Tom Hooper was born on 5 October 1972 in London, England, the son of Meredith Jean (Rooney) and Richard Hooper.[1][5] Meredith is an Australian author and academic and Richard is an English media businessman. Hooper was educated at Highgate School and Westminster School.[6] His initial interest in drama was triggered by his English and drama teacher at Highgate, former Royal Shakespeare Company actor Roger Mortimer, who produced an annual school play.[7]
At the age of 12, Hooper read a book entitled How to Make Film and Television and decided he wanted to become a director.[6][7] For the next year Hooper researched filmmaking from publications such as On Camera by Harris Watts.[7] Aged 13, he made his first film, entitled Runaway Dog, using a clockwork 16mm Bolex camera his uncle had given to him.[6] Hooper said: "The clockwork would run out after thirty seconds, so the maximum shot length was thirty seconds. I could only afford a hundred feet of Kodachrome reversal film, which cost about twenty-five [pounds], and you had to send off for two weeks to be processed. I could only make silent movies, because sound was too expensive and complicated."[8] He slowed down the frame rate of the camera so he could maximise what little film stock he had.[7] Hooper classified the short, about a dog which kept running away from its owner, as a comedy, and filmed it on location in Oxfordshire.[9]
When Hooper was 14, his film Bomber Jacket came runner-up in a BBC younger filmmakers' competition.[8] The short starred Hooper's brother as a boy who discovers a bomber jacket and a photograph hidden in a cupboard and learns his grandfather died in World War II.[2] Another of Hooper's short films, entitled Countryside, depicts a nuclear holocaust.[n 2][8]
Hooper finished school aged 16, then wrote the script for his first professional short film, entitled Painted Faces. He spent the next two years raising capital for the short by courting advertisement directors, whose financial dominance during the late 1980s was noticed by Hooper. Director Paul Weiland invested in the short, which provided Hooper with the equipment he needed. After two years of financing and production, Painted Faces was completed. Hooper wrote, produced, directed and edited it.[7] It was sold to Channel 4 and broadcast on the channel's First Frame strand in 1992, had a screening at the 35th London Film Festival and had a limited theatrical release.[6][7]
After graduating from Oxford, Hooper directed further television commercials, intending to break into the film industry the same way Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Hugh Hudson did.[6][19] He was introduced by his father to the television producer Matthew Robinson, who mentored Hooper and gave him his first television directing work.[6][7] For Robinson, Hooper directed episodes of the short-lived Tyne Tees Television soap opera Quayside in 1997, four episodes of the Children's BBC television series Byker Grove in the same year, and his first episodes of the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 1998.[6][20]
Hooper directed several EastEnders episodes between 1998 and 2000, two of which were hour-long specials that represented the soap when it won the British Academy Television Award for Best Soap Opera in 2000 and 2001;[6] the first was the episode in which Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson) learns her daughter Bianca (Patsy Palmer) had an affair with her fiancé Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass). The Jackson episode marked the beginning of a week of episodes that led to Palmer's departure from the soap, and Robinson had hired Hooper to direct the key episodes of that storyline.[21] Hooper worked 10-hour days on EastEnders, and learned to direct with speed.[12] He was influenced in his early career by the cinematic style of American TV series such as ER, NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street and tried to work that style into his EastEnders episodes; one scene featuring Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) involved a crane shot, which Hooper believes made him infamous among the EastEnders production crew.[22]
In 1999, Hooper directed two episodes of Granada Television's comedy-drama television series Cold Feet, which marked his move to bigger-budget productions.[23] There was initially concern at Granada that Hooper might be an unsuitable director for the series given his background in drama.[6]
Hooper returned to Granada the next year to direct the revival of Prime Suspect, entitled The Last Witness. The two-part serial was the first Prime Suspect instalment to be made since 1995, when star Helen Mirren quit. Hooper initially declined to direct the production because he believed the series was tired. Granada's head of drama Andy Harries introduced Hooper to Mirren, who persuaded him to take the job by promising that he could make the serial his own way.[6][23] The two-part serial was broadcast on the ITV network in November 2003. Hooper's direction received praise from Andrew Billen in the New Statesman: "Tom Hooper proved an outstanding director, imposing a bleak, overlit hyper-realism on the search for a killer in a hospital, isolating Mirren in rows of empty chairs and playing on the eyewitness/optical visual metaphors."[26] The serial was also broadcast on PBS in the United States. Hooper received nominations for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Serial and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special for his work on Prime Suspect.[27][28]
Hooper made his debut as a feature film director with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission drama Red Dust (2004), which stars Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jamie Bartlett. The film was not widely seen, which Hooper attributed to media coverage of torture during the Iraq War: "When I started making it you could watch the movie with a wonderful sense of 'we'd never do it in our own country…they're the horrible people but it's not us.' By the time the film came out (there were) these revelations that the Americans were torturing, the British were torturing. The film became a lot more uncomfortable for the very audiences it was designed to target. I have learned that sadly the theatrical audience does not run to see films that are openly issue-led."[23] The premiere of the film in the United Kingdom came on BBC Two in 2005, making it eligible for the BAFTA Television Awards; it was nominated in the Best Single Drama category at the 2006 ceremony.[29]
