Joe Penhall
Joe Penhall | |
---|---|
Born | 1967 (age 56–57) London, England |
Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
Nationality | British, Australian |
Notable works | Blue/Orange |
Spouse | Emily McLaughlin |
Children | 2 |
Joe Scott Penhall (born 1967) is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play Blue/Orange, the award-winning West End musical Sunny Afternoon and creating the Netflix original series Mindhunter.
Early life
Penhall was born in London, and raised in Adelaide, Australia.[1]
Career
Penhall's first major play, Some Voices, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre's upstairs playing space in London in 1994. It was very well-received, winning the John Whiting Award, and has since been played off-Broadway twice. In 2000 Penhall adapted the play for a film with the same name directed by Simon Cellan Jones, starring Daniel Craig and Kelly Macdonald, which premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Penhall returned to the Royal Court Theatre with his second full-length play Pale Horse, which also played in the Theatre Upstairs and featured Ray Winstone, who had starred in Some Voices. A dark play, Pale Horse tells the story of a bar keeper coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife.[2]
Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love in 2004 to film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's BAFTA-nominated dramatisation of Jake Arnott's novel The Long Firm (1999),[3] starring Mark Strong.
In 2000 Penhall's play Blue/Orange began its run at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell and starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The play centres on two NHS doctors trying to deal with a sectioned young black schizophrenic patient; it was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, and at the Critics' Circle. It transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. Penhall adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year he wrote and directed The Undertaker, his first short film, starring Rhys Ifans and premiering at the London Film Festival.
Penhall's follow-up play Dumb Show was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2004, focusing on tabloid journalism. It was directed by Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a "small light play" as opposed to the "huge dark play" Blue/Orange.
Landscape With Weapon, about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the National Theatre in 2007, directed again by Roger Michell and starring Tom Hollander and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Penhall spent six years working on The Last King of Scotland, even flying to Uganda and meeting Idi Amin's henchmen; however, he requested his name be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board.[4] Penhall adapted Cormac McCarthy's book The Road in 2009 for a film starring Viggo Mortensen; for this he received wide praise, scoring a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, [5] and was named by Variety Magazine as one of their Top Ten Screenwriters to watch. [6]
In 2009 Penhall's detective drama Moses Jones, where he also served as executive producer, was shown on the BBC, winning a BAFTA for make-up design and Best Screenplay at the Roma Film Festival in 2009.[7]
In 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with two plays: Haunted Child, staged at the Royal Court Theatre with Sophie Okonedo, and Birthday, starring Stephen Mangan and directed by long-term collaborator Roger Michell.
Penhall's first stage musical, Sunny Afternoon, with music and lyrics by Ray Davies, premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in May 2014, before transferring to London's West End. The musical won four Laurence Olivier Awards in 2015, including for Best New Musical.
In 2017, Penhall created the Netflix series Mindhunter, directed by David Fincher.
In 2018, Penhall's new play Mood Music premiered at The Old Vic, directed by Roger Michell and starring Ben Chaplin.
In 2023, Penhall was revealed to have been attached to write the third Sherlock Holmes film with star Robert Downey Jr. and director Dexter Fletcher before its development hell due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Personal life
Penhall is married and lives in London.[9]
Plays
- Wild Turkey (1993), premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre, Islington[10]
- Some Voices (1994), premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson[11]
- Pale Horse (1995), premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson[12]
- Love and Understanding (1997), premiered at the Bush Theatre, directed by Mike Bradwell[13]
- The Bullet (1998), premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Dominic Cooke[14]
- Blue/Orange (2000), premiered at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell[15]
- Dumb Show (2004), premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, directed Terry Johnson[16]
- Landscape With Weapon (2007), premiered at the National Theatre, directed Roger Michell[17]
- Haunted Child (2011), premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin[18]
- Birthday (2012), premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Roger Michell[19]
- Sunny Afternoon (2014), premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, directed by Edward Hall
- Mood Music (2018), premiered at The Old Vic, directed by Roger Michell
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | Go Back Out | — | Writer |
2000 | Some Voices | — | Writer |
2004 | The Long Firm | Gangster | Uncredited; also writer, 4 episodes |
Enduring Love | — | Writer | |
2005 | Blue/Orange | — | Writer |
The Undertaker | — | Director and writer; short film | |
2009 | Moses Jones | — | Writer and executive producer, 3 episodes |
The Road | — | Writer | |
2015 | Birthday | — | Writer |
2017–2019 | Mindhunter | — | Creator, 19 episodes; writer, 2 episodes; executive producer, 10 episodes |
2018 | King of Thieves | — | Writer |
Awards
- 1994: John Whiting Award for Some Voices
- 1995: Pearson Thames Television Award for Pale Horse
- 2000: Laurence Olivier Award Best New Play for Blue/Orange
- 2000: Evening Standard Theatre Award Best New Play for Blue/Orange
- 2000: Critics' Circle Theatre Awards Best New Play for Blue/Orange
- 2005: BAFTA nominee Best Drama Serial for The Long Firm
- 2009: Roma Film Festival Best Screenplay for Moses Jones
- 2015: Laurence Olivier Award Best New Musical for Sunny Afternoon
References
- ^ Jones, Alice (28 June 2012), "Guess who's having a baby: Joe Penhall's new play, Birthday, tackles childbirth – with a twist", The Independent, London
- ^ Boles, William (2011), The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall, McFarland Press
- ^ "The Long Firm", BBC, 2004
- ^ Dawtrey, Adam (18 June 2008), "Screenwriters To Watch", Variety
- ^ "The Road", Rotten Tomates, United States, 2009
- ^ "Joe Penhall", Variety, United States, 2008
- ^ "Penhall on Moses Jones", The Times, London, 2011
- ^ O'Connell, Sean (20 April 2023). "Sherlock Holmes 3 Director Explains Why The Robert Downey Jr. Sequel Hasn't Happened Yet Despite A 'Brilliant' Script". CinemaBlend. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ Jones, Alice (28 June 2012). "Guess who's having a baby: Joe Penhall's new play, Birthday, tackles childbirth – with a twist". The Independent. London.
