Director / Producer and Co-Director Number 9 Films
Stephen Woolley has spent a lifetime steeped in movies and filmmaking. His career began in 1976 at the Screen on the Green cinema in London where he tore tickets, sold ice cream, projected films and helped manage the cinema. After working with The Other Cinema he programmed and subsequently owned his own cinema, The Scala, which won acclaim for its diverse, original and alternative programming. In 1982, Woolley launched Palace Video in partnership with Nik Powell, releasing titles such as Eraserhead and Mephisto. Establishing a theatrical arm a year later, Palace acquired, marketed and distributed some 250 independent and European movies from The Evil Dead, Diva, and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to When Harry Met Sally.
During this period Woolley’s producing career flourished, with a diverse range of critically acclaimed and successful films including the controversial Absolute Beginners starring David Bowie, Ray Davies, Patsy Kensit and James Fox, and Golden Globe nominated dance comedy Shag starring Bridget Fonda. Scandal starring Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, John Hurt and Bridget Fonda attracted phenomenal critical acclaim and box office success on both sides of the Atlantic. Other Palace productions included The Big Man starring Liam Neeson and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer; A Rage in Harlem with Forest Whitaker and Danny Glover and The Pope Must Die starring Robbie Coltrane.
Breakfast on Pluto, starring Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson, has continued Woolley’s long-term partnership with director Neil Jordan which began with The Company of Wolves in 1983. His other collaborations with Jordan include The Miracle, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, the Oscar-nominated The End of The Affair, Michael Collins, Interview With The Vampire, and Oscar-winning The Crying Game, for which in 1992 Woolley was awarded Producer of The Year by the Producer’s Guild of America. Woolley also produced Jordan’s Oscar nominated Mona Lisa which won numerous international awards. Stephen also has over twenty executive producer credits, which include The Neon Bible, The Hollow Reed, Fever Pitch, Purely Belter and Little Voice starring Sir Michael Caine and Jane Horrocks.
Woolley was Chairman on the BAFTA film committee on which he served for ten years and was instrumental in ushering in a new era of modernisation and success at the British Academy. He is also a member of the American Academy.
In 2005 Woolley made his directorial debut with Stoned. His recent projects as producer with Elizabeth Karlsen have included And When Did You Last See Your Father? directed by Anand Tucker, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges, Sounds Like Teen Spirit directed by newcomer Jamie J Johnson and Made in Dagenham directed by Nigel Cole and starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough and Jaime Winstone. Forthcoming projects include The End of Sleep, Strangers, and Great Expectations.
