Mark Romanek

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Mark Lee Romanek (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> born September 18, 1959) is an American film, music video and commercial director and photographer. He is best known for directing the films One Hour Photo (2002) and Never Let Me Go (2010). Romanek's music videos have come to be regarded as among the best of the medium. They have earned him three Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video and 20 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Direction for Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

Romanek has also directed episodes for television series such as The Whispers (2015), Vinyl (2016), and Tales from the Loop (2020).

Early life

Mark Lee Romanek was born in Chicago on September 18, 1959,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the son of Jewish parents Shirlee and Marvin Romanek.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was inspired to become a filmmaker by seeing Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as a child.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>[2] Template:Webarchive</ref> He experimented with Super 8 mm and 16 mm film as a teenager. He attended New Trier High School, where he studied under Kevin Dole, who was already creating music videos on his own in the mid-1970s, and Peter Kingsbury.

Romanek subsequently attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from its Roy H. Park School of Communications with a degree in cinema and photography. He served as second assistant director on Brian De Palma's film Home Movies (1979), an autobiographical work conceived as an exercise for De Palma's students at Sarah Lawrence College, where he was once a student himself. Romanek met actor Keith Gordon, who played De Palma's alter ego, on the set of the film; Gordon later remembered Romanek's entrance into film production:

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Career

Music videos

After a few years writing screenplays, Romanek focused on music videos and signed on with Satellite Films, a division of Propaganda Films.Template:Fact One of his notable videos was for the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer". Its critical acclaim was only matched by its controversy, with many accusing the video as being disturbing and demonic.Template:Fact Romanek worked again with Nine Inch Nails for the song "The Perfect Drug".Template:Fact

Romanek directed the music videos for David Bowie's 1993 singles "Jump They Say" and "Black Tie White Noise".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Romanek was given his first Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1996 for "Scream", a collaboration between the pop superstar siblings Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. The video, which cost $7 million to make, is cited as one of the most expensive ever made.Template:Fact Romanek won his second Grammy two years later, again with Janet Jackson, for her video "Got 'til It's Gone". In 2002, Romanek shot a video for Audioslave's "Cochise" in which the band performed in the midst of a prolonged pyrotechnic display of the intensity usually seen only during a fireworks finale. The explosions were so loud during the night shoot in the San Fernando Valley that local police received over five hundreds of calls from residents because of the noise.<ref name="Podcast">Template:Cite podcast</ref>

Romanek's 2002 music video for Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" was nominated for seven VMAs, winning one for cinematography, and also won Romanek his third Grammy.Template:Fact The song expresses self-loathing and the futility of worldly accomplishments; this content took on a new poignancy when sung by Cash near the end of his life, quietly performing in his memorabilia-filled home, with shots of the flood-ravaged "House of Cash" museum and archival shots of a younger, cockier Cash edited in.<ref name="Podcast"/>

Other Romanek videos that have received accolades and awards include the VMA winners "Free Your Mind" (En Vogue), "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (Lenny Kravitz), "Rain" (Madonna), "Devil's Haircut" (Beck), "99 Problems" (Jay-Z), and "Criminal" (Fiona Apple). In 1997, Romanek received the VMA Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for his contribution to the medium. Two of his music videos, "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails and "Bedtime Story" by Madonna, have been made part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.Template:Fact

In a 2013 interview with IndieWire, Romanek responded to the question of whether he would direct another music video:

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Despite this, Romanek returned to music video directing with Jay-Z's performance art piece "Picasso Baby", which aired on HBO on August 2, 2013. The video was shot inside the Pace Gallery in New York and featured a group of personalities from the world of art, including Marina Abramović, whose 2010 performance art work "The Artist is Present" inspired the video.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This marked Romanek's first music video in eight years, his last being Coldplay's video for "Speed of Sound" in 2005.

Romanek then directed "Filthy" by Justin Timberlake and "Rescue Me" by Thirty Seconds to Mars, which both premiered in 2018.Template:Fact

In 2022, Romanek directed a 180-degree virtual reality concert for Foo Fighters, featuring a song by the group never before played.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Film and TV

Romanek and star Andrew Garfield at a screening of Never Let Me Go at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Romanek's first film, Static (1985), followed a man claiming to have invented a television set capable of showing a live picture of Heaven. The film led to his first music video job, but he later disowned it and called it an "embarrassing bit of juvenilia".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2002, Romanek wrote and directed his second feature film, One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams as a department store photo processor who becomes obsessed with a local family through the photographs they bring to him to be developed. The film was only a moderate hit, but still established Romanek as a director. Rumors spread that the studio, Fox Searchlight, had forced changes on Romanek that seriously altered the film from how he had intended it. He has dismissed this story, however, stating that there never was a director's cut and that the studio did not exercise any editorial control.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Romanek had hoped to follow the film with an adaptation of Philip Gourevitch's A Cold Case which was to star Tom Hanks as chief investigator Andy Rosenzweig. The film went into development hell due to scheduling conflicts and issues with rights.<ref name="Interview">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, Romanek said he still hoped to make the film someday: "The character in the film is a bit older and I think someday, in the next eight years or something, maybe it'll be the right time to do [it]."<ref name="Cinderella"/>

In 2008, after Romanek left as the director of The Wolfman due to creative differences, he accepted the offer to work on Never Let Me Go.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Romanek was glad to get the opportunity to shoot the film, saying "From the moment I finished the novel, it became my dream to film it. [Kazuo] Ishiguro's conception is so daring, so eerie and beautiful. Alex Garland's adaptation is sensitive and precise. The cast is perfect, the crew superb."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film was released in 2010 to mostly positive reviews and was the 28th highest-grossing film at the box office for that week.

