Colin Vaines
Encyclopedia
Colin Vaines, film producer; began his career in the film industry in 1977 as a journalist with the trade paper Screen International
. In 1984, he left journalism to run the UK’s National Film Development Fund, and act as consultant to parent body British Screen Finance.
In 1987, he oversaw UK development for Columbia Pictures
during David Puttnam
’s tenure at the studio, subsequently becoming head of development for Puttnam’s own production company, Enigma, working on films including Memphis Belle
.
He made his debut as a producer in 1992 with the Emmy-winning TV film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia
, which introduced Ralph Fiennes
in the title role.
During this time, in addition to developing projects as an independent producer, Vaines was artistic director of both the Performing Arts Screenwriting Lab in the UK, and the writers’ lab SCRAWL in South Africa. Among the writers he handpicked to develop their projects at these workshops were Simon Beaufoy
, who went on to write The Full Monty
, John Hodge, who went on to write Trainspotting
, Lee Hall
, who went on to write Billy Elliot
, and John Michael McDonagh, who went on to write and direct the acclaimed The Guard.
After co-producing Michael Radford
’s B. Monkey
, Vaines supervised production and development for UK lottery franchise The Film Consortium from 1997 to 1999, overseeing movies including Hideous Kinky
, starring Kate Winslet
.
He was appointed Executive Vice-President, Development for New York-based Miramax Films
in 1999, becoming Executive Vice-President, European Production and Development in 2002. He was Co-executive producer of Martin Scorsese
’s Gangs of New York
, and Executive in Charge of Production on Anthony Minghella
's Cold Mountain
.
In October 2005, he was appointed Executive Vice-President, European Production and Development for The Weinstein Company
working closely with Harvey Weinstein. He was an executive producer of Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering
, starring Jude Law
, and Chris Noonan
’s Miss Potter, starring Renée Zellweger
. He also developed and oversaw production on numerous projects for The Weinstein Company, including The Reader, Factory Girl
and Minghella’s final film for television, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
.
He joined Graham King
’s GK Films in Los Angeles as Co-President of Production in 2007, where he became Executive Producer of The Young Victoria
, The Rum Diary
, starring Johnny Depp
, and London Boulevard
, the directing debut of Oscar-winning writer William Monahan
, starring Keira Knightley
and Colin Farrell
.
Returning to freelance production in 2010, at the start of the year he produced Coriolanus
, which marks the directing debut of its star, Ralph Fiennes, twenty years after Vaines and Fiennes first worked together on A Dangerous Man. The film also stars Gerard Butler
and Vanessa Redgrave
. It received its European premiere at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, and its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
Vaines is co-producer of W.E.
, the directing debut of Madonna
, which stars Abbie Cornish
, Andrea Riseborough
, Oscar Isaac
, and James D'Arcy
. The film was premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, and had its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
He is co-executive producer of My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne and Kenneth Branagh, which had its world premiere at the 2011 New York Film Festival.
Screen International
Screen International is a multimedia film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by EMAP, a British b2b media company.The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global movie business...
. In 1984, he left journalism to run the UK’s National Film Development Fund, and act as consultant to parent body British Screen Finance.
In 1987, he oversaw UK development for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
during David Puttnam
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA is a British film producer. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, although he is not principally a politician.-Early life:...
’s tenure at the studio, subsequently becoming head of development for Puttnam’s own production company, Enigma, working on films including Memphis Belle
Memphis Belle (film)
Memphis Belle is a 1990 film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and written by Monte Merrick, starring Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz and introducing Harry Connick Jr. in his screen debut...
.
He made his debut as a producer in 1992 with the Emmy-winning TV film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia is a made-for-TV movie depicting the experiences of T. E. Lawrence and Emir Feisal of the Hejaz at the Paris Peace Conference after the end of World War I. One of the conference's many concerns was determining the fates of territories formerly under the rule...
, which introduced Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
in the title role.
During this time, in addition to developing projects as an independent producer, Vaines was artistic director of both the Performing Arts Screenwriting Lab in the UK, and the writers’ lab SCRAWL in South Africa. Among the writers he handpicked to develop their projects at these workshops were Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy
Simon Beaufoy is a British screenwriter. Born in Keighley, he was educated at Malsis School in Cross Hills, Ermysted's Grammar School and Sedbergh School, he read English at St Peter's College, Oxford and graduated from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth...
, who went on to write The Full Monty
The Full Monty
The Full Monty is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber, and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy...
, John Hodge, who went on to write Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
, Lee Hall
Lee Hall (playwright)
Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...
, who went on to write Billy Elliot
Billy Elliot
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of "Everington" in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older...
, and John Michael McDonagh, who went on to write and direct the acclaimed The Guard.
After co-producing Michael Radford
Michael Radford
Michael Radford is an English film director and screenwriter.-Early life and career:Radford was born on 24 February 1946, in New Delhi, India, to a British father and an Austrian Jewish mother. He was educated at Bedford School before attending Worcester College, Oxford...
’s B. Monkey
B. Monkey
B. Monkey is a 1998 film directed by Michael Radford. Originally, Michael Caton-Jones was attached to direct the adaptation of the book by Andrew Davies, but left over creative differences.-Plot:...
, Vaines supervised production and development for UK lottery franchise The Film Consortium from 1997 to 1999, overseeing movies including Hideous Kinky
Hideous Kinky (film)
Hideous Kinky is a 1998 film based on a novel about a young English mother who moves from London to Morocco with her two young daughters. It was directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The soundtrack included music by Canned Heat, Richie Havens and the Incredible String Band. The film was marketed with...
, starring Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
.
