A prominent figure of the beleaguered British film industry. Woolley, a former journalist, and entrepreneur Nik Powell co-founded Palace Pictures in 1981. This successful distribution company brought to England such films as "Diva" (1982) and "Blood Simple" (1984). He then moved into production with Powell and Chris Brown and enjoyed critical and commercial success with features including Neil Jordan's "A Company of Wolves" (1985) and "Mona Lisa" (1986) and Chris Bernard's "A Letter to Brezhnev" (1985). Largely due to the steadily worsening economic environment for British filmmakers, Palace went bankrupt in 1992. With partial funding from corporate giant Polygram, Woolley and Powell went on to form Scala Productions, named after London's Scala cinema, where Woolley had begun his film career as programmer and manager.
- Born:
September 3, 1956 in London, England, United Kingdom
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Job Titles:
Producer, Executive, Usher
Milestones
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1962 Worked as cinema usher at age 16 (dates approximate)
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1981 Co-founded (with Nik Powell), Palace Productions, distribution company
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1984 First feature as co-executive producer (with Nik Powell), Chinese Boxes (West Germany); film distributed by Palace
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1985 Initial screen collaboration with Neil Jordan, The Company of Wolves
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1986 Was one of the producers of Jordan s Mona Lisa , starring Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine
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1988 Produced first American feature, Shag
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1989 Produced first film in long-term collaboration with Miramax films, Scandal
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1990 Produced first TV show, Red, Hot & Blue
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1992 Shared in Best Picture Oscar nomination as producer of Jordan s The Crying Game
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1994 Reteamed with Neil Jordan for the big-budget Interview With the Vampire
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1996 Produced Jordan s biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins
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1998 Produced Little Voice , Mark Herman s screen adaptation of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
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1998 Served as a producer on Shane Meadows debut feature TwentyFourSeven , starring Hoskins
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1999 Reteamed with Jordan for the remake of The End of the Affair
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2005 Produced Neil Jordan s Breakfast on Pluto
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2006 Made directorial debut with Stoned a chronicle of the sordid life and suspicious death of Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones
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Became manager, then proprietor of London s Scala Cinema (London s longest established repertory theater)