Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Sam Mendes Starts Production On ‘Empire Of Light’; Tom Brooke & Hannah Onslow Join Cast Of Searchlight Pic
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Sam Mendes has begun principal photography on the south coast of England for his upcoming feature, Empire Of Light.
From Searchlight Pictures, the drama is written by Mendes — his first solo screenplay — and stars Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Crystal Clark and Tanya Moodie.
Billed as a love story set in and around a beautiful old cinema in the 1980s, Empire Of Light will shoot in Margate and along the Kent coastline through May.
Produced by Pippa Harris and Mendes under their Neal Street Productions banner, it will be released theatrically by Searchlight.The filmmaking team is a who’s who of Oscar winners and nominees and includes longstanding Mendes collaborators such as cinematographer Roger Deakins, who reunites with Mendes for their fifth collaboration; as well as a host of other 1917 alumni including hair and make up designer Naomi Donne, editor Lee Smith, sound mixer Stuart Wilson, casting director Nina Gold, executive producer Michael Lerman, executive producer Julie Pastor, and co-producer Lola Oliyide.
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