In conversation with Alastair Laurence.
Jeremy Thomas began his film career working in the cutting rooms and soon became an editor. In 1974, Thomas produced his first film, Philippe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan starring Dennis Hopper, and then founded Recorded Picture Company.
Thomas has gone on to produce many distinctive films, such as Jerzy Skolimowski’s The Shout, Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing, Eureka and Insignificance, and Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. In 1986, Thomas collaborated with director Bernardo Bertolucci on The Last Emperor, which won nine Academy Awards® including Best Picture, and many other international awards. Thomas went on to make many films with Bertolucci including The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers.
Thomas has remained an independent producer, resulting in a diverse body of work, including such titles as David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch, Crash and A Dangerous Method, Takeshi Kitano’s Brother, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, David Mackenzie’s Young Adam, the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki by Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Blade of the Immortal and First Love, and Tale of Tales, Dogman, and the upcoming Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone.
Alastair Laurence, who is curating this series, is a freelance documentary film maker who lives near Abergavenny. In recent years Alastair has made films about The Battle of the Somme, a history of British Photography and the poets John Betjeman, Philip Larkin and TS Eliot.