Celebrity Biographies
Steven Knight
Creator of Peaky Blinders , one of the British series of the moment. Director of Locke , an experimental tape whose result was very positive. Of course, the future of this proven screenwriter and promising filmmaker seems interesting, thanks, among other things, to his chameleonic way of adapting to any genre.
Steven Knight was born in Marlborough, England in 1959 and has almost always preferred to be writing in the shadows rather than holding the camera. His beginnings in the world of celluloid were on television, where he worked in different series during the nineties. The Detectives , thirty-one episodes that mixed comedy and thriller, was the production that made him known. At the same time he was one of the creators of the adaptation for British television of Who wants to be a millionaire? , the famous game of questions and answers. After a brief hiatus, Steven sat back down at his desk and began writing films non-stop. Opposite Worlds (2001) and Hidden Businesses(2002) came in succession, although none of them obtained major recognition.
As of 2006, he began to be taken seriously, because that year the Amazing Grace tape was released , a period biographical drama that narrates the life of William Wilberforce, an English politician who fought against slavery. Just a year later he wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed Eastern Promises , a harrowing and violent story, directed by David Cronenberg , involving the Russian mob. At this point Knight decided to take it easy again and stepped out of the spotlight for a while. After a few sabbatical years, specifically six, he jumped into the water writing and directing his first film. Redemption , his debut feature, is an action movie starring one of the kings of the genre, Jason Statham. Revenge, hatred and a past that crosses his path again are some of the ingredients.
Steven thought: Why stop here? So that same year, 2013, he filmed again. Locke was a risky bet, since all the footage takes place in one place, but thanks to the remarkable performance of Tom Hardy and his fluidity in editing and dialogue, it was well received. To show his versatility, Knight’s next two projects were stark opposites: on the one hand, he wrote the enjoyable comedy Thirty -Foot Journey , in which he adapted the novel by Richard C. Morais ; and surprisingly he turned to fantasy with The Seventh Son (2014), a solvent story of adventure and magic, but from which more was expected.
While making his film debut, also in 2013 he presented Peaky Blinders , the series he created that chronicles the life of a mafia family in post-war Birmingham. Lies, extortion, script twists, love, violence and an exceptional setting give this BBC production a quality that is difficult to find. It is currently on hiatus awaiting the premiere of the third season.