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.
Top Boy and Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe, has joined the cast of Sam Mendes’ new film, Empire Of Light.Plot details for the upcoming movie – which co-stars Oscar winner Olivia Colman – have been kept under wraps, but according to Deadline, the film is a love story that will take place in a scenic old cinema on the South Coast of England in the 1980s.The film will also see 1917 cinematographer Roger Deakins reunite with Mendes for the film.Deadline reports that Ward, who scooped the EE BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2020, won Mendes and the film’s execs over at a recent table read for the role.Ward is currently filming the next series of Top Boy.
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