Tony Kaye (director)
| Tony Kaye | |
|---|---|
Kaye at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Detachment
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| Born |
8 July 1952 London, England, UK. |
| Occupation | Director, cinematographer, producer, screenwriter, actor, writer, poet, singer/songwriter, painter |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse(s) | Eugenia Volosinovici Yan Lin Kaye |
| Children |
with Eugenia: --Betty Kaye --Ruby Kaye with Lin: --Shanghai Kaye |
Tony Kaye (born 8 July 1952) is a British director of films, music videos, advertisements, and documentaries.
Kaye was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in London, United Kingdom. He has made several well-known music videos, including the video for "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum, which won a Grammy Award, "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, "What God Wants" by Roger Waters, and "Help Me" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. Kaye is a six time Grammy nominated music video director.
His feature film debut was American History X (1998), a drama about racism starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. Kaye disowned the final cut of the film, as he did not approve of its quality. He unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from the credits. The final cut was critically lauded and Norton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film.
The battle over artistic control of the film, which has become part of Hollywood folklore, all but destroyed Kaye's career. He delivered his original cut on time and within budget - but when the producer, New Line Cinema, insisted on changes, the arguments began.
The debate quickly escalated. Kaye spent $100,000 of his own money to take out 35 full-page ads in the Hollywood trade press denouncing Norton and the producer, using quotations from a variety of people from John Lennon to Abraham Lincoln. He attended a meeting at New Line to which (to ease negotiations) he brought a Catholic priest, a rabbi and a Tibetan monk. When the company offered him an additional eight weeks to re-cut the film, he said he'd discovered a new vision and needed a year to remake it, and flew to the Caribbean to have the script rewritten by the poet Derek Walcott. Finally, when the Directors Guild refused to let him remove his name from the New Line version, he demanded it be credited to 'Humpty Dumpty' instead and filed a $200 million lawsuit when it refused.
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