Kerry Conran
- Director
- Writer
- Visual Effects
Born in 1964 and raised in Flint, Michigan,
Kerry Conran came from a family of aspiring
artists: his older brother Kevin Conran was
an illustrator and his younger sister
Kirsten Conran an art director at an ad
agency. Growing up watching classic sci-fi films such as
Metropolis (1927),
King Kong (1933) and
Superman: The Mad Scientist (1941), Kerry often imagined
recreating the atmospheres of those films as his own, and spent most of
his childhood making short super-8 movies, imagining his fantasy
worlds.
Pursuing his dream to become an illustrator and an animator, Kerry went
to and graduated from the animation school, CalArts. It was there that
he started to form the idea of his own sci-fi serial in the spirit of
those of the 1930s, entitled
The World of Tomorrow (2003).
With the digital technologies he had at his disposal, he planned to
make an entire feature-length film without even having to leave his
apartment. Working independently with help from his brother and a few
friends, Kerry created his fantasy world on his personal computer and
set up a blue screen in his apartment, using other friends as actors.
After four years of working on his own time, he had completed only six
minutes of footage, but it was these six minutes that would set his
career in motion.
His brother Kevin invited a friend of his wife and the only person in
the film industry he knew,
Marsha Oglesby, to take a look at the
short. Oglesby, deeply impressed by their work, immediately referred
them to producer Jon Avnet
(Risky Business (1983),
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)),
who agreed to finance their project, with Kerry directing as well as
penning the script. Now armed with a studio, a team of over 100
animators, and a cast of A-list actors
(Jude Law,
Gwyneth Paltrow, and
Angelina Jolie among others, all of whom
signed on immediately after seeing the 6-minute reel), Kerry was able
to complete his project, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
(2004), the first film entirely shot on blue screens. The film, though
not a box-office success, was a relative hit among critics, impressive
for a newcomer with no major writing or directing experience.
Conran was chosen to direct the screen adaption of Edgar Rice
Burroughs' 'John Carter of Mars', a sci-fi piece, after 'Robert
Rodriguez dropped out, but was replaced by John Favreau, who was in
turn replaced by Andrew Stanton. Kerry and Jude Law also expressed
interest in turning "Sky Captain" into a franchise, but due to the film
failing at the box office, there has been no news of any sequels or
prequels.
Kerry Conran came from a family of aspiring
artists: his older brother Kevin Conran was
an illustrator and his younger sister
Kirsten Conran an art director at an ad
agency. Growing up watching classic sci-fi films such as
Metropolis (1927),
King Kong (1933) and
Superman: The Mad Scientist (1941), Kerry often imagined
recreating the atmospheres of those films as his own, and spent most of
his childhood making short super-8 movies, imagining his fantasy
worlds.
Pursuing his dream to become an illustrator and an animator, Kerry went
to and graduated from the animation school, CalArts. It was there that
he started to form the idea of his own sci-fi serial in the spirit of
those of the 1930s, entitled
The World of Tomorrow (2003).
With the digital technologies he had at his disposal, he planned to
make an entire feature-length film without even having to leave his
apartment. Working independently with help from his brother and a few
friends, Kerry created his fantasy world on his personal computer and
set up a blue screen in his apartment, using other friends as actors.
After four years of working on his own time, he had completed only six
minutes of footage, but it was these six minutes that would set his
career in motion.
His brother Kevin invited a friend of his wife and the only person in
the film industry he knew,
Marsha Oglesby, to take a look at the
short. Oglesby, deeply impressed by their work, immediately referred
them to producer Jon Avnet
(Risky Business (1983),
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)),
who agreed to finance their project, with Kerry directing as well as
penning the script. Now armed with a studio, a team of over 100
animators, and a cast of A-list actors
(Jude Law,
Gwyneth Paltrow, and
Angelina Jolie among others, all of whom
signed on immediately after seeing the 6-minute reel), Kerry was able
to complete his project, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
(2004), the first film entirely shot on blue screens. The film, though
not a box-office success, was a relative hit among critics, impressive
for a newcomer with no major writing or directing experience.
Conran was chosen to direct the screen adaption of Edgar Rice
Burroughs' 'John Carter of Mars', a sci-fi piece, after 'Robert
Rodriguez dropped out, but was replaced by John Favreau, who was in
turn replaced by Andrew Stanton. Kerry and Jude Law also expressed
interest in turning "Sky Captain" into a franchise, but due to the film
failing at the box office, there has been no news of any sequels or
prequels.