In 2005, Hooper was asked by Helen Mirren to direct the Company Pictures/HBO Films two-part serial Elizabeth I, in which she was starring.[30] The serial won Hooper his first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.[6] In January 2006, Hooper commenced filming the Granada/HBO television film Longford. The film dramatises the failed efforts of Lord Longford (played by Jim Broadbent) to secure the release from prison of Moors murderer Myra Hindley (played by Samantha Morton). The film was broadcast on Channel 4 in October 2006. Seb Morton-Clark for the Financial Times called Longford one of the most accomplished television dramas of 2006, and praised the writer and director: "Morgan and director Tom Hooper wove a seamless narrative about obsession – and not just that of the misguided philanthropist for the incarcerated Hindley or even that that existed between the sadistic lovers themselves. More significantly, by using chunks of original television footage, they painted a stark picture of the zealotry of a vengeful nation and its press over the supposed embodiment of evil."[31] Hooper's continued successes led him to be ranked at number four in the Directors category of Broadcast magazine's annual Hot 100.[32] The following year he was nominated for the British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Director for Longford.[33]
Elizabeth I and Longford led directly to Hooper being selected by Tom Hanks to direct the epic miniseries John Adams for Playtone and HBO. Hooper had been working on a biographical film with Joan Didion about Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, since 2006 when he was asked by Hanks to helm the programme.[34][n 4] The miniseries, starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams, was based on David McCullough's Adams biography and was Hooper's first wholly American production.[36] He worked on the miniseries for a total of 16 months; principal photography lasted 110 days on locations in the United States, France, England and Hungary and he controlled a $100 million budget.[37]The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert complimented Hooper's style of direction in the first two episodes "Join or Die" and "Independence":
Director Tom Hooper lets his actors shine, as he did so marvelously in Helen Mirren's Elizabeth I and the child-killer drama Longford, but he complements them, too, with this kind of immediate point of view. And when he does give us panoramic shots from afar – of the Adams farm in Braintree, for example – they're askew, to keep us out of the classroom mode. At the end of episode 2 [...] Hooper showcases all his directorial strength with one bold choice. When the long-fretting Congress finally decides to break with Britain, he refrains from using any visual or aural tweaks. Upon the announcement, "The resolution carries," the scene remains perfectly silent for one long moment. The terror of responsibility hangs heavily in the room, while a victorious soundtrack surely would have chased it away.[38]
John Adams received 23 Emmy Award nominations, including another Outstanding Direction nomination for Hooper, and won 13, the highest number for any nominee in a single year.[39] He was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.[40] At the beginning of 2009, he was profiled for The Observer's film Hotlist.[41]
The wake of John Adams' Emmy wins brought offers to Hooper from studios to direct spy and comic book films, which he declined.[42] In November 2007, he signed on to direct The Damned United, reuniting him with Peter Morgan and Andy Harries. The film was an adaptation of David Peace's novel The Damned Utd, a fictional version of the 44 turbulent days English football manager Brian Clough spent as manager of Leeds United. It was originally developed by Stephen Frears for Michael Sheen to play Clough. Frears quit the project after he was unable to translate the book to film.[43] Hooper received a copy of the script while shooting John Adams in Hungary and noticed a similarity between the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Adams and the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Clough.[44] He was not put off by joining the project later, as Morgan's script was in only its first draft.[23] During pre-production, Hooper engaged in meticulous research, particularly on the locations and the football grounds of the era. He cast Timothy Spall as Clough's assistant Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney as Don Revie and Jim Broadbent as Derby County chairman Sam Longson.[45] During editing, it was decided to make the tone of the film lighter to attract audiences and to appease the real people depicted in the film. The Damned United was released in 2009.[44][46]
Work on Hooper's next film, The King's Speech, began in the same year. Hooper explained: "It was a stage play, and my mother who's Australian was invited to a fringe [theatre] reading in London because she's part of the Australian community. The play's about the relationship between King George the Sixth and his Australian speech therapist. She came back and said 'you've got to read this play,' and I read it and it was brilliant ...".[23] Hooper cast Colin Firth as George VI and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue and spent three weeks with the actors reading the script and rehearsing.[47] Principal photography took place on location around the UK from November 2009 to January 2010.[48] During editing, Hooper continued to consult with Firth and Rush by sending them cuts of the film and listening to their feedback.[47]
