Stephen Hopkins (director)

Stephen Hopkins
Born	1958 (age 58–59) Jamaica
Occupation	Film director

Stephen Hopkins (born 1958) is a Jamaican-born Australian English film and television director and producer. He directed Predator 2, Blown Away, the critically acclaimed The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, and the Jesse Owens biopic Race. He also produced and directed several episodes of the critically acclaimed first season of 24.

Hopkins was born in Jamaica and was raised in Australia and England. He was educated at Sutton Valence School.

He left home at 15 and his background was in art and design. He was storyboarding commercials and video clips, and moved into directing. He started his career in Australia where he lived for six years.

In Australia he made Dangerous Game (1987). This helped him get the job directing A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Hopkins later said, "I went at it like a dog, and had a wild, fun time. But when I look back, I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I don't understand how it all occurred." .

He went on to make Predator 2, of which he said "I'm pretty immature, really, so it was kind of a laugh". He followed it with Judgment Night ("a real, absolute, total bomb" according to Hopkins), Blown Away ("made a lot of mistakes") and The Ghost and the Darkness ("It was a mess. I haven't been able to watch it.").

Hopkins said after Predator 2 he "looked around for a good film for a long time, and I couldn't get anything I wanted to do... I didn't realise the Hollywood trick. In American action movies, people get shot to death and their arms are blown off, and they get up and they're fine. These films are supposed to be fun things that people can laugh at. I always thought, `That's wrong, that's not what violence is like.' I took these films too seriously and tried to add profound depths, and that's not what's wanted. You either do that film or you do the other one, but I kept mixing the two up, and probably unsuccessfully.'

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