Anthony McCarten

Anthony McCarten (born 1961) is a New Zealand-born novelist, filmmaker and playwright. He lives in London and Los Angeles.

Early life

McCarten was born and raised in New Plymouth, New Zealand. He worked as a reporter for a couple of years on The Taranaki Herald before studying for an Arts degree at Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied creative writing with Bill Manhire. After leaving university, McCarten played in a production of King Lear.

Career

McCarten received early international success with his play Ladies Night. Translated into twelve languages, it remains New Zealand's most commercially successful play of all time, and in addition to eight sell-out national tours of Britain it continues to play worldwide. In 2001, it won France's premiere theatre award for comedy, the Molière Prize.

Novels

McCarten's novels have been translated into 14 languages. His first novel, Spinners (Picador, 2000), was voted one of the top ten novels of that year by Esquire magazine. His third novel, Death Of A Superhero, won the 2008 Austrian Youth Literature Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 German Youth Literature Prize. "Not since Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum has the pains of growing up been rendered this powerfully." Blick, Zurich. "A fantastic novel and a small revolution for the literary form." Der Spiegel (Online).

The sequel novel to this story, "In The Absence Of Heroes" was published in 2012, and was a finalist for the 2013 New Zealand Fiction Prize and was Longlisted for the 2014 Dublin International IMPAC Literary Award. Also in 2013 came "Brilliance (Alma Books (UK), Hawthorne Books (USA), the Gilded Age story of Thomas Edison, the legendary inventor of the first commercially practical incandescent light, and his transforming friendship with the giant of the late nineteenth-century financial world, J.P.Morgan.

In 2005, McCarten adapted his second novel, The English Harem, for the screen. It was broadcast on ITV in December 2005.

In 2007, he wrote the novel "Death of a Superhero," then adapted the screenplay, executive produced the film, and now a stage musical.

His fourth novel, Show Of Hands, was published in Europe, and in the US by Simon and Schuster in 2009. McCarten has already directed the big screen adaptation and the movie had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival, 2008, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the New Zealand Film Awards.

Screenwriting

In 2011, his adaptation of his own novel Death Of A Superhero had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, won the 2011 Les Arcs European Film Festival Audience Choice Prize and Young Jury Prize, and the Audience Award and ‘Special Mention’ of the Jury at the Mamer-en-Mars European Film Festival. It had its US premiere at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Prior to this, Via Satellite, which he adapted from his own stage play, and directed himself, was invited to several film festivals including London, Cannes, Toronto, Melbourne, Hawaii and Seattle. His follow-up feature as writer/director, Show of Hands (2008), premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival and was an official selection for the Shanghai Film Festival 2009.

McCarten produced and wrote The Theory of Everything (2014), concerning the life of Prof. Stephen Hawking, and his first wife, Jane Hawking. He first initiated talks with Jane to acquire the rights to her autobiography, "Travelling to Infinity", in 2004, and shortly after began work on the screenplay, which took its inspiration from her book. On January 15, 2015 the film received 5 Academy Award nominations, with McCarten earning two as producer and screenwriter in the categories of Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Personal life

McCarten divides his time between London, Los Angeles and Munich.

Principal Works

Novels

• funny girl (2014) Diogenes (Germany), Piranha (France, 2015)
• Brilliance (2012) Alma Books (UK), Hawthorne Books (USA, 2013)
• In The Absence of Heroes (2012) Random House (NZ), Diogenes (Germ.)
• Show of Hands (2008) Diogenes (Germ.), Simon and Schuster (US), Random House (NZ)
• Death of a Superhero Alma Books (2006, 2007)
• The English Harem Picador (2002), reprinted (film-tie-in) Alma Books (2006)
• Spinners Random House New Zealand (1999) Harper Perennial (US) (2001)

Films

• Hack Attack (2015) (Announced)
• Darkest Hour (2015) (pre-production)
• The Theory of Everything (2014)
• Death of a Superhero (2011)
• Show of Hands (2008)
• The English Harem (2005) (TV Adaptation)
• Via Satellite (1999)
• Fluff (1995) (Short)
• Nocturne in a Room (1992) (Short)

Plays

• funny girl. 2015
• Brilliance. 2014
• Invitation to a Second Class Carriage. Depot Theatre, Wellington, 1984.
• Yellow Canary Mazurka. Circa, 1987.
• Ladies’ Night. With Stephen Sinclair. Mercury, 1987.
• Pigeon English. Playwrights’ Workshop, 1988; Depot, 1989.
• Weed. Circa, 1990.
• Via Satellite. Circa, 1991, and the winner of the NZ Listener Best Play and Wellington Theatre Critics’ Best Production awards for 1991.
• Hang on a Minute, Mate. Downstage, 1992.
• Ladies’ Night 2. With Stephen Sinclair. Mercury, 1992.
• FILTH (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong). Circa, 1995.
• Four Cities aka "Continental Breakfast". Los Angeles, 1996.

Musicals

• Death Of A Superhero (2014) Book by Anthony McCarten, Music by Paul Brown.

References

External links

• Anthony McCarten at the Internet Movie Database
• Entry in the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Robinson and Wattie ed., 1998
• Alma Author
• International Herald Tribune article