Paul Chart

Born in London, Paul Chart studied sculpture and painting at the prestigious Great Yarmouth college of Art before taking an Honors Degree in Fine Art at Sheffield Polytechnic. Here he wrote, produced, edited, sound-edited, photographed and directed a number of award winning short films, including the brutal "Not A War Film" (1984), the comedy "Hand In Hand" (1985) (with director Jim Shields), the musical "Foreign Bodies" (1985/1) and the thriller "Trick Or Treat" (1986). The films attracted the attention of famed British Producer Sir David Puttnam who consequently introduced Chart to The British Film Institute where he wrote his first commercial feature, "White Lies". Ensuing screenplays included the political thriller "Judgement In Berlin" (1988) (Sean Penn, Martin Sheen) for 20th Century Fox, "Headcase" (1999) for IF Films, the thriller "Cut Throat" (1994) for Universal Pictures and "Honest" (2000) for Dave A' Stewart and Mick Jagger's 'Seven Dials Films'. In between writing, Chart has photographed, directed and edited such documentaries as the controversial 'Life Calls' for Chariot films and "A Conversation With Ken Kessey" (1995) also for Seven Dials Films. "American Perfekt" (1997), Chart's feature directorial debut was produced by legendary director Irvin Kershner and officially selected for the 50th anniversary Cannes Film Festival (where it was nominated for the Camera D'or), and has since become a cult European hit. Stars Robert Forster and Fairuza Balk also won "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" for the pic at the prestigious Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Chart took home "Best Director" award. Other screenplay work include an epic adaptation of P.D. James's famed science-fiction novel "The Children Of Men" (2007) (director Alfonso Cuaron for Universal), a lavish new 3-D version of 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth' (entitled "Journey 3-D" (2008) for Walden Media/Disney starring Brendan Frazer, the Puccini biopic 'Cecilia' for Irvin Kershner and a rewrite of the hit animated feature 'The Book of Life" (2014) produced by Guillermo Del Toro. TV work includes "Big Shot" (2008), a black comic musical TV series inspired by the early career of Billy Joel (Showtime/Hazy Mills), Among the Spirits (2012) for the SyFy channel, and The Believers (2013) for NBC TV. In 2006 Chart was named by Fade In magazine as one of the '100 people you should know in Hollywood'. Paul Chart lives in Los Angeles.