Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Stephen Hopkins (director)
Stephen Hopkins is a Jamaican-born British director and producer of film and television. He directed Predator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Blown Away, The Ghost and the Darkness, Lost in Space, Under Suspicion and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He also produced and directed several episodes of the first season of 24.
Hopkins was born in Jamaica and grew up in the USA and England, arriving in England in the 1960s. He had aspirations to be a comic book artist but said "I wasn’t really good enough I don’t think or wasn’t applied enough and it was a lonely job." He began doing story boards for rock videos for artists such as Duran Duran and became a designer for directors like Russell Mulcahy, David Mallett, Brian Grant, and Steve Barron, before moving into directing videos himself.
Hopkins moved to New York to work, then to Australia direct videos for Elton John such as "Sad Songs". He made other rock videos and commercials in Australia for clients such as Pizza Hut and David Jones as well as directing a $3 million rock musical, Rasputin.
Russell Mulcahy invited Hopkins to direct second unit on Highlander and he directed concert films for artists such as Mick Jagger. He lived in Australia for six years.
In Australia Hopkins made Dangerous Game (1987). He said it "was seen in Cannes by a bunch of Hollywood people" and helped him get the job directing A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Hopkins later said, "I went at it like a dog, and had a wild, fun time. But when I look back, I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I don't understand how it all happened."
He went on to make Predator 2, of which he said, "I'm pretty immature, really, so it was kind of a laugh". He followed it with Judgment Night ("a real, absolute, total bomb" according to Hopkins), Blown Away ("made a lot of mistakes") and The Ghost and the Darkness ("It was a mess. I haven't been able to watch it."). Despite his thoughts on the latter film, it managed to win the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing.
In 2016, Hopkins directed Race, a biopic about athlete Jesse Owens for Focus Features. Stephan James plays Jesse Owens, opposite Jason Sudeikis and Jeremy Irons. The film was released in February 2016.
Hopkins said that after Predator 2 he "looked around for a good film for a long time, and I couldn't get anything I wanted to do... I didn't realise the Hollywood trick. In American action movies, people get shot to death and their arms are blown off, and they get up and they're fine. These films are supposed to be fun things that people can laugh at. I always thought, 'That's wrong, that's not what violence is like.' I took these films too seriously and tried to add profound depths, and that's not what's wanted. You either do that film or you do the other one, but I kept mixing the two up, and probably unsuccessfully.'"
Hub AI
Stephen Hopkins (director) AI simulator
(@Stephen Hopkins (director)_simulator)
Stephen Hopkins (director)
Stephen Hopkins is a Jamaican-born British director and producer of film and television. He directed Predator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Blown Away, The Ghost and the Darkness, Lost in Space, Under Suspicion and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. He also produced and directed several episodes of the first season of 24.
Hopkins was born in Jamaica and grew up in the USA and England, arriving in England in the 1960s. He had aspirations to be a comic book artist but said "I wasn’t really good enough I don’t think or wasn’t applied enough and it was a lonely job." He began doing story boards for rock videos for artists such as Duran Duran and became a designer for directors like Russell Mulcahy, David Mallett, Brian Grant, and Steve Barron, before moving into directing videos himself.
Hopkins moved to New York to work, then to Australia direct videos for Elton John such as "Sad Songs". He made other rock videos and commercials in Australia for clients such as Pizza Hut and David Jones as well as directing a $3 million rock musical, Rasputin.
Russell Mulcahy invited Hopkins to direct second unit on Highlander and he directed concert films for artists such as Mick Jagger. He lived in Australia for six years.
In Australia Hopkins made Dangerous Game (1987). He said it "was seen in Cannes by a bunch of Hollywood people" and helped him get the job directing A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Hopkins later said, "I went at it like a dog, and had a wild, fun time. But when I look back, I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I don't understand how it all happened."
He went on to make Predator 2, of which he said, "I'm pretty immature, really, so it was kind of a laugh". He followed it with Judgment Night ("a real, absolute, total bomb" according to Hopkins), Blown Away ("made a lot of mistakes") and The Ghost and the Darkness ("It was a mess. I haven't been able to watch it."). Despite his thoughts on the latter film, it managed to win the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing.
In 2016, Hopkins directed Race, a biopic about athlete Jesse Owens for Focus Features. Stephan James plays Jesse Owens, opposite Jason Sudeikis and Jeremy Irons. The film was released in February 2016.
Hopkins said that after Predator 2 he "looked around for a good film for a long time, and I couldn't get anything I wanted to do... I didn't realise the Hollywood trick. In American action movies, people get shot to death and their arms are blown off, and they get up and they're fine. These films are supposed to be fun things that people can laugh at. I always thought, 'That's wrong, that's not what violence is like.' I took these films too seriously and tried to add profound depths, and that's not what's wanted. You either do that film or you do the other one, but I kept mixing the two up, and probably unsuccessfully.'"