He was appointed Executive Vice-President, Development for New York-based Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
in 1999, becoming Executive Vice-President, European Production and Development in 2002. He was Co-executive producer of Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
’s Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New...
, and Executive in Charge of Production on Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
's Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain (film)
Cold Mountain is a 2003 war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charles Frazier...
.
In October 2005, he was appointed Executive Vice-President, European Production and Development for The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
working closely with Harvey Weinstein. He was an executive producer of Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering (film)
Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.-External links:* at TIFF, by Andrea Miller /CANOE Live...
, starring Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
, and Chris Noonan
Chris Noonan
Chris Noonan is a Sydney-based Australian filmmaker and actor best known for the pioneering live-action / CG film Babe, for which he received Academy Award nominations as both director and writer.-Biography:...
’s Miss Potter, starring Renée Zellweger
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire , and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary ...
. He also developed and oversaw production on numerous projects for The Weinstein Company, including The Reader, Factory Girl
Factory Girl
Factory Girl is a 2006 American biographical film based on the life of 1960s underground film star, socialite, and Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick. The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 29, 2006.-Plot:...
and Minghella’s final film for television, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (TV series)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a television comedy-drama series, produced by the BBC in conjunction with HBO, and based on the novels of the same name by Alexander McCall Smith. The novels focus on the story of a detective agency opened by Mma Ramotswe and her courtship with the mechanic Mr....
.
He joined Graham King
Graham King
Graham King, OBE is a British film producer. He is also President and CEO of Initial Entertainment Group. He is best known for his Academy Award winning 2006 crime thriller film The Departed, which was awarded the Best Picture Oscar at the 79th Academy Awards.King was appointed Officer of the...
’s GK Films in Los Angeles as Co-President of Production in 2007, where he became Executive Producer of The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria is a 2009 period drama film based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by screenwriter Julian Fellowes. Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of...
, The Rum Diary
The Rum Diary (film)
The Rum Diary is a 2011 film based on the novel of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson. The film is directed by Bruce Robinson and stars Johnny Depp. Filming began in Puerto Rico in March 2009...
, starring Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
, and London Boulevard
London Boulevard
London Boulevard is a 2010 British film noir released in the United Kingdom on 26 November 2010. It is based on a novel by Ken Bruen with screenplay and direction by William Monahan, marking his directorial debut...
, the directing debut of Oscar-winning writer William Monahan
William Monahan
William J. Monahan is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was The Departed, a film which earned him a WGA award and an Academy award for Best Adapted Screenplay.-Writer and editor:...
, starring Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley
Keira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...
and Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell
Colin James Farrell is an Irish actor, who has appeared in such film as Tigerland, Miami Vice, Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit, Alexander and S.W.A.T....
.
Returning to freelance production in 2010, at the start of the year he produced Coriolanus
Coriolanus (2011 film)
Coriolanus is a 2011 film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler. It marks Fiennes's directorial debut...
, which marks the directing debut of its star, Ralph Fiennes, twenty years after Vaines and Fiennes first worked together on A Dangerous Man. The film also stars Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler
Gerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in...
and Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
. It received its European premiere at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, and its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
Vaines is co-producer of W.E.
W.E. (film)
W.E. is an upcoming romantic drama film co-written and directed by Madonna, starring Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough. It began filming on location in London, England, on July 5, 2010, and also shot in France and the United States...
, the directing debut of Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, which stars Abbie Cornish
Abbie Cornish
Abbie Cornish is an Australian actress. She is well known in Australia for a number of film and television roles, particularly her award-winning lead performance in 2004's Somersault, and internationally for her role as Fanny Brawne in Bright Star and her appearance as Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch.-...
, Andrea Riseborough
Andrea Riseborough
-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....
, Oscar Isaac
Oscar Isaac
-Personal life:Isaac was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, Maria Estrada Nicolle, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernandez. He was raised in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for his band "The Blinking Underdogs"...
, and James D'Arcy
James D'Arcy
-Early life:James D'Arcy was born as Simon D'Arcy and grew up in Fulham, London, with his mother, Caroline and his younger sister Charlotte. His father died when he was young. After completing his education at Christ's Hospital in 1991, he went to Australia for a year and worked in the drama...
. The film was premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, and had its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
He is co-executive producer of My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne and Kenneth Branagh, which had its world premiere at the 2011 New York Film Festival.
External links
- Colin Vaines at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Coriolanus at the Internet Movie Database
- W.E. at the Internet Movie Database
- My Week With Marilyn
- Weinsteins to Distribute Ralph Fiennes' 'Coriolanus'. Hollywoodreporter.com
- Coriolanus: Berlin Review. Hollywoodreporter.com
- Coriolanus, Berlin Film Festival. The Independent
- Ralph Fiennes: Shakespeare Would Make a Great Screenwriter. Hollywoodreporter.com
- Coriolanus – review. The Guardian
- Rifle-Toting Fiennes Mows Down Rebels in Bloody ‘Coriolanus’. Bloomberg L. :P.
- Coriolanus. Variety
- BERLIN: ‘Coriolanus,’ Redgrave and an early Oscar bet. Incontention.com
- http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.morgenpost.de/vermischtes/stars-und-promis/article1544916/Ralph-Fiennes-wollte-eigentlich-in-Berlin-drehen.html&ei=CitbTa2QDseZhQevl82UDQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dberliner%2Bmorgenpost%2Bcoriolanus%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26prmd%3DivnsRalph Fiennes wanted to turn in Berlin]. Berliner Morgenpost / Google Translate
- 61st Berlin Film Festival - Coriolanus - Photocall. Zimbio
- Ralph Fiennes brings Shakespeare's Coriolanus to screen. BBC
- Madonna applauded in Berlin. ONTD