Paul Edward Haggis (born March 10, 1953) is a
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
,
producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
and
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
who spent his early career producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.
Personal life
Haggis was born in
London, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor with a metropolitan area population of 457,720; the city proper had a population of 352,395 in the 2006 Canadian census....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the son of Mary Yvonne (née Metcalf) and Edward H. Haggis. His parents were onetime owners of London, Ontario's former
Gallery Theatre at 36 York Street, where the younger Haggis cut his teeth in theater production, directing, and playwriting in the early
1970sThe 1970s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1970, to December 31, 1979.In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow...
. He attended St Thomas More Elementary School, St George's Public School, H.B. Beal Secondary School, and
Fanshawe CollegeFanshawe College is a large college in London, Ontario, Canada. It also has campuses in Simcoe, St. Thomas, Woodstock, Tillsonburg, and Strathroy. There are about 15 000 full-time students and 40 000 part-time students. Fanshawe College has over 100,000 alumni...
in London before leaving for
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
in 1975 to follow his dream of writing television and movie scripts. According to his father, Ted, it was 'three years two months and 10 days' before his son sold his first TV script (Ted had been sending his son $100 a week during these lean years, while Paul landed various jobs, including moving furniture).
He is the father of four children and resides in
Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica is a city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the...
with his second wife singer/actor
Deborah RennardDeborah Rennard is an American actress. She remains best known for her recurring role in Dallas as J.R. Ewing's secretary Sylvia "Sly" Lovegren. She appeared in the series from 1981 to 1991 and also in the film J.R. Returns...
.
Television
As a television writer/producer, he created or co-created the series
Walker, Texas RangerWalker, Texas Ranger is an American television police drama/Action, created by Lesie Grief and Paul Haggis. It aired on CBS with three pilot episodes followed by eight full seasons, from April 21, 1993 to May 19, 2001, was broadcast in over 100 countries, and has since spawned at least one...
,
Due SouthDue South is a Canadian television police comedy-drama from the 1990s. It was created by Paul Haggis and produced by Alliance Communications. The show first aired in 1994, and ran until 1999. It followed the adventures of fictional Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Constable Benton Fraser and...
,
Family LawFamily Law is a television drama starring Kathleen Quinlan as a divorced lawyer who attempted to start her own law firm after her lawyer husband took all their old clients. The show aired on CBS from 1999 to 2002...
, and the celebrated, if quickly cancelled
EZ StreetsEZ Streets is an American television drama created by Paul Haggis. It premiered on CBS on October 27, 1996 with a two hour pilot telefilm. After its first episode in its regular timeslot on Wednesday, October 30, 1996 it was canceled with CBS president Leslie Moonves promising that the show would...
. Early in his career, he wrote for sitcoms such as
Diff'rent StrokesDiff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on the NBC television network from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986.-History:...
and
Who's the Boss?Who's the Boss? is an American television sitcom starring Tony Danza, Judith Light, Alyssa Milano, Danny Pintauro, and Katherine Helmond...
. While working for
Diff'rent StrokesDiff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on the NBC television network from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986.-History:...
,he shared writing credits on three episodes. In 1989, he received two Emmy awards for his work on the show
thirtysomething: one as a writer; and another as a producer. He returned to television in the spring of 2007, after NBC picked up a 13-episode order for his crime drama,
The Black DonnellysThe Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially cancelled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...
. The show was canceled by NBC on May 14, 2007.
HDNetHDNet is a general interest television channel in the United States, broadcasting exclusively in high-definition format and available via cable and satellite television...
aired the remaining six episodes.
Film
In addition to directing multiple episodes of the above-mentioned television shows, Haggis has directed several feature films and written several successful screenplays.
Red Hot-Cast:*Balthazar Getty... Alexi*Carla Gugino... Valentina*Jan Niklas... Yorgi*Hugh O'Conor... Yuri*Armin Mueller-Stahl... Dimitri*Donald Sutherland... Kirov...
, his directorial debut, had a limited video release in 1993.
Around 2000 he came into his own as both a writer and director in films. As a film writer, he received an
OscarThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2004's
Million Dollar BabyMillion Dollar Baby is a 2004 film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman. It is the story of an under-appreciated boxing trainer, his elusive past, and his quest for atonement by helping an underdog amateur female boxer achieve...
, directed by
Clint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People's Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.Eastwood is...
, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture.
His second directorial effort performed equally well.
CrashCrash is a 2004 American drama film, co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles...
, which he co-wrote, directed and co-produced debuted in September 2004 at the Toronto Film Festival.
