Andrew Timothy Birkin (born 9 December 1945) is an English screenwriter and director. He was born the only son of Lieutenant-Commander David Birkin and his wife, actress Judy Campbell. One of his sisters is the actress and singer Jane Birkin.
Birkin was educated at Elstree School and Harrow School. At the former he was remembered by a teacher as being "one of the naughtiest boys ever to have passed through Elstree"[1] and his record at Harrow was no better. He left school at the age of 17 to work as a mail boy at 20th Century Fox's London office, graduating to Elstree Studios as a production runner in 1963 on Man in the Middle and The Third Secret. After hitch-hiking and freight-jumping across America in 1964, he returned to England in 1965 and began work as a runner on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but soon became Kubrick's location scout.[2] By the summer of 1966, Kubrick had promoted Birkin to Assistant Director on Special Effects;[3] Birkin later proposed the shooting and colour transposition of aerial footage for the 'Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite' sequence. Kubrick dispatched him to Scotland with cameraman Jack Atcheler and a 65mm Panaflex camera bolted to the floor of an Alouette helicopter; but Atcheler soon quit the enterprise, deeming Birkin to be reckless. Birkin continued alone and shot most of the resulting footage himself.[4][5][6] In 1967 Birkin supervised the shooting of 'The Dawn of Man' front projection plates in the Namib Desert.[2][3][7]
Having worked on an adaptation of Peter Pan for NBC in 1975, Birkin conceived and wrote The Lost Boys (1978), a 3-part mini-series for the BBC about Peter Pan's creator J.M. Barrie, which won him writing awards from the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the Royal Television Society. The critic Sean Day-Lewis wrote in the Daily Telegraph, 'I doubt if biography has ever been better televised than in this sensitive and beautifully crafted masterpiece, and I am quite sure such excellence is beyond any other television service in the world.'[13] The BBC's Director-General Sir Ian Trethowan called it 'a landmark in television drama'.[14] Birkin has also written a biographical account of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family, J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys (1979; 2nd edition 2003), described by The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature as 'the most candid and perceptive biography to have been written of Barrie'.[15] Birkin also hosts Barrie's official website on behalf of the Great Ormond Street Hospital, to whom he donated his Barrie/Llewelyn Davies/Peter Pan archive in 2004.[16]
In 2013, Taschen published a selection of his photographs and an autobiographical essay in Jane & Serge: A Family Album. In 2017 he wrote an adaptation of Peter Pan for Radio France.
Private life
Birkin has four sons and a daughter. David Birkin (born 1977), artist and photographer, is his eldest son, followed by Anno Birkin (1980–2001), poet and musician, and Ned Birkin (born 1985), whom Birkin directed in The Cement Garden. He is married to artist Karen Birkin, with whom he has a daughter, Emily Jane (born December 2008) and a son, Thomas Bernie (born April 2011). Two of his nieces are actresses: Charlotte Gainsbourg, who also appeared in The Cement Garden, and Lou Doillon.
Burning Secret (1988) (writer, director; winner of Young Jury Prize, Brussels Film Festival, 1989)
Salt on Our Skin (1992) (co-writer with Bridget Gilbert; director)
The Cement Garden (1993) (writer, director; winner of Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director, 1993; nominated for Golden Berlin Bear; winner of the Golden Hitchcock at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema; nominated for Best Film at Mystfest)
andrew, birkin, andrew, timothy, birkin, born, december, 1945, english, screenwriter, director, born, only, lieutenant, commander, david, birkin, wife, actress, judy, campbell, sisters, actress, singer, jane, birkin, bornandrew, timothy, birkin, 1945, december. Andrew Timothy Birkin born 9 December 1945 is an English screenwriter and director He was born the only son of Lieutenant Commander David Birkin and his wife actress Judy Campbell One of his sisters is the actress and singer Jane Birkin Andrew BirkinBornAndrew Timothy Birkin 1945 12 09 9 December 1945 age 77 Chelsea London EnglandOccupation s Director screenwriterYears active1972 presentSpouseKaren BirkinChildren5 including David and Anno BirkinParentsDavid Birkin father Judy Campbell mother RelativesJane Birkin sister Kate Barry niece Charlotte Gainsbourg niece Lou Doillon niece Contents 1 Work 2 Private life 3 Filmography 4 Books 5 References 6 External linksWork EditBirkin was educated at Elstree School and Harrow School At the former he was remembered by a teacher as being one of the naughtiest boys ever to have passed through Elstree 1 and his record at Harrow was no better He left school at the age of 17 to work as a mail boy at 20th Century Fox s London office graduating to Elstree Studios as a production runner in 1963 on Man in the Middle and The Third Secret After hitch hiking and freight jumping across America in 1964 he returned to England in 1965 and began work as a runner on Stanley Kubrick s 2001 A Space Odyssey but soon became Kubrick s location scout 2 By the summer of 1966 Kubrick had promoted Birkin to Assistant Director on Special Effects 3 Birkin later proposed the shooting and colour transposition of aerial footage for the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite sequence Kubrick dispatched him to Scotland with cameraman Jack Atcheler and a 65mm Panaflex camera bolted to the floor of an Alouette helicopter but Atcheler soon quit the enterprise deeming Birkin to be reckless Birkin continued alone and shot most of the resulting footage himself 4 5 6 In 1967 Birkin supervised the shooting of The Dawn of Man front projection plates in the Namib Desert 2 3 7 After working as First Assistant Director to the Beatles on Magical Mystery Tour in 1967 Birkin served as Location Manager on Play Dirty in Spain before again working for Stanley Kubrick this time as his assistant