For his very first produced script, In the Name of the Father, Terry George along with the film’s director Jim Sheridan received an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. The film was also a best picture Oscar nominee in 1993.
Three years later, George made his directorial debut with Some Mother’s Son, earning him the best young director honor at the European Film Awards. Next he directed the Emmy-nominated HBO telefilm A Bright Shining Lie, based on Neil Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War tale.
Then in ’04, Hotel Rwanda garnered widespread critical acclaim–and George’s second Oscar nomination, for best original screenplay, shared with writer Keir Pearson. George also directed two ’05 Academy Award-nominated performances in Hotel Rwanda–for Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo.
George’s latest feature is Reservation Road, which he directed while teaming on the adapted screenplay with John Burnham Schwartz. The movie–which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, Mark Ruffalo and Mira Sorvino–focuses on two families that become intertwined when the father from one kills the son of the other in a hit-and-run automobile accident.
Having just wrapped that film, George is now poised to make his first foray into commercialmaking, having signed with noted production house Hungry Man for spot representation.
Hungry Man managing partner Stephen Orent said, “What appealed most to me about Terry was how quickly I thought he would find success in the advertising world. We think his ability to write along with his dramatic filmmaking skills will enable us to tap into new areas of the business. I was blown away by his humility and eagerness to try his hand at commercials.”
SHOOT: What attracted you to directing commercials?
George: I’ve admired the work in commercials that Michel Gondry and Ridley Scott, among other feature filmmakers, have done. The more I have met feature film directors who have worked in advertising, the more I heard about the creative advantages, of being able to experiment, to do things with the camera that aren’t done in features. I’m also fascinated by the short form medium itself. Commercials are the shortest form of storytelling. Capturing the interest of an audience visually and through smart succinct words within a limited time frame intrigues me.
SHOOT: Why did you choose Hungry Man?
George: I was introduced to Steve [Orent] by mutual friends. I found the people there to be nice and the company a good fit for me personally. They have a genuine enthusiasm for what they do and for what I can bring to them in commercials.
SHOOT: Hungry Man’s reputation is in comedy. Did that play a role in your decision to join there in that you represent quite a different directorial offering in terms of your prowess in dramatic filmmaking?
George: Perhaps a little bit. But keep in mind that in New York theater I was very involved in comedy. I wrote a play that Jim Sheridan directed called The Tunnel. Though the end is tragic, the story itself is quite humorous. It’s about prisoners digging a tunnel out of a prison camp in Northern Ireland. The prisoners all sort of fancy themselves as latter day Steve McQueens from the movie The Great Escape.
And even though I’ve done very serious films, I’ve managed to get several laughs in certain scenes which is somewhat of an achievement. In order to break the intense experience of a Hotel Rwanda for the audience you need an element of humor. It’s part of life. But in commercials, I’m eager to do whatever comes my way–comedy, drama, a mix of the two.
SHOOT: What does your feature experience enable you to bring to to the table in commercials?
George: The copywriter’s job is to write the story. But I can help because I have a storytelling kind of eye based on my feature experience. I know how to distill images into a statement or a point pretty quickly. In my feature work I’ve taken very complicated subjects and found a way to make them universal. That’s what I like about advertising–even without any words, you can convey a message and say something great.
SHOOT: In that you write the features that you direct, do you welcome the opportunity commercials afford you to direct someone else’s script?
George: Yes. The hardest part of feature filmmaking for me, from conception to final mix, is the writing. It can be incredibly painful. You’ve got to really dig to achieve the distillation of story and character that you want….You distill it down to its most powerful and lasting ingredients.
In commercials, to have someone present me with copy and then have the freedom to help and make suggestions will be a luxury, something I think I’ll enjoy. And I still have strengths as a writer that I can bring to the project if given the chance.
SHOOT: Sounds like you’re looking forward to the collaborative process in commercialmaking.
George: I’m looking forward to collaborating not only with the agency creative people but other artists in commercials. For example, cinematographer John Lindley shot Reservation Road with me. The chance to work with him again would be great. At one point [cinematographer] Ellen Kuras was going to shoot Reservation Road but her schedule conflicted with a project she was doing with Gondry. Ellen and I were earlier going to do a film called American Gangster which kind of fell apart and has since been reborn with Ridley Scott directing it. So I haven’t had the opportunity to work with Ellen, which I would love to do.
Commercials may give me a more realistic chance to team with different artists whereas the working calendar for features is more difficult to synchronize. And commercials offer a different creative challenge than feature films–and with that a departure from the very heavy subject matter of the features I tend to do.
SHOOT: What will be your next feature project?
George: Outside of the commercials I hope to direct, there’s a chance I might do an action thriller. If that comes to pass, a shoot ’em up, fun movie would be a much needed break from the serious subject matter of tragedy and genocide that I’ve been dealing with in my last two films.
The next big serious movie project, though, is based on the life of United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed in the U.N. headquarters in Iraq by an Al Qaeda bomb in August 2003. He was active in humanitarian and peace keeping operations throughout his U.N. career [which began in 1969]. I am writing that script now.
SHOOT: What’s your window of availability for commercials?
George: I need an A-list star for the movie on Sergio. It will probably take another nine months or so to put much of what we need together. So I should be able to take on commercials during that time. My work at Hungry Man will represent an escape from the computer that stares at me now as a writer.