Lions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment Corporation is an American entertainment company that originated in Vancouver, British Columbia and later based in Los Angeles, and is now headquartered in Santa Monica, California, USA...
purchased the distribution rights for $3 million and released it internationally in May 2005 to mostly positive reviews, with film critics Ebert and Roeper giving it a "two thumbs way up" rating and
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
naming it the best film of the year.
The film was nominated for six
Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay categories. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself received the Academy Award for Best Picture. Overall, he has won two Academy Awards and been nominated for four. He lost the directing prize to
Ang LeeAng Lee is an Academy Award-winning Taiwanese American film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director, and...
for
Brokeback MountainBrokeback Mountain is a 2005 American romantic-drama film that depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1981....
, but he became the only man in history to have penned two consecutive Best Picture Oscar-winners.
Haggis' fourth film as a feature film director, which he also wrote, is entitled
Honeymoon with Harry and is scheduled for release in 2008 although production has yet to commence.
Haggis also adapted, for director Eastwood,
James BradleyJames Bradley FRS was an English astronomer the Astronomer Royal from 1742. Bradley is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light , and the nutation of the Earth's axis...
's book
Flags of Our FathersFlags of Our Fathers is a New York Times bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers about the five United States Marines and one United States Navy Corpsman who would eventually be made famous by Joe Rosenthal's lauded photograph of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, one of the costliest and...
, about the
Battle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan...
. The film was released on October 20, 2006.
Haggis was hired in August 2005 to revise the screenplay for the
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
film
Casino RoyaleCasino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond series; it was directed by Martin Campbell and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis...
, which was also released late in 2006. The original screenplay had been written by
Neal PurvisNeal Purvis is a screenwriter best known for co-writing the last four James Bond films with his long-time collaborator Robert Wade.-Selected written screenplays:*Let Him Have It *The World Is Not Enough...
and
Robert WadeRobert Wade is a screenwriter best known for co-writing four James Bond films with his long-time collaborator Neal Purvis.-Selected written screenplays:*Let Him Have It *The World Is Not Enough *Plunkett & Macleane...
, based on the novel by
Ian FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author and journalist. Fleming is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories...
. Haggis returned to work on the script for the follow-up,
Quantum of Solace. He was also invited to direct the film but declined.
He received a fifth Academy Award nomination for his role in writing
Letters from Iwo Jimais a 2006 war film, directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the...
, alongside Japanese writer
Iris YamashitaIris Yamashita is an Academy Award-nominated Japanese-American screenwriter.She was hired by Clint Eastwood to write the Japanese side of the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima, once rumored to be titled Lamps Before the Wind, then called Red Sun, Black Sand, before being released as Letters from Iwo...
.
Recently, Haggis has partnered with film producer
Michael NozikMichael Nozik is an American film producer. He won a BAFTA award for 'Best Film Not In The English Language' for The Motorcycle Diaries in 2004. His credits also include Love in the Time of Cholera, Syriana, Quiz Show, and The Legend of Bagger Vance....
, to form Highway 61 Films.
Russell CroweRussell Ira Crowe is an Australian actor and musician. His acting career began in the early 1990s with roles in Australian TV series such as Police Rescue and films such as Romper Stomper. In the late 1990s, he began appearing in US films such as the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential...
will star in "The Next Three Days," the adaptation of the 2008 French film "Pour Elle" that reunites Lionsgate with its "Crash" director Paul Haggis.
Crowe will play a teacher whose wife (
Elizabeth BanksElizabeth Banks is an American actress whose TV and film appearances include Scrubs, the Spider-Man films, The Uninvited, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, W., Zack And Miri Make A Porno, and Role Models.-Early life and education:Banks was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as the oldest of four children of...
) is arrested and convicted of a murder she says she did not commit. He comes up with a desperate plan to free her.
Haggis, who wrote the script, will begin production in late September in Pittsburgh.
Activism
Haggis is also co-founder of Artists for Peace and Justice, a member of the board of directors for the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, the Environmental Media Association, the President's Council of the Defenders of Wildlife and the advisory board of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Violence. He donated $2,100 to the
Dennis KucinichDennis John Kucinich is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections....
campaignDennis Kucinich announced on December 12, 2006 that he would seek the nomination for the Democratic Party to run for President of the United States. Although a Democratic candidate, he was not included in the New Hampshire debates on January 4, 2008 or the South Carolina debates on January 21, 2008...
.
Honors
Apart from the Oscars for
Crash, in 2005, the
Writers Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers around New York City....
awarded Haggis the Valentine Davies Award for "bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere." Other awards include, six
GeminisThe Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada...