Following the success of The King's Speech during the awards season, Hooper joined the 15-person board of governors at the British Film Institute, was invited to join the directors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was ranked at number 19 in The Times' British Film Power 100.[55][56][57] In March 2009, Hooper met with Nelson Mandela in preparation for directing a film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.[44][58] By 2012, however, he had left the project.[59][60]
Hooper investigated filming the feature in 3D, and performed some camera tests before deciding to film it with traditional 2D methods. He stated "[...] I slightly worry with 3D that some people will physically struggle with it. If you have a certain type of eyesight, it can be more demanding than watching a normal movie."[64] Unlike other musical films, Les Misérables features the actors singing live on camera, rather than miming to backing vocals. Hooper told Los Angeles Times that he thought there was a "slightly strange falseness" when he saw musical films where the actors sang to recordings. The actors wore wireless earpieces on set so they could sing to accompanying piano music. Hooper believed this method allowed the actors to have emotional control over their songs: "When Annie [Hathaway, who plays Fantine] is singing 'I Dreamed a Dream', if she needs to take a tenth of a second to have a thought before she sings it, or to have an emotion before she sings a line, she can take it."[65]Les Miserables was released in North America on 25 December 2012, and received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.[66]
In 2023, he co-supervised a new digital remix and remaster of Les Misérables in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, in collaboration with producer Cameron Mackintosh, music producer Lee McCutcheon, music director Stephen Metcalfe and sound mixer Andy Nelson. This version of the film was released theatrically in Dolby Cinema on 14 February 2024 in the United Kingdom and 23 February 2024 in North America to celebrate the stage musical's upcoming 40th anniversary in 2025.[72]
In February 2024, Hooper revealed that some upcoming projects with him set to direct are in the works, following a five-year hiatus from the medium caused by the critical and financial failure of Cats and spending time directing commercials for clients such as Vodafone, McDonald's, Santander and Vanish, saying "I'm certainly quite close on a couple of things ... I've been busy. I'm very happy to get back behind the camera."[73]
Directorial style
Hooper adopted a style of framing actors at the extreme edge of a scene in both The Damned United (top) and The King's Speech (bottom)
Hooper uses camera styles "that encode the DNA of the storytelling in some way" and will reuse and develop filming styles in successive productions.[74] Hooper identifies research as being key to his process of directing period dramas such as John Adams to make the scenes authentic.[3] For The Damned United, Hooper and director of photography Ben Smithard researched the look of the late 1960s and early 1970s through football photography books.[75] Hooper has also been influenced by cinematographer Larry Smith, who worked with Stanley Kubrick and advised Hooper of techniques used by Kubrick.[76] Hooper and Smith have worked together on Cold Feet, Love in a Cold Climate, Prime Suspect, Red Dust and Elizabeth I.
Hooper also uses uncommon framing techniques to emphasise story; in John Adams, he wanted to imply American independence seemed unlikely during the Revolutionary War, so he used "a very rough camera style—almost all hand held, wide lenses close to the actors, lots of movement, many cameras shooting at once so there was often not a settled master "point of view", and lots of unmatching dutch tilts so the horizon lines of the frame were often being thrown off."[74] The America-set scenes were contrasted by the scenes set in France, in which more traditional filming techniques were employed to evoke a feel of entrenched values.[74] Similarly, in The Damned United, Hooper began to experiment with using wide-angle lenses and putting actors in the extreme edges of the frame. He was influenced by the unusual framing from social photography of the 1970s, and he and Ben Smithard decided to adopt the framing style while scouting locations.[75] Hooper used the same style in The King's Speech, particularly in the scene where Bertie and Logue meet in Logue's consulting room; Colin Firth is framed to the extreme left of the picture, leaving most of the shot dominated by the rough wall behind Firth.[74][77]
Hooper frequently uses dutch tilts in his work, notably in John Adams (top) and Les Misérables (bottom)
Another frequently used technique is Hooper's tendency to use a variety of focal length camera lenses to distort the resulting picture.[78] In The Damned United he used a 10mm lens, notably in the scene where Clough stays inside during the Derby–Leeds match. Hooper operated the camera in this scene himself.[75] In The King's Speech, Hooper used "typically 14mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm and 27mm" lenses and put the camera close to the actors' faces.[78] Hooper said the use of this method in the first consulting room scene served to "suggest the awkwardness and tension of Logue and Bertie's first meeting".[74]
Cats VFX accusations
Following the release of Cats, reports came from the film's visual effects departments of Hooper's "hurtful", "horrible", "disrespectful" and "demeaning attitude" towards them and their work.[79] The VFX team reportedly were forced to work upwards of 90 hour working weeks, with some employees staying at the offices for two to three days at a time just to finish the film. One member of the VFX team said Hooper's treatment "was pure, almost slavery for us",[80] with six months to complete the trailer, and only four months to complete the film. Hooper supposedly had little understanding of the process of visual effects, thus the VFX department could not show Hooper the step-by-step process of what he wanted, such as animatics, unless it was already rendered. He reportedly would send emails to individual VFX artists on the film to denigrate their work. Hooper would also insult them during conference meetings, calling the work "garbage".[81] Neither Hooper nor Universal have commented on the accusations.
