Irish director, screenwriter and producer John Moore was born in the provincial old town of Dundalk, a suburb of the Irish capital, in 1970.
Beginning of a creative career
After graduating from school, the future famous director entered the Dublin Institute of Technology and received a degree in media art. Initially, Moore did not think about building a career in the film industry, but literally after a couple of years he changed his mind radically. John Moore tried himself in several guises - he wrote scripts, shot short films. Many of his debut authoring works were later regularly shown on television in Ireland. Inspired by success, the director establishes his own film company called Clingfilms.
World debut
The beginning filmmaker was engaged in the production of commercials, one of them was the Apocalypse mini-film, the timing of which was one and a half minutes. The theme of the video was an ad for the Sega Dreamcast. Moore’s work impressed 20th Century Fox’s leadership so much that its representatives suggested the director to shoot the feature film “Behind Enemy Lines” based on real events during the military conflict in Bosnia. The budget of the tape was only 17 million, later it was increased to $ 40,000,000. The rating of the film was only 6.40 according to IMDb. The director himself admitted that the film turned out to be superficial, since the theme of the war suggests a more thoughtful and deep approach. But critics greeted him quite positively, according to their judgments, if we consider the work strictly as an action movie, then Moore’s film can be called a great example of how, with a modest budget, you can shoot an exciting and beautiful sight with a duet of eminent actors. By the way, John Moore involved in the production of paintings by Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov.
Remake of "Flight of the Phoenix" by Robert Aldrich
The next project was the adventure drama "Flight of the Phoenix" - a remake of the film of the same name by Robert Aldrich, filmed in 1965. Screenwriters Edward Burns and Scott Frank put into action a female character that was not in the original picture, and transferred all the action from the Sahara to the Gobi. The film about the fate of passengers who survived in a car accident and tried to assemble an aircraft from the wreckage did not save the participation of famous actors: Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie. It turned out to be a commercially disastrous project: with the amount of $ 45,000,000 spent on production, box office revenues were only $ 21,000,000.
Return of the franchise to life - "Omen 666"
Despite the unsuccessful “Flight”, 20th Century Fox did not stop working with the director. John Moore makes the third movie - the mystical horror "Omen", which more than paid off at the box office. The picture turned out magnificent, in some places leading to ecstasy. The tape impresses the viewer with the beauty and organicness of the video. In the movie, everything works on the setting. According to the director, in recent years, a huge number of cataclysms - natural and man-made - have occurred in the world, it is impossible not to notice this. So appreciated what is happening around John Moore. The director, based on his own views, changed the very idea of embodiment of universal evil. Liv Schreiber, Julia Styles, David Thewlis, Amy Hack and Harvey Stevens, the same colorful actor who starred in the 1976 horror film of the same name, took part in the adaptation of the work of David Zeltser.
With healthy optimism
In 2008, the director’s next project, Max Payne, was released with M. Wahlberg and O. Kurylenko. The film is positioned by critics as the correct adaptation of a computer game.
Also, many experts were delighted with the skill of the director, in their opinion, the films of John Moore can not be a failure, since he is inherent in healthy optimism. With even a frankly nasty script in his hands, Moore is trying his best. In the case of Payne, the same story came out. The terribly unfinished script, leaving most of the storylines and character motivations unfinished and incomprehensible, did not stop the director from making an excellent movie. The director pleased the fans of the game to the fullest. The photo, John Moore with all the participants in the filming, is stored on his desktop. He still speaks warmly of all members of the film crew.
At first, the American Film Association awarded the film an R rating, however, after the urgent request of Moore, who cut out several particularly tough scenes, the rating was changed to PG-13. Therefore, the army of fans of the picture replenished with an impressive number of teenagers.
Recent projects
Before an impressive break, the director managed to shoot three Hollywood films: the dramatic action movie "Northern Lights", a successful sequel and the rollicking sequel "Die Hard 5" and "Virus Carriers." But the most significant among the director’s recent works is considered an excellent thriller of social significance “Artificial Intelligence” (2016).