Paul Haggis

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Paul Haggis

Born Paul Edward Haggis
March 10, 1953 (1953-03-10) (age 55)
London, Ontario, Canada
Years active 1975-present
Spouse(s) Diane Christine Gettas
(1977-1994)
Deborah Rennard (1997-present)

Paul Edward Haggis (born March 10, 1953 in London, Ontario) is an Academy Award-winning Canadian screenwriter, producer and film director who spent his early career in the television field writing, producing and directing various American and Canadian television network series.

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[edit] Personal life

Haggis is the son of Ted and the late Mary Haggis, onetime owners of London Ontario's former Gallery Theatre at 36 York Street where the younger Haggis cut his teeth in theater production, directing, and playwriting in the early 1970s. He attended St Thomas More Elementary School, St George's Public School, Mitchell District High School, and Fanshawe College in London before leaving for Los Angeles in 1975 to follow his dream of writing television and movie scripts. According to his father, Ted, it was 'three years two months and 10 days' before his son sold his first TV script (Ted had been sending his son $100 a week during these lean years, while Paul landed various jobs, including moving furniture).

He is the father of four children and resides in Santa Monica California with his second wife singer/actor Deborah Rennard.

[edit] Success and fame years later

[edit] Television

As a television writer/producer, he created or co-created the series Walker, Texas Ranger, Due South, Family Law, and the celebrated, if quickly cancelled EZ Streets. In 1989, he received two Emmy awards for his work on the show thirtysomething: one as a writer; and another as a producer. He returned to television in the spring of 2007, after NBC picked up a 13-episode order for his crime drama, The Black Donnellys. The show was canceled by NBC on May 14, 2007. HDNet will air the remaining six episodes and Paul is in talks with the network to pick up season two.

[edit] Film

In addition to directing multiple episodes of the above-mentioned television shows, Haggis has directed several feature films and written several successful screenplays. Red Hot, his directorial debut, had a limited video release in 1993.

Around the turn of the century he came into his own as both a writer and director in films. As a film writer, he received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2004's Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture.

His second directorial effort performed equally as well. Crash, which he co-wrote, directed and co-produced debuted in September 2004 at the Toronto Film Festival. Lions Gate Films purchased the distribution rights for $3 million and released it internationally in May of 2005 to mostly positive reviews, with film critics Ebert and Roeper giving it a "two thumbs way up" rating and Roger Ebert naming it the best film of the year.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay categories. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself received the Academy Award for Best Picture. Overall, he has won two Academy Awards and been nominated for four. He lost the directing prize to Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, but he became the only man in history to have penned two consecutive Best Picture Oscar-winners.[1]

Haggis' fourth film as a feature film director, which he also wrote, is entitled Honeymoon with Harry and is scheduled for release in 2008 although production has yet to commence.

Haggis also adapted, for director Eastwood, James Bradley's book Flags of Our Fathers, about the Battle of Iwo Jima. The film was released on October 20, 2006.

Haggis was hired in August 2005 to revise the screenplay for the James Bond film, Casino Royale, which was also released late in 2006. The original screenplay had been written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, based on the novel by Ian Fleming. Haggis has confirmed that he will return to polishing the script for the follow up, Quantum of Solace. He was asked to direct but declined.

He received a fifth Academy Award nomination for his role in writing Letters from Iwo Jima, alongside Japanese writer Iris Yamashita.

[edit] Activism

Haggis is also co-founder of Artists for Peace and Justice, a member of the board of directors for the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, the Environmental Media Association, the President's Council of the Defenders of Wildlife and the advisory board of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Violence. He donated $2,100 to the Dennis Kucinich campaign.

[edit] Honors

Apart from the Oscars for Crash, in 2005, the Writers Guild of America awarded Haggis the Valentine Davies Award for "bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere." Other awards include, six Geminis, the Humanitas Prize, and the TV Critics Association Award.

The City of London, Ontario, declared September 11, 2006 Paul Haggis Day in London, with Haggis, his father Ted and Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best touring three of the schools that Paul Haggis had attended growing up in London in the 1960s and 1970s: Fanshawe College, Catholic Central High School and H.B. Beal Secondary School.

[edit] TV Appearances

Haggis was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike De Luca, Haggis describes his evolution as a writer from TV to film, including the genesis of his Oscar-winning film, Crash.

Haggis has also appeared on the HBO series Entourage playing himself, as an intense director brought in to possibly direct the fictional film Medellin.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As Writer

[edit] As Director

[edit] Television Work

[edit] External links


Awards
Preceded by
Pierre Bismuth,
Michel Gondry,
Charlie Kaufman
for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind		 Academy Award for Writing, Best Original Screenplay
2005
for Crash
(shared with Robert Moresco)		 Succeeded by
Michael Arndt,
for Little Miss Sunshine