director and location scout on his unmade epic of Napoleon 5 8 9 Following second unit directing work on Melody Birkin began writing scripts for producer David Puttnam including The Pied Piper 1971 for director Jacques Demy 10 Slade In Flame 1974 for the rock band Slade which won the Vision Award at the 2007 MOJO Awards and was described as the Citizen Kane of rock musicals by BBC film critic Mark Kermode 11 and an unmade adaptation of Albert Speer s Inside the Third Reich for Puttnam and Paramount which involved a year s consultation with Speer in 1971 72 10 12 Having worked on an adaptation of Peter Pan for NBC in 1975 Birkin conceived and wrote The Lost Boys 1978 a 3 part mini series for the BBC about Peter Pan s creator J M Barrie which won him writing awards from the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the Royal Television Society The critic Sean Day Lewis wrote in the Daily Telegraph I doubt if biography has ever been better televised than in this sensitive and beautifully crafted masterpiece and I am quite sure such excellence is beyond any other television service in the world 13 The BBC s Director General Sir Ian Trethowan called it a landmark in television drama 14 Birkin has also written a biographical account of Barrie s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family J M Barrie and the Lost Boys 1979 2nd edition 2003 described by The Oxford Companion to Children s Literature as the most candid and perceptive biography to have been written of Barrie 15 Birkin also hosts Barrie s official website on behalf of the Great Ormond Street Hospital to whom he donated his Barrie Llewelyn Davies Peter Pan archive in 2004 16 In 1980 Birkin won a BAFTA award and an Academy Award nomination for his short film Sredni Vashtar based on the short story by Saki which he wrote produced and directed for 20th Century Fox In 1984 he wrote the shooting script for The Name of the Rose in which he also had a small acting role and in 1988 he wrote and directed Burning Secret based on the novel by Stefan Zweig which won two awards at the 1989 Venice Film Festival as well as the Young Jury prize for Best Film at the Brussels Film Festival In 1993 Birkin wrote and directed The Cement Garden based on the novel by Ian McEwan for which he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival 17 as well as Best Film at several film festivals including Dinard Fort Lauderdale and Birmingham 18 In 1998 he collaborated with Luc Besson on the script of The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc and in 2004 co wrote the screenplay for Perfume The Story of a Murderer In 2013 Taschen published a selection of his photographs and an autobiographical essay in Jane amp Serge A Family Album In 2017 he wrote an adaptation of Peter Pan for Radio France Private life EditBirkin has four sons and a daughter David Birkin born 1977 artist and photographer is his eldest son followed by Anno Birkin 1980 2001 poet and musician and Ned Birkin born 1985 whom Birkin directed in The Cement Garden He is married to artist Karen Birkin with whom he has a daughter Emily Jane born December 2008 and a son Thomas Bernie born April 2011 Two of his nieces are actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg who also appeared in The Cement Garden and Lou Doillon He lives on the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales Birkin is a trustee of the children s arts charity Anno s Africa Filmography EditThe Pied Piper 1972 writer Slade in Flame 1975 writer Mojo Vision Award winner 2007 Peter Pan 1976 co writer The Thief of Baghdad 1978 writer The Lost Boys 1978 writer won Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer Writers Guild of Great Britain Award Omen III The Final Conflict 1981 writer associate producer Sredni Vashtar 1981 writer producer director winner of BAFTA Award for Best Short Film 1981 nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film Live Action King David 1985 co writer The Name of the Rose 1986 co writer Burning Secret 1988 writer director winner of Young Jury Prize Brussels Film Festival 1989 Salt on Our Skin 1992 co writer with Bridget Gilbert director The Cement Garden 1993 writer director winner of Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director 1993 nominated for Golden Berlin Bear winner of the Golden Hitchcock at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema nominated for Best Film at Mystfest The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc 1999 co writer with Luc Besson Perfume The Story of a Murderer 2006 co writer Books EditAuthor J M Barrie and the Lost Boys Constable 1979 Revised Edition Yale University Press 2003 Author Jane amp Serge A Family Album Taschen 2013 References Edit David Cooper The Daily Telegraph Britain s Best Selling Quality Daily 30 March 2011 ISSN 0307 1235 Retrieved 6 November 2019 a b Dan Richter Moonwatcher s Memoir A Diary of 2001 A Space of Odyssey 2002 a b Bizony Piers 2001 2001 Filming the Future Sidgwick amp Jackson ISBN 978 1854103659 Michel Ciment Kubrick 1999 a b Rolf Thissen Stanley Kubrick Der Regisseur als Architekt 1999 Michael Benson Space Odyssey 2018 John Baxter Stanley Kubrick A Biography 1997 John Baxter Stanley Kubrick A Biography 1997 Deutsches Filmmuseum Ed Stanley Kubrick 2004 a b Andrew Yule Fast Fade David Puttnam Columbia Pictures and the Battle For Hollywood 1989 Mark Kermode 31 August 2012 Blogs Kermode Uncut Film Club Slade in Flame James Park Learning to Dream The New British Cinema 1984 The Daily Telegraph 30 October 1978 The Guardian 6 November 1978 Humphrey Carpenter amp Mari Prichard The Oxford Companion to Children s Literature 1984 Sotheby s Catalogue English Literature including the Archive of J M Barrie and The Lost Boys 16 December 2004 Berlinale 1993 Prize Winners berlinale de Retrieved 30 May 2011 Time Out 20 27 October 1993External links EditAndrew Birkin at IMDb Andrew Birkin s J M Barrie Website Daily Telegraph The Boy Who Never Grew Old BBC Radio 4 The Lost Boy Slade in Flame screenplay The Lost Boys screenplay The Cement Garden screenplay Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Andrew Birkin amp oldid 1092147778, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
