Nick Willing

Nick Willing
Nick Willing in 2007
Born	Nick Willing United Kingdom
Occupation	Director, producer and writer
Years active	1997 - present

Nick Willing is a British director, producer and writer and of films and television series.

Willing is the son of Portuguese painter Paula Rego^[1] and English artist Victor Willing and was largely brought up in Portugal, but settled in England at the age of 12. He graduated from The National Film and Television School in 1982 and started directing music videos for bands such as Eurythmics, Bob Geldof, Swing Out Sister, Debbie Gibson, Kirsty MacColl, Kim Appleby, Tony Banks, and Nik Kershaw.

Throughout this period he was also writing screenplays, and in 1996 his adaptation of the Steve Szilagyi novel Photographing Fairies was financed by Polgram Filmed Entertainment and made into a feature film. Photographing Fairies was a critical success and won several awards including the Méliès d’Or in 1998.^[2]

Alice in Wonderland followed with a cast which included Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Robbie Coltrane, Martin Short, Peter Ustinov, Gene Wilder, Ken Dodd, Christopher Lloyd, George Wendt and Miranda Richardson. Alice was made for NBC television in 1999 and won 4 Primetime Emmys.^[3]

Director filmography

• 1997 – Photographing Fairies
• 1999 – Alice in Wonderland
• 2000 – Jason and the Argonauts
• 2002 – Doctor Sleep aka Close Your Eyes aka Hypnotic
• 2004 – Sea of Souls
• 2005 – The River King
• 2006 – Jackanory, The Magician of Samarkand and Muddle Earth
• 2007 – Tin Man
• 2009 – Alice
• 2011 – Neverland
• 2013 – Baby Sellers
• 2014 – Altar
• 2015 – Olympus

As writer

Nick Willing wrote his first two movies Photographing Fairies and Doctor Sleep and went on to develop the short stories of H. G. Wells into a semi-biographical television series, The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells, which premiered in 2001. More recently he wrote the series Alice which received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and Neverland for the Syfy network and Sky Movies.

In 2014, he wrote the thriller Altar and created the 13-part series Olympus

House of Stories

In 2013, Nick stepped in to help negotiate an alternative contract for Casa Das Historias Paula Rego, the Lisbon museum dedicated to his mother’s work.^[4] Following Portugal’s bailout by the EU, the government closed several foundations, including Paula Rego’s, leaving the museum in limbo. He now remains in an administrative role, representing his mother’s interests at the museum.^[5][6]

Interviews

• "Hypnotic Interview". 'Cinefile'. November 20, 2003. 
• "Alice: Interviews with the Star & the Writer/Director". TVTango.com. December 5, 2009. 
• "Neverland Interview". Collider.com. November 30, 2011. 
• "Haunting of Radcliffe House Interview". Movies in focus. May 25, 2015. 
• "Olympus Interview". scifitalk.com. March 27, 2015. 
• "Olympus Interview". scifivision.com. April 9, 2015. 

References

External links

• Nick Willing at the Internet Movie Database