Leigh Whannell
☼ Born on 17 December 1977, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Biography
Leigh Whannell grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where, at the age of four, he developed an obsession with telling stories. Whether it be through acting, writing or filmmaking, his primary love was getting a reaction from an audience. In 1995, at the age of 18, he was accepted into the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's prestigious Media Arts course, where he met fellow filmmaker James Wan. In his second year of college, he landed the role of "film guy" on a Saturday morning TV show aimed at teens called Recovery (1996). Filmed totally live in the studio and hosted by actual teenagers, the ground-breaking show was hugely popular down under and was the first to bring "alternative culture" to Australia's TV screens, featuring live performances from bands like Sonic Youth, Weezer, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, Pulp and hundreds more. Hosting the film component of the show, Leigh was lucky enough to interview people like Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Russell Crowe, George Clooney, and eventually went on the host the show in 1999. After graduating from college, Leigh found himself working more and more as a "host" or "presenter" on Australian TV - all the while hatching a plan with James Wan to finally fulfill his dream of making a film. Small acting roles cropped up from time to time (including one in The Matrix Reloaded (2003), which Leigh has said was "the most fun I've ever had in my life") and, along with those, some frustrating near-misses (and not so near-misses: like his cringe
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-inducing audition for "Lord Of The Rings", in which he paid $90 to have "hobbit ears" grafted onto his head, turning up at the casting office dressed as a hobbit - needless to say he didn't get the role). However, it was missing out on a role in Alex Proyas Australian film Garage Days (2002) that finally broke the camel's back. He called Wan and told him that if they wanted to get a film made, they would have to pay for it themselves. Saw (2004) was born. After nine months of writing, Leigh had written the screenplay for what he thought would be a self-financed, "Blair Witch"-style feature, with him starring and James directing. The script gained so much attention that soon enough, they were shopping it around Hollywood....and the rest is history.
In the role of actor
78/52 (13/10/2017)
The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho is broken down and analyzed in 78/52. Created with 78 set-ups and 52 shots, the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has become one of the most iconic sequences of film history. With its use of quick cuts and suggested nudity and violence, the scene broke many taboos from the time. Multiple individuals, […]
78/52 (20/07/2017)
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of Hot Docs 2017 The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho is broken down and analyzed in 78/52. Created with 78 set-ups and 52 shots, the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has become one of the most iconic sequences of film history. With its use of quick cuts and […]
78/52 (05/05/2017)
The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho is broken down and analyzed in 78/52. Created with 78 set-ups and 52 shots, the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has become one of the most iconic sequences of film history. With its use of quick cuts and suggested nudity and violence, the scene broke many taboos from the […]
Cooties (23/09/2015)
Prepubescent school children get turned into blood-thirsty zombies in the horror-comedy Cooties. Clint Hadson (Elijah Wood) is an aspiring novelist, who has recently returned to his hometown of Ft. Chicken, Illinois, where is gets a job to substitute at the local elementary school. It is there he is reunited with his old crush Lucy McCormick (Alison Pill), while […]
Insidious: Chapter 2 (22/09/2013)
James Wan returns with his second horror film of the year (and apparently his final one for the foreseeable future). Insidious: Chapter 2 takes place nearly immediately after the events of the previous film and sees Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) staying with their kids at the house of Josh’s mother […]
In the role of director
The Invisible Man (27/02/2020)
A woman believes that she is being tormented by her now-invisible abusive ex in The Invisible Man. One night, Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) decides to pack up and leave her abusive husband Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who also happens to be a well-known optics researcher. Traumatized by her ordeal, Cecilia stays at the home of her […]
Upgrade (29/06/2018)
A man implanted with a state of the art A.I. tracks down his wife’s killers in Upgrade. Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is a car mechanic in a feature full-automated future world, whose wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) is gunned down one night by a group of cybernetically upgraded thugs, who leave Grey a quadriplegic. Grey is approached by […]
W. (21/10/2008)
Oliver Stone did an interesting thing with this biopic of president George W. Bush. While he could have have took the opportunity to trash than man for his many bad decisions in the White House, the film instead takes a sympathetic view at Bush’s life. The main plot involves the actions leading into and directly […]