Throughout the 2010s, Romanek circled numerous projects that never materialized under his direction, including a remake of The Boston Strangler,<ref name="Strangler">Template:Cite web</ref> the Shining prequel The Overlook Hotel,<ref name="Hotel">Template:Cite web</ref> the David Mamet-penned conspiracy thriller Blackbird,<ref name="Blackbird">Template:Cite web</ref> and a film about the Norco shootout,<ref name="Norco">Template:Cite web</ref> amongst others. "I wish I had made ten films by now," Romanek said in 2020. "It's not for lack of trying... I have a lot of movies that I worked on that didn't come together."<ref name="Loop">Template:Cite web</ref> Romanek has however directed several episodes for television, including the HBO series Vinyl and the Amazon Prime series Tales from the Loop, which he also executive produced.

In 2021, it was reported that Romanek would direct the horror film Mother Land which would have been his first feature film in over a decade.<ref name="Return">Template:Cite web</ref> In December of the following year, Romanek revealed that he was no longer attached to it and that he had been replaced as director by Alexandre Aja.<ref name="ML">Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition to continuing work in advertising, in the 2020s, Romanek began experimenting with AI, using it as a creative outlet to bounce around concepts or ideas he was pondering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2025, Romanek was said to be in the midst of planning a film directly conceived as a result of his many unproduced projects; with the story itself tackling the subject of "unfinished art". He was inspired to write it upon attending an exhibition that showcased unfinished pieces of artwork.<ref name="Podcast"/>

Photography

Romanek has also been recognized for his photography skills, having taken pictures of various celebrities he befriended throughout his career. They include Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz, Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger, Robin Williams, Harmony Korine, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jay-Z.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Romanek has said that while the photographs are all of famous people, he still considers them personal.<ref>Template:Cite video</ref>

In 2017, thirty of Romanek's photographs were exhibited at the French retailer Colette for the series entitled SNAPSHOTS.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Romanek resides in Los Angeles. He married singer Brigette McWilliams in 2005, and they had two daughters together<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> before divorcing in 2022.Template:Citation needed

Influences

In 2012, Romanek participated in the Sight & Sound film polls. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, contemporary directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Romanek gave the following ten, in alphabetical order:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Div col

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Filmography

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Film

Year Title Director Writer
1985 Static Template:Yes Template:Yes
2002 One Hour Photo Template:Yes Template:Yes
2010 Never Let Me Go Template:Yes Template:No

Television

Year Title Director Executive
producer 		Notes
2011 Locke & Key Template:Yes Template:No Unaired pilot
2015 The Whispers Template:Yes Template:Yes Episode: "X Marks the Spot"
2016 Vinyl Template:Yes Template:No Episode: "Whispered Secrets"
2020 Tales from the Loop Template:Yes Template:Yes Episode: "Loop"

Unrealized projects

Year Title and description Template:Abbr
1990s Arbus, a biopic adapted by Romanek from Patricia Bosworth's biography about photographer Diane Arbus <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Paradise Falls, an "afterlife thriller" written by Darren Lemke
Untitled Jason Keller and Brent Roam screenplay <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Urban Townies, a drama written by Jesse Wigutow starring Brad Pitt <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
2000s Untitled psychological war film <ref name="Cinderella"/>
Untitled film about "a man who's defined by his job" <ref name="Cinderella"/><ref name="Collider">Template:Cite web</ref>
A film adaptation of Philip Gourevitch's novel A Cold Case written by John Sayles and Eric Roth starring Tom Hanks <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Interview"/>
The Omen <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Strangers <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
A film adaptation of James Frey's novel A Million Little Pieces <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A Parking Ticket, retitled from In Deep, a black comedy written by Steven Conrad starring Ben Stiller <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ParkingTicket">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Collider"/>
The Wolfman <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Collider"/>
2010s The Voices starring Ben Stiller as Jerry Hickfang <ref name="ParkingTicket"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Wolverine <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Oldboy <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Cinderella <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Collider"/>
A film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Untitled FX true crime limited series <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Collider"/>
Boston Strangler, a remake of the 1968 film written by Chuck MacLean starring Casey Affleck <ref name="Strangler"/>
The Overlook Hotel, a prequel to The Shining written by Glen Mazzara set at the turn of the 20th century <ref name="Hotel"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Blackbird, a conspiracy thriller written by David Mamet starring Cate Blanchett <ref name="Blackbird"/>
Norco, a heist film written by Adair Cole inspired by the true story of the 1980 Norco bank robbery <ref name="Norco"/>
Septillion to One, a romantic comedy written by Adam R. Perlman and Graham Sack <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2020s Untitled Kyle Fried collaboration <ref name="Loop"/>
Never Let Go, retitled from Mother Land <ref name="Return"/><ref name="ML"/>
Untitled Gulf War screenplay <ref>Template:Cite instagram</ref>

Further reading

  • Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen. Bielefeld 2005, p. 335ss., p. 344ss.
  • "'(...) an unforgettable emotional impact' – Jay-Z/Mark Romanek: '99 Problems'", in: Klaus Herding/Antje Krause Wahl (Eds.), Wie sich Gefühle Ausdruck verschaffen – Emotionen in Nahsicht, Taunusstein: Driesen 2007, p. 321 – 342

References

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