2009. McCarten has already directed the big screen adaptation and the movie had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival, 2008, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the New Zealand Film Awards.
McCarten received early international success with his play Ladies Night
Ladies Night (play)
Ladies' Night, a play by the New Zealand writers Stephen Sinclair and Anthony McCarten about a group of unemployed workers who develop a male strip show. It was first performed in December 1987 at Auckland's Mercury Theatre and has been described as the most commercially successful play in New...
. Translated into twelve languages, it remains New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's most commercially successful play of all time, and in addition to eight sell-out national tours of Britain it continues to play worldwide. In 2001, it won France's premiere theatre award for comedy, the Molière Prize.
McCarten is also a film director whose first feature film, Via Satellite, which he adapted from his own stage play, was invited to several film festivals including London, Cannes, Toronto, Melbourne, Hawaii and Seattle. His follow-up feature, Show of Hands
Show of Hands (film)
Show of Hands is a feature film written and directed by Anthony McCarten. It stars Melanie Lynskey, Craig Hall and Stephen Lovatt.Based on true events, the story concerns an endurance competition where the person who can keep their hand on a new car the longest wins the car...
(2008), premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival and was an official selection for the Shanghai Film Festival 2009. His screenplay, The Theory Of Everything, based on the life of Prof. Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
and his first wife, Jane Hawking, is under development in Hollywood.
Novels
- Spinners Random House New Zealand (1999)
- The English Harem Picador (2002), reprinted (film-tie-in) Alma Books (2006)
- Death of a Superhero Alma Books (2006, 2007)
- Show Of Hands (2008) Diogenes (Germ.), Simon and Shuster (US), Random House (NZ)
- In The Absence Of Heroes (2012) Random House (NZ), Diogenes (Germ.)
Films
- Nocturne in a Room (1992) (Short)
- Fluff (1995) (Short)
- Via Satellite (1999)
- The English Harem (2005) (TV Adaptation)
- Show of Hands (2008)
- Death Of A Superhero (2011)
Plays
- Invitation to a Second Class Carriage. Depot Theatre, Wellington, 1984.
- Yellow Canary Mazurka. Circa, 1987.
- Ladies’ NightLadies Night (play)Ladies' Night, a play by the New Zealand writers Stephen Sinclair and Anthony McCarten about a group of unemployed workers who develop a male strip show. It was first performed in December 1987 at Auckland's Mercury Theatre and has been described as the most commercially successful play in New...
. With Stephen Sinclair. Mercury, 1987. - Pigeon English. Playwrights’ Workshop, 1988; Depot, 1989.
- Weed. Circa, 1990.
- Via Satellite. Circa, 1991, and the winner of the NZ Listener Best Play and Wellington Theatre Critics’ Best Production awards for 1991.
- Hang on a Minute, Mate. Downstage, 1992.
- Ladies’ Night 2. With Stephen Sinclair. Mercury, 1992.
- FILTH (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong). Circa, 1995.
- Four Cities aka "Continental Breakfast". Los Angeles, 1996.