John Carney (director)

John Carney (born 1972) is an Irish film director, producer, screenwriter and lyricist who specialises in musical drama films. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of '' Modern Love'' on Amazon Prime Video, for his 2007 movie ''Once'' and the film ''Sing Street''. He is also a co-creator of the Irish TV drama series ''Bachelors Walk''.

Life and career

Carney was born in Dublin and was educated at De La Salle College Churchtown and at Synge Street CBS.John Carney goes urban musical Once more
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He was bassist for the Irish rock band The Frames between 1991 and 1993 and also directed some of their music videos.

In addition to shooting music videos, Carney also wrote and directed two award-winning short films (''Shining Star'' and ''Hotel'') before making his first feature. With fellow film-maker Tom Hall, Carney wrote and directed ''November Afternoon'', his first feature film, in 1996. Despite a limited release, it was acclaimed as the "Film of the Year" by the ''Irish Times''. The low-budget drama, shot in black and white, tells the story of two couples whose relationships begin to crumble over an eventful weekend. Carney himself provided a jazz score for the soundtrack.

After making a one-hour TV companion piece for the film entitled ''Just in Time'', Carney's next film was the edgy drama ''Park'', which premiered at the Dublin Film Festival. Written and co-directed by Carney and Tom Hall once again, the drama about a girl who is abused by a pedophile was released in 1999. It did not secure a wide release.

Two years later, in 2001, he co-wrote and directed '' On the Edge''. The film starred Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea and was released through Universal Studios. He was awarded the Silver Hitchcock Award for ''On the Edge'' at the 2001 Dinard Festival of British Cinema. The film, which was co-written by Daniel James, was released in the US with the title ''Catch the Sun''.

Carney returned to TV writing and directing during the same year. He co-wrote and co-directed (with his brother Kieran Carney and Tom Hall) the successful RTÉ TV series ''Bachelors Walk''. The independently produced TV series was successfully exported to a number of markets. The series ran for three seasons. He also directs ''The Modest Adventures of David O Doherty'' for RTÉ, starring Irish comedian O'Doherty and performed on the single "Orange", released by O'Doherty during the making of one of the series' episodes.

In 2003, he co-directed and co-wrote ''Zonad'' with Kieran Carney and Tom Hall. A story about an escaped convict who fools a whole Irish village into thinking he's a visitor from outer space, the film starred Simon Delaney and Cillian Murphy, ''Zonad'' was extremely low-budget and was never released.Dawtrey, Adam
"''Once'' director remains close to roots: Carney to make ''Zonad'' before Fox's ''House''"
''Variety'', 17 August 2007. Accessed 17 August 2007.

In 2006, Carney directed the feature movie ''Once''. A music drama, the movie stars The Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech musician Markéta Irglová. First released at the Galway Film Fleadh, ''Once'' had its official world release at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and won the World Cinema Audience Award in the category Dramatic. A low-budget affair shot for only $160,000,Weisman, Jon
"''Once'' Upon a Time"
''Variety'', 18 July 2007. Accessed 11 August 2007. ''Once'' was hugely successful, grossing $7 million worldwide in its first 3 months of release. Steven Spielberg is quoted as saying, "''Once'' gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year." When told of this during an interview with Sky News, Carney replied, "In the end of the day, he's just a man with a beard." Carney was wearing a beard at the time. As writer and director of ''Once'', Carney won the Most Promising Newcomer award in the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2007.

On the heels of ''Onces success, Carney was able to work on a full-fledged version of ''Zonad'', which was released in March 2010.

In 2016, he wrote and directed the musical film ''Sing Street'', which was released to critical acclaim.

Carney attracted criticism in 2016 when he referred to Keira Knightley in an interview with the UK's independent newspaper, stating “I’ll never make a film with supermodels again.” Knightley, who has amassed multiple accolades throughout her career, including Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nominations, worked with Carney on the film '' Begin Again'', alongside Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine. While Carney praised Ruffalo as a “fantastic” actor and Levine for not being “a bit scared of exposing himself on camera,” he said “Keira’s thing is to hide who you are and I don’t think you can be an actor and do that.” “I don’t want to rubbish Keira, but you know it’s hard being a film actor and it requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don’t think she’s ready for yet and I certainly don’t think she was ready for on that film,” Carney said. The director later issued an apology, which included the following 'I'm ashamed of myself that I could say such things and I’ve been trying to account for what they say about me. In trying to pick holes in my own work, I ended up blaming someone else. That's not only bad directing, that's shoddy behaviour, that I am not in any way proud of. It's arrogant and disrespectful'.

Carney developed the 2019 romantic comedy anthology series '' Modern Love'', also writing and directing several episodes.

In March 2022, it was announced that Carney will replace Kenneth Branagh as the director of the untitled Bee Gees biopic. The film was removed from its scheduled date on the same day.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

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Director John Carney Interview
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carney, John
1972 births
20th-century Irish people
21st-century Irish people
Irish film directors
Irish screenwriters
Irish male screenwriters
Living people
Film people from Dublin (city)
Irish television writers
Irish music video directors
People educated at Synge Street CBS
Male television writers
21st-century bass guitarists
Showrunners
The Frames members
Irish rock bass guitarists