 An influential figure in the British film industry who entered the industry in the late '60s, began in the cutting-room, with editor's credit on the documentary, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (d. Philippe Mora, 1975), and went on to produce some very daring films in the quarter-century following his first, The Shout (d. Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978), made for his own Recorded Picture Company. He (and his company) produced challenging films for Nicolas Roeg (Bad Timing, 1980; Eureka, 1982, UK/US; Insignificance, 1985), Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (UK/Japan, 1982), and, most famously, for Bernardo Bertolucci, including The Last Emperor (Italy/China, 1987), The Sheltering Sky (UK/Italy, 1990), Little Buddha (UK/France, 1993), Stealing Beauty (UK/Italy/France, 1996) and The Dreamers (UK/France/Italy/US, 2003). Add to these Stephen Frears's The Hit (1984), Peter Medak's painfully moving 'Let Him Have It' (1991, executive producer) and the more recent Sexy Beast (UK/Spain/US, d. Jonathan Glazer, 2000), perhaps destined to be a sort of classic of the gangster genre, it will be seen that few producers have racked up such a set of credentials in the last two decades. In 1998, he directed his first film, All the Little Animals (1998), but it was not successful enough to tempt him to repeat the experience quickly. He was also Chairman of the BFI (1993-97), and received a BFI Fellowship in 1998. He is the son of Ralph Thomas and the nephew of Gerald Thomas. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
