John Maclean is a Scottish film director, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for writing and directing the 2015 film ''

Slow West ''Slow West'' is a 2015 Revisionist Western film that was written and directed by John Maclean in his directorial debut. It stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as a young Scotsman searching for his lost love in the American West, accompanied by a bounty hun ...

''.

Career

Maclean obtained his bachelor's degree ( BA) in drawing and painting from

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, and his master's degree ( MA) from The

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

in London. After college, he delivered cars by driving them to their new owners around America; seeing so much of the country later inspired his interest to make a Western. Maclean was a founding member of the Scottish indie-rock groups

The Beta Band The Beta Band were a Scottish musical group formed in 1996. Their style was described as being "folktronica", although it was mainly a blend of folk, psychedelia, electronica, experimental rock and trip hop, often involving stylistic experimen ...

from 1997 to 2004 and The Aliens from 2005 to 2008. He also directed music videos for these bands, as well as the video for ''Hand of Man'',

Django Django Django Django are a British art rock band based in London, England. Formed in 2009, the band has released four studio albums starting with their self-titled debut in 2012. Their latest album '' Glowing in the Dark'' was released on 12 February 2 ...

's 2013 single. David Maclean, John's brother, is Django Django's drummer and producer. Those videos came to the attention of Michael Fassbender, who agreed to be involved in a 2009 short film ''Man on a Motorcycle'', and later in ''Slow West''. ''The Guardian'' described the partnership between Maclean and Fassbender as "not quite up there with Scorsese/De Niro yet, but a good start". Maclean is the son of Scottish artists Marian Leven and Will Maclean.

Filmography

Film

Reception

Reviewing ''Slow West'', the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

concluded that "Maclean is a supremely promising talent." Maclean won a Best Short Film BAFTA award in 2012 for ''Pitch Black Heist'', which starred Michael Fassbender and

Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish actor. He is known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series ''Game of Thrones''. Cunningham has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independe ...

. His first feature film was the 2015 western-drama ''

''. He won the "World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic" at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The same year, BAFTA named him as a "Brit to Watch".

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish film directors Scottish keyboardists Scottish folk singers British music video directors People educated at Madras College {{UK-film-bio-stub