, the
Humanitas PrizeThe is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious cinema or TV...
, and the TV Critics Association Award.
The city of London, Ontario, declared September 11, 2006 Paul Haggis Day in London, with Haggis, his father and Mayor
Anne Marie DeCicco-BestAnne Marie DeCicco-Best is the current mayor of London, Ontario, Canada.DeCicco graduated from Fanshawe College's broadcast journalism program in 1986 and worked for CHYR in Leamington, Ontario, before returning in 1987 to work at CJBK and CJBX, a country music station in London as a reporter...
touring three of the schools that Paul Haggis had attended growing up in London in the
1960sThe 1960s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1960, to December 31, 1969.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France,...
and
1970sThe 1970s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1970, to December 31, 1979.In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow...
:
Fanshawe CollegeFanshawe College is a large college in London, Ontario, Canada. It also has campuses in Simcoe, St. Thomas, Woodstock, Tillsonburg, and Strathroy. There are about 15 000 full-time students and 40 000 part-time students. Fanshawe College has over 100,000 alumni...
, Catholic Central High School and H.B. Beal Secondary School.
TV appearances
Haggis was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike De Luca, Haggis describes his evolution as a writer from TV to film, including the genesis of his Oscar-winning film, Crash.
Haggis has also appeared on the HBO series
EntourageEntourage is an American comedy-drama that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004. The series was created by Doug Ellin and chronicles the rise of Vincent Chase, a young A-list movie star, and his childhood friends from Queens, New York City, as they navigate the unfamiliar terrain of Hollywood,...
playing himself, as an intense director brought in to possibly direct the fictional film
Medellin.
As writer
- Red Hot
-Cast:*Balthazar Getty... Alexi*Carla Gugino... Valentina*Jan Niklas... Yorgi*Hugh O'Conor... Yuri*Armin Mueller-Stahl... Dimitri*Donald Sutherland... Kirov...
(1993)
- Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman. It is the story of an under-appreciated boxing trainer, his elusive past, and his quest for atonement by helping an underdog amateur female boxer achieve...
(2004)
- Crash
Crash is a 2004 American drama film, co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles...
(2005)
- The Last Kiss
The Last Kiss is a 2006 American comedy-drama film which is based on the 2001 Italian film L'ultimo bacio, directed by Gabriele Muccino. The plot revolves around a young couple and their friends struggling with adulthood and issues of relationships and commitment.The film stars Zach Braff, Jacinda...
(2006)
- Flags of Our Fathers
Flags of Our Fathers is a American war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis...
(2006)
- Letters from Iwo Jima
is a 2006 war film, directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the...
(2006)
- Casino Royale
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond series; it was directed by Martin Campbell and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, it was adapted by screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis...
(2006)
- In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon...
(2007)
- Quantum of Solace (2008)
- Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American science fiction film, the fourth installment in the Terminator series, directed by McG, and starring Christian Bale as future Resistance leader John Connor and Sam Worthington as cyborg Marcus Wright...
(2009)
- The Next Three Days (TBA)
As director
- Red Hot
-Cast:*Balthazar Getty... Alexi*Carla Gugino... Valentina*Jan Niklas... Yorgi*Hugh O'Conor... Yuri*Armin Mueller-Stahl... Dimitri*Donald Sutherland... Kirov...
(1993)
- Crash
Crash is a 2004 American drama film, co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles...
(2005)
- In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon...
(2007)
- The Next Three Days (TBA)
Television work
- thirtysomething (supervising producer, writer, director)
- City
City was an American sitcom which aired for 13 episodes, on CBS, during the latter half of the 1989-1990 season. It was a new starring vehicle for Valerie Harper, which went into development not long after she and husband Tony Cacciotti won their lawsuit against Lorimar Telepictures over her...
(creator)
- EZ Streets
EZ Streets is an American television drama created by Paul Haggis. It premiered on CBS on October 27, 1996 with a two hour pilot telefilm. After its first episode in its regular timeslot on Wednesday, October 30, 1996 it was canceled with CBS president Leslie Moonves promising that the show would...
(creator, executive producer)
- The Black Donnellys
The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially cancelled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...
- Walker Texas Ranger (co-creator)
- Due South
Due South is a Canadian television police comedy-drama from the 1990s. It was created by Paul Haggis and produced by Alliance Communications. The show first aired in 1994, and ran until 1999. It followed the adventures of fictional Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Constable Benton Fraser and...
(creator)
External links