Andrew Niccol is a screenwriter, producer, and director from New Zealand that’s been involved with several big name films throughout his career and has stayed mostly in the background since it would seem that a lot of people don’t know all that much about him. He was born in New Zealand and lived in Auckland until the age of 21 when he left and started off on what would essentially be the beginning of his career in TV and then film.
He made a pretty steady climb when he was still young and is still making that climb today.
5. He looks a lot like Dave Foley.
Remember the actor from the Kids in the Hall comedy show? Niccol doesn’t get mistaken for him it would seem but he does share a likeness with the man. Obviously there’s enough of a difference that you could possibly differentiate the two from each other, but at a glance the similarity in appearance is close enough that you couldn’t tell them apart without taking a closer look.
4. His films tend to revolve around artificial reality.
He seems to enjoy filming the kind of artificial reality that makes you question the validity of the world around you. Gattaca and The Truman Show are perfect examples of this as they illustrate what is really meant by living in a world that you don’t understand but are still meant for. The whole idea of it is a giant mind trip that is meant to give the audience a moment of quiet introspection that might allow them to reassess the reality in which they live.
3. He directed commercials for ten years before making Gattaca.
Gattaca was his directorial debut. Before that he spent a decade in London directing TV commercials before he finally got to step up to the big leagues. He wanted a budget of about $80 million but knew that he wouldn’t get that for his first film. Instead he got $20 million to work with and as a result came up with Gattaca, which was great enough to get his foot in the door and keep him moving forward.
2. He wrote the story for The Terminal.
He was a producer on this film as well. If you remember, The Terminal was about a man that was stuck in the JFK airport due to the fact that his passport had been invalidated since his country had experienced a military coup and their government was in flux at that time. He was then forced to live in the airport and find a way to not only survive, but to thrive. It was a touching story really about a man that was, for a brief period of time, without a country to call his own.
1. His films have been nominated for several awards.
His films have been nominated for Golden Globe and Academy awards but have not won any as of yet. The films he’s been attached to have won other awards however, showing that he is a talented writer and director.
There’s always time to win accolades.
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