Neil Marshall (born 25 May 1970) is an English film and television director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. He directed the horror films ''

Dog Soldiers The Dog Soldiers or Dog Men (Cheyenne: ''Hotamétaneo'o'') are historically one of six Cheyenne military societies. Beginning in the late 1830s, this society evolved into a separate, militaristic band that played a dominant role in Cheyenne re ...

'' (2002) and ''

The Descent ''The Descent'' is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who enter a cave system and struggle to survive against the humanoid creatures inside. Filming took place in the United Kingdom. Ex ...

'' (2005), the science fiction action film ''

Doomsday Doomsday may refer to: * Eschatology, a time period described in the eschatological writings in Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios of non-Abrahamic religions. * Global catastrophic risk, a hypothetical event explored in science and fict ...

'' (2008), the historical war film ''

Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...

'' (2010), the superhero action film ''

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...

'' (2019), and the adventure horror film '' The Reckoning'' (2020). Marshall has also directed numerous television series, including two episodes of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

fantasy drama series '' Game of Thrones'': " Blackwater" and " The Watchers on the Wall", the latter of which earned him a nomination for the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is presented to the best directing of a television drama series, usually for a particular episode.Though this category is the dominant one in which dramatic directing has been ...

Early life

Marshall was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England. He was inspired to become a film director when he saw '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) at the age of eleven. He began making home movies using

Super 8 mm film Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8 mm wide, the same as older formatted ...

, and in 1989, he attended film school at

Newcastle Polytechnic , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = � ...

. In the next eight years, he worked as a freelance film editor.

Career

In 1995, he was hired to co-write and edit for director

Bharat Nalluri Bharat Nalluri (born 1965) is a British–Indian film and television director. Personal life Nalluri was born in India. He moved to England at a young age with his family and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he attended the Royal Grammar ...

's first film, '' Killing Time''. Marshall continued to write and develop his own projects, directing his first film in 2002, ''

'', a horror film that became a

cult film A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...

in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he followed up with a second horror film, ''

''. With his direction of ''The Descent'', he was identified as a member of the

Splat Pack The Splat Pack is a group of independent filmmakers who, since 2002, have directed, written and produced horror films which are notable for their low budgets and extreme violence. History The term was coined by Alan Jones of ''Total Film''. Th ...

. Marshall won the

British Independent Film Award The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports and promotes British independent cinema and filmmaking talent in United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, ...

for Best Director, and the film received the

Saturn Award for Best Horror Film The Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film is an award presented to the best film in the horror genre by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. It was introduced in 1973 for the 1972 film year. For the 2010, 2011 and 2012 film yea ...

. His next film, ''

'', is a 2008

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

he wrote and directed. The film takes place in the future in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, which has been quarantined because of a deadly virus. When the virus is found in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair (

Rhona Mitra Rhona is the name of: * Rhona Adair (1878–1961), British golf champion * Rhona Bennett (born 1976), American singer, actress and model * Rhona Brankin (born 1950), Labour Co-operative politician and Member of the Scottish Parliament * Rhona B ...

) to Scotland to find a possible cure. Sinclair's team runs into two types of survivors: marauders and medieval knights. ''Doomsday'' was conceived by Marshall based on the idea of futuristic soldiers facing medieval knights. In producing the film, he drew inspiration from various movies, including ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

'', ''

Escape from New York ''Escape from New York'' is a 1981 American science fiction film, science fiction action film co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. It stars Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne B ...

'' and '' 28 Days Later''. Marshall had a budget three times the size of his previous two films. The director filmed the larger-scale ''Doomsday'' in Scotland and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The film was released on 14 March 2008 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and in the United Kingdom on 9 May 2008. ''Doomsday'' did not perform well at the box office, and critics gave the film mixed reviews. ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

'' reported that 49% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based on a sample of 69, with an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 5.1/10. At ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

'', which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 51, based on 14 reviews. Marshall went on to write and direct the 2010 historical war film ''

'', starring Michael Fassbender and

Dominic West Dominic Gerard Francis Eagleton West (born 15 October 1969) is an English actor, director and musician. He is best known for playing Jimmy McNulty in HBO's ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), Noah Solloway in Showtime's '' The Affair'' (2014–2019), ...

. He also wrote and directed a segment, titled "Bad Seed", of the anthology horror film ''

Tales of Halloween ''Tales of Halloween'' is a 2015 American comedy horror anthology film consisting of ten interlocking segments, each revolving around the titular holiday. Segments were directed by Neil Marshall, Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Lucky McKee, ...

'', which had its world premiere on 24 July 2015 at the

Fantasia International Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

. Marshall directed episodes of multiple television series, including '' Black Sails'', ''

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...

'', '' Hannibal'', ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...

'', '' Timeless'', and ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series, created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. The series was inspired by the 1812 novel ''The Swiss Family Robinson.'' The series fo ...

'', the lattermost two of which he also executive produced. He was nominated for a

for his work on the '' Game of Thrones'' episode " The Watchers on the Wall". In February 2015, Marshall and his agent Marc Helwig founded the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

production company Applebox Entertainment and signed with this company, a two-year deal with Legendary TV. In 2017, Marshall signed on to direct a reboot of ''

'', released in April 2019. Marshall has since disowned the film, criticizing the script and calling the job "the worst professional experience of my life." Marshall only accepted the film due to not making a feature film in nine years and also being initially intrigued by the horror pitch. He then wrote and directed the horror film '' The Reckoning'', which was released in 2020. With actress Charlotte Kirk, he created a production company, Scarlett Productions.

Filmography

Film

Executive producer only * ''

The Descent Part 2 ''The Descent Part 2'' is a 2009 British adventure horror film and sequel to the 2005 horror film '' The Descent''. It was directed by Jon Harris from a screenplay by James McCarthy, J Blakeson, and James Watkins. The film was produced by Ch ...

'' (2009) * ''

Soulmate A soulmate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity. This may involve similarity, love, romance, platonic relationships, comfort, intimacy, sexuality, sexual activity, spirituality, compatibility and trust. Defini ...

'' (2013) * '' Dark Signal'' (2016)

Television

Writer * '' Dog Soldiers: Legacy'' (2011) (Pilot episode)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Harbinger Of Doom interview
Future Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Neil 1970 births Alumni of Northumbria University English film directors Horror film directors English screenwriters English male screenwriters Hugo Award winners Living people People from Newcastle upon Tyne