Tarsem Singh is an American director, who became famous for the thriller "Cell", which was released in 2000. Films of Tarsem Singh have always been a success with fantasy lovers, as the visual component of his paintings always amazes the audience.
Biography
Tarsem Singh was born in the Indian city of Jalandhar in 1961. His father was an aircraft engineer. Tarsem attended Bishop Cotton School, a closed boys' school. His father planned that he would go to Harvard, but Tarsem Singh himself was determined to direct. After graduating from college in Delhi, in 1985 he moved to California, where he entered a private art college.
Tarsem Singh began his career as a director by filming music videos, the most famous of which are Losing My Religion and Sweet Lullaby. Singh has shot dozens of commercials, including for Nike.
Directorial debut: "Cell"
Singh's debut in the feature film took place in 2000 with work on the psychological thriller with fantasy elements "The Cage". The main roles in the film were played by Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D'Onofrio. Singh's unusual, surrealistic film received mixed reviews from film critics, but viewers rated it highly, quickly assigning it the status of a cult.
The film has collected at the box office 104 million dollars with a budget of 33 million, becoming one of the highest grossing films of the year. It is thanks to this thriller that Tarsem Singh became known throughout the world. Films he shot in subsequent years will always be in demand.
Nine years later, inspired by the box office success of Tarsem Singh's film, director Tim Yakafano shot the sequel, Cell 2. The film played the original both in the plot and in the cast, so not even all avid moviegoers know about its existence.
Further projects
Singh's next feature film, Outland, was released in 2006. The picture was the debut for the 6-year-old actress Katinka Untaru.
Tarsem Singh, shot in the fantasy genre Outland, made a favorable impression on critics. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, writing: "You may want to watch this film simply because it exists. There will never be a second one."
The New York Times magazine spoke neutrally of Outland, calling it a true labor of love - and real boredom. Despite the generally good reviews from critics, the picture collected at the box office only $ 4 million, thus becoming the first and only box office failure in Singh's directorial career.
In 2011, Tarsem made another film in his favorite fantasy genre, War of the Gods: Immortals. The picture is partially based on Greek myths, although it has little in common with them. The main roles in the film were played by Luke Evans, Mickey Rourke and Henry Cavill.
Critics did not understand the director’s original approach to the adaptation of Greek myths, praising the “War of the Gods” low. In the commercial plan, the project was quite successful - with a budget of 75 million, the box office amounted to 227 million.
The following year, the movie “Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarves” was released, with Tarsem Singh as the director. Singh's filmography was replenished with another colorful fantasy project. In fact, work on the painting began in the summer of 2011.
Julia Roberts was the first to receive the role, since the director did not represent anyone else in the role of the queen. It was planned that the role of Snow White would be played by Saoirse Ronan, but it was decided that Lily Collins was more suitable for this role. The role of Prince Andrew went to Armie Hammer, who managed to beat James McEvoy and Alex Pettifer at the screenings. The film premiered in March 2012. Like most of Singh’s previous paintings, Snow White was called by critics “undoubtedly a beautiful film.”
The last full-length film in the director’s career, the sci-fi thriller Out of / Out was released in 2015. The main roles were played by Ryan Reynolds, the star of Deadpool, and Ben Kingsley. The main character of the film is businessman Damian Hale, who has cancer. Not wanting to part with his life, he agrees to an expensive and risky procedure - moving his consciousness into the body of a young and healthy man. The operation is successful, but the past of the person into whose body Hale’s consciousness was transferred is relentlessly chasing him.
