Biography of an interesting personality - director James Wan

James Wan is an American screenwriter, director, editor and producer originally from Malaysia. Not least he is known to the public as the creator of films in which you can observe particularly violent scenes, and special popularity of the man brought the authorship of the following projects: "Spell", "Saw" and "Astral".

James Wan was born in 1977 in a Malaysian city called Kuching. It was there that the future director spent the early years of his childhood, and when the boy was 7 years old, his family moved to Australia, in a city called Perth. After receiving his matriculation certificate, James became a student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Melbourne, being one of the youngest members of the student community. After graduating from university, Wang became a student of film school, where he met another student named Lee Wannell. The guys began a friendly dialogue, which later developed into a co-operation that lasted for a large number of years. This mutual activity brought them world fame.

First works

In the days when James was studying at film school, the young man worked at Melbourne television. In his career there were two specialities - assistant director of TV shows and editor. In 2000, the debut work of the director, the horror film called "Infernal.", won a prize at the Green Continent Informal Film Festival.

Just before graduating from film school, he co-directed a short film called "Saw" with a friend named Wannell. It was about 10 minutes long, so impressed the project managerHe decided, without informing the students, to send their project to Hollywood. It didn't take long to get a response from the USA, and the Hollywood experts expressed their desire to shoot a feature film and sent an invitation to James to direct the film.

From underground to mainstream.

In 2003, James began working on the film project "Saw". Interestingly enough, when the director signed the contract, he was refused payment for his work on the film, deciding to take a percentage of the profits. Its size eventually totalled more than 100 million $.

In 2007, James presented to the audience his thriller called "Death Sentence". Fans experienced some disappointment with the genre of the picture, but soon they were expected a real gift from Van - the picture "Astral". You can't see blood and serial killers in a filmBut "Astral" was able to enter the modern world of cinema as a representative of the most impressive films. The critics and the audience as the best work of the director was named the film "Spell", which was released at the end of 2013. It was the stunning effect of this film that caused James Wan to be named the King of Horror.

The rules of good horror

Over the course of his long directing career, James Wan has identified a number of rules for a quality horror film. According to Wan, there are five.

- Firstly, a horror film does not have to have a multi-million dollar budget. To achieve success in this genre, it is not necessary to use cool special effects. A good horror film the atmosphere to be portrayed and with a small amount of funds. "For example, the sound of a door creaking at an unexpected moment can scare the viewer very much, and the cost of this special effect is zero," says the director.

- Secondly, the main purpose of a horror film is to awaken the primal terror that is embedded in each of us: pale faces, blood, darkness, and fangs and claws. These things have terrified man since the primitive hours. However, Wang advises not to use classic scenarios in his work, in his opinion, it is necessary to search for new plot variations. For example, Wang thinks it's a good idea to combine "traditional" horror and conflict with current realities. A good example is the wonderful horror film that has the title "And the Lights Go Out", which was produced by James Studios in 2017. Each of Wang's films has. elaborate action scenes. He uses them for the purpose that they encourage the audience to discuss what they have seen.

Personal life

The director does not like to publicise the details of his personal life and share them with fans. Wang demanded that the names of his family and close circle be removed from the public access on the Internet. But three years ago, it became public knowledge, that he's officially married to an actress named Ingrid Bisou.. Speaking to the media, James has repeatedly said that he decided to devote all his time to directing. But as if in refutation of these words, fans know about his affair with an actress named Courtney Peldon, in whose company he could be seen at social events in 2006. Who at the moment conquered the heart of Van, the press is not known.

James Wan these days

In 2018, the creative life of the director was marked simultaneously by several major projects. Among them we can highlight the production of the detective-horror "Curse of the Nun", where Taissa Farmiga also played, as well as the thriller "Aquaman", where I got to work with Jason Momoa.. According to the producers, the experience of the horror film director will be useful in the rating and edgy blockbuster. This was a new turn in Wang's creative biography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnM1XYtvI5k

However, as the director himself admitted, he was scared to take on this project: Aquaman was a new character for him, which he had not had to face before, and the action film was specific (the plot mainly develops under the water column). This project was something that Wang had not worked with before in his work. But despite this, the director decided to take on this challenge: ".Horror films, I think it's a way to come to fame without much effort.. I now have a desire to prove that I am not just a 'specific filmmaker' who specialises in one genre, but that I am a 'filmmaker' in the general sense of the word."