Paul is an award winning filmmaker who’s debut feature film The Devil’s Rock was released in 2011. Described as “the best New Zealand horror film since Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead” and shot in only 15 days, the film was co-funded by the New Zealand Film Commission and features special makeup effects by Oscar winning Weta Workshop. The Devil’s Rock pre-sold to UK distributor Metrodome , sold the North American rights to eOne at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for a US$ six figure sum, received a theatrical release in both the UK and New Zealand and has since sold to over 30 territories including Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the Middle East, Australia and South America.
In 2011 Paul was represented for tv commercial work by London based Bare Films. His first viral ‘Ghost caught on camera’ for Phones 4 U has had over 2.5million hits online.
Paul began his career as a freelance illustrator working in the advertising and publishing industry in the UK, before moving to New Zealand to work at Weta Digital on the visual effects for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He then worked in San Francisco, London and New Zealand on films such as Constantine, Sin City, 30 Days of Night and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Paul’s multi-award winning short films have screened at almost every major genre film festival worldwide. His previous short film Eel Girl is a provocative science-fiction/horror short, featuring special makeup effects by Weta Workshop. Eel Girl won 17 awards and 7 nominations, including the Grand Prix at the Court Metrange Film Festival, France, 2nd place in the Best Short Film Award at the 2008 Rushes Soho Shorts, London, and has been viewed online over 98,000 times on the Sci-Fi London Film Festival website.
His first short film, Night of the Hell Hamsters, a cautionary and bloody black comedy about the dangers of mixing the occult with small furry family pets opened on the festival circuit in 2006 to rave reviews. The film has played at over 50 film festivals around the world, is now listed on several cult film databases and is still requested by festival programmers 6 years on.
Paul is currently in development on Dark Hollow, a horror film based on the novel by US horror author Brian Keene; is developing a sequel to The Devil’s Rock with c0-writer Paul Finch, and is also developing Scorpion Raiders, a WW2 film based on the true story of the Barce Raid, a daring attack on a Italian airfield 2000km behind enemy lines in the deserts of North Africa by a combined New Zealand and British special forces unit known as the Long Range Desert Group.
