- Born
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the North of England, Neil Marshall has been working successfully in both feature films and television since his feature debut 'Dog Soldiers' in 2001. His second feature as both writer and director,'The Descent' 2005 was an even bigger critical and commercial hit, winning several awards including the BIFA for Best Director, and the Empire award for Best Horror. He followed this success with the post-apocalyptic action movie 'Doomsday' 2008 for Universal and historical adventure 'Centurion' 2010. In 2012 Neil made his debut in the world of high-end television with 'Game of Thrones' S2 Ep9 'Blackwater', and followed that up with S4 Ep9 'The Watchers on the Wall' for which he received an Emmy Nomination for Best Director.
Marshall continued to work in the network, cable and streaming arenas directing projects such as the pilot episodes of 'Black Sails' for Starz, DC's 'Constantine' and 'Timeless' both for NBC. Marshall also directed notable episodes of 'Hannibal' for Showtime and 'Westworld' for HBO. In 2017 Neil developed, produced and directed the Netflix reboot of classic sci-fi series 'Lost in Space', quickly followed the same year by the feature film reboot of 'Hellboy' released in 2018.
In 2020 Marshall made his return to independent film and the horror genre with the multi-award winning witch-hunt saga 'The Reckoning' which was the opening movie at Fantasia festival in Canada that year. Marshall's next movie 'The Lair', an all action-creature-feature set in Afghanistan was the opening night presentation at Frightfest 2022 in London and also played Sitges in Spain before being released on Shudder in Feb 2023.
Marshall switched genres yet again for the violent gangster revenge movie 'Duchess', due to be released by Saban in the US in September 2024. Most recently Marshall directed the erotic giallo thriller 'Compulsion' and is developing several projects including WW2 alien invasion thriller 'Invaders', tense action thriller 'Dead Stop' and land speed record drama 'Mach One'.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Neil Marshall
- SpouseAxelle Carolyn(October 31, 2007 - 2016) (divorced)
- ChildrenNo Children
- Often featuring tough female as an antagonist
- The film line often told about one team sent for a mission. Then, they found a new horror
- Often using dark tone
- Not the unseen ghost type of horror, but a bloody gore horror
- Was set to direct Drive (2011), but was replaced by Nicolas Winding Refn.
- Member of the unofficial "Splat Pack," a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in Total Film magazine for the modern wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other "Splat Pack" members are Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Greg McLean, Eli Roth, James Wan, Leigh Whannell & Rob Zombie.
- Was rumored to helm Predators (2010).
- Marshall discussed Pendragon, his fantasy heist sequel to Excalibur (1981) on the Best Movies Never Made podcast.
- Wrote the screenplay for 'Killing Time' which was filmed in Newcastle but was never released.
- ...the reason horror films are being made is that distributors and financiers see a way of making easy money. The genre is riding a wave of popularity that it hasn't enjoyed in a long time. It has broken out of the hardcore audience section and is reaching a much more broad-based audience.
- My belief is that if you start a film all the way up at level 10 you've got nowhere to go.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is what made me want to make movies.
- It's about a superpower invading this country and being defeated by guerrilla warfare. In 2,000 years we haven't learned a thing. I kind of saw Ancient Britain as the equivalent of Rome's Wild West. I used to watch Westerns on TV with my dad and to me Centurion (2010) is very similar to an old John Ford cavalry movie, with the Romans as the cavalry and the Picts as the Apaches. Those movies would now be seen as incredibly un-PC: we're all rooting for the cavalry who are committing genocide on the Native Americans. I'm doing the same kind of thing in that I'm telling the story from the invader's point of view but I want you to root for the individuals not their politics.
- I see myself more as an action director. All right, I do enjoy intense, bloodthirsty action but I like to blend and cross genres. I don't want to be too predictable. I always say Dog Soldiers (2002) is a siege or a soldier movie with werewolves, not a werewolf movie with soldiers. The primary element is making the soldiers authentic - then we can add fantasy on top of that reality.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content