^Hooper was born and raised in England and is the son of an English father and an Australian mother. He holds dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and Australia.[2] Hooper self-identified in 2010 as "half-Australian and half-English and living in London".[3]
^The order of Hooper's early short films differs according to various sources; Fendelman (2011)[9] states that Bomber Jacket was his second short, and Simmons (2011)[8] states it was his third. Hooper is himself confused about the order in his audio commentary for The King's Speech DVD.[10]
^Notable advertising campaigns directed by Hooper include 2006's Rooftop Tennis for Sony Ericsson's mobile phone range,[6][15] and Dive, a spot for the 2011 Captain Morgan rum campaign To Life, Love and Loot.
[16][17]
^Hooper was subsequently replaced by Robert Benton on the Graham project.[35]
References
^ abBirths, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005. 5d: 2485.
^ abGritten, David (24 December 2010). "King who came from nowhere". The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group): p. 20. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
^ abFendelman, Adam (24 January 2011). "Interview: 'The King's Speech' Director Tom Hooper on Colin Firth's Masterful Stutter". HollywoodChicago.com. Retrieved 25 January 2011 (archived by WebCite on 25 January 2011).
^Hooper, Tom. (2011). Audio commentary for "The King's Speech". [DVD]. Alliance Films (UK). Event occurs at 1:51:00.
^ abBurrell, Ian (26 February 2009). "Tackling Old Big 'Ead". The Independent (Independent News & Media): p. 14. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
^Staff (3 May 1996). "John S. Clarke productions signs 23-year-old Hooper and doubles its directors". Campaign (Haymarket Business Publications): p. 41.
^Mirren, Helen (2007) In the Frame: My Life in Words and Pictures. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: p. 218. ISBN0-297-85197-7.
^Morton-Clark, Seb (28 October 2006). "Marooned on planet mediocre". Financial Times (The Financial Times): p. 13.
^Adams, Vernon (24 November 2006). "Hot 100 – directors". Broadcast (Emap Media).[page needed]
^"Craft Winners in 2007". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 27 September 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2010 (archived by WebCite on 3 January 2011).
^Argetsinger, Amy; Roxanne Roberts (10 March 2008). "Graham Biopic Back on Track". The Washington Post (The Washington Post Company): p. C3. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
^Hooper, Tom. Television interview with Greg Dyke". The Culture Show: Series 5, Episode 22. BBC Two. 3 February 2009. Event occurs at 01:54. Retrieved 10 October 2010 (archived by WebCite on 9 February 2011).
^Mitchell, Wendy (25 July 2008). "Profile:UK director Tom Hooper". ScreenDaily.com (Emap Media). Retrieved on 4 December 2010.
^Gilbert, Matthew (14 March 2008). "Truly historic". Boston Globe (Globe Newspaper Company): p. D1. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
^Hooper, Tom (29 September 2008). "Somewhere, John Adams is smiling". The Guardian (Guardian News & Media): p. 11 (MediaGuardian supplement). Retrieved 10 October 2010.
^Solomons, Jason (11 November 2007). "Trailer Trash: Not Match of the Day". The Observer (Guardian News & Media): p. 15 (Observer Review supplement). Retrieved 7 October 2010.
^ abcHooper, Tom. Television interview with Stephen Sackur. Hardtalk. BBC News 24. 26 March 2009.
^McNary, Dave (29 January 2011). "'The King's Speech' tops DGA Awards". Variety.com (Reed Business Information). Retrieved 30 January 2011 (archived by WebCite on 30 January 2011).
^Dawtrey, Adam (28 November 2010). "BIFA contenders a study in diversity". Variety.com (Reed Business Information). Retrieved 28 November 2010 (archived by WebCite on 3 January 2011).
^Mitchell, Wendy (18 May 2011). "Tom Hooper joins BFI board". ScreenDaily.com (Emap Media). Retrieved 18 June 2011 (archived by WebCite on 18 June 2011).
^Gettell, Oliver (4 November 2012). "Holiday Movie Sneaks; The Singing; Power of the passion; Director Tom Hooper's 'Les Miserables' taps the heat of live performances". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company): p. D12.
^ abOppenheimer, Jean (December 2010). "Production Slate: A Future King Finds His Voice". American Cinematographer (American Society of Cinematographers) 91 (12): pp. 18–22.
Steve Baker, Ricky Blitt, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark – Movie 43 (2013)