- ^ Klein, Hildegard (2007), "Joe Penhall", Springer: British Theatre of the 1990s, pp. 77–90, doi:10.1057/9780230210738_7, ISBN 978-1-349-28189-3
- ^ "Some Voices", Royal Court, 1995
- ^ "Pale Horse", Royal Court, 1995
- ^ "Love and Understanding", Bush Theatre, 1997, archived from the original on 5 April 2012
- ^ "The Bullet", Donmar Warehouse, 1998
- ^ "Blue/Orange", National Theatre, 2000, archived from the original on 25 August 2011
- ^ "Dumb Show", Royal Court Theatre, 2004
- ^ "Landscape With Weapon", National Theatre, 2007, archived from the original on 17 September 2009
- ^ "Haunted Child", Royal Court Theatre, 2011
- ^ "Birthday", Royal Court Theatre, 2012
External links
- Joe Penhall at IMDb
- v
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- Tom Stoppard for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Wole Soyinka for The Interpreters (shared) (1967)
- Peter Nichols for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967)
- Peter Barnes for The Ruling Class and Edward Bond for Narrow Road to the Deep North (shared) (1968)
- Howard Brenton for Christie in Love (1969)
- Freehold Company and Peter Hulton (joint) for Freehold on Antigone (1970)
- Mustapha Matura for As Time Goes By (1971)
- Heathcote Williams for AC/DC (1972)
- John Arden (1973)
- David Rudkin (1974)
- David Edgar for Destiny (1975)
- David Lan for The Winter Dancers (1976)
- David Halliwell and Snoo Wilson for The Glad Hand (shared) (1978)
- Stephen Bill (1979)
- David Pownall for Beef (1981)
- Karim Alrawi for Migrations (1982)
- Peter Flannery for Our Friends in the North (1983)
- Ron Hutchinson for The Rat in the Skull (1984)
- Guy Hibbert for On the Edge and Heidi Thomas for Shamrocks & Crocodiles (shared) (1985)
- Nick Dear for The Art of Success (1986)
- Iain Heggie for American Bagpipes (1988)
- Billy Roche for A Handful of Stars (1989)
- Lucy Gannon for Keeping Tom Nice (1990)
- Terry Johnson for Imagine Drowning (1991)
- Rod Wooden for Your Home in the West (1992)
- Martin Crimp for The Treatment and Helen Edmundson for The Clearing (shared) (1993)
- Jonathan Harvey for Beautiful Thing (1994)
- Joe Penhall for Some Voices (1995)
- Ayub Khan-Din for East is East (1996)
- Ann Coburn for Get Up and Tie Your Fingers (1997)
- Roy Williams for Starstruck (1998/9)
- David Greig for The Cosmonaut's Last Message ... and Tanika Gupta for The Waiting Room (shared) (2000)
- Zinnie Harris for Further than the Furthest Thing (2001)
- Peter Rumney for Jumping on my Shadow (2002)
- Rona Munro for Iron (2003)
- Owen McCafferty for Scenes from the Big Picture (2004)
- Fin Kennedy for How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (2005)
- James Philips for The Rubenstein Kiss and Fraser Grace for Breakfast with Mugabe (shared) (2006)
- Dennis Kelly for Taking Care of Baby (2007)
- Bryony Lavery for Stockholm (2008)
- Alexi Kaye Campbell for The Pride (2009)
- Tim Crouch for The Author and Lucy Kirkwood for It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First but It Is Alright Now (shared) (2010)