Fierce Creatures

1997

93 Min

Currently 2.8/5 Stars.
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DIR Robert Young, Fred Schepisi

CAST John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Carey Lowell, Jack Davenport

Synopsis

In this farce which reunites the stars of A Fish Called Wanda, failing zoo owner McCain (Kevin Kline) brings in new manager Rollo (John Cleese), who wreaks havoc by implementing a “fierce creatures only” policy to increase profits. Zookeeper Bugsy (Michael Palin) tries to save all the timid animals, while McCain’s son Vince (also played by Kline) does shady deals on the side … and executive Willa (Jamie Lee Curtis) must decide whose side she’s on.

Director

Robert Young

Robert William Young (born 16 March 1933) is a British television and film director.

Young was born in Cheltenham, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, established himself as a leading director of British TV drama. In the 1970s, he directed Vampire Circus (1972) and Hammer House of Horror. He directed several episodes of Minder and Bergerac in the early 1980s, and the acclaimed TV serial The Mad Death which centred around a rabies outbreak. Perhaps his best remembered television work was on Robin of Sherwood, for which he directed many of the best-regarded episodes.

Young moved towards black comedy in the early 1990s, directing Jeeves and Wooster based on the stories written by P.G. Wodehouse, and GBH, for which he was nominated for a BATA award. It was partly on the strength of GBH that he was assigned to direct Fierce Creatures, John Cleese’s 1997 follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, which featured many of the same cast as GBH. However, the production ran into problems and… read more

Fred Schepisi

Fred Schepisi AO (born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. His credits include: Last Orders, Roxanne, Plenty, and Six Degrees of Separation.

Schepisi was born Frederic Alan Schepisi in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of fruit dealer Frederic Thomas Schepisi and Loretto Ellen (née Hare). He began his career in advertising and directed both commercials and documentaries before helming his first feature film, The Devil’s Playground, in 1976.

Schepisi won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction and the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay for both The Devil’s Playground and Evil Angels (released in the US as A Cry in the Dark).

In 1991, his film The Russia House was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2005 Schepisi directed and co-produced the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries… read more

Fred Schepisi AO (born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. His credits include: Last Orders, Roxanne, Plenty, and Six Degrees of Separation.

Schepisi was born Frederic Alan Schepisi in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of fruit dealer Frederic Thomas Schepisi and Loretto Ellen (née Hare). He began his career in advertising and directed both commercials and documentaries before helming his first feature film, The Devil’s Playground, in 1976.

Schepisi won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction and the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay for both The Devil’s Playground and Evil Angels (released in the US as A Cry in the Dark).

In 1991, his film The Russia House was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2005 Schepisi directed and co-produced the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special and the Directors Guild of America Award for Best Director of a TV Film.

In April 2008 it was announced Film Finance Corporation Australia was providing funding for Schepisi’s film The Last Man, about the final days of the Vietnam War. It is scheduled to begin filming in Queensland, with Guy Pearce and David Wenham in leading roles, towards the end of the year.

Schepisi has also directed a number of music videos, including for the 2008 song “Breathe” by Kaz James featuring Stu Stone.

Asked about the “gypsy-like existence” of a filmmaker, Schepisi has said: “It’s the hardest thing. I think we’re today’s circus people. It’s very hard on your family. [His wife] Mary travels with me and when everyone was younger and it was possible, I liked them to travel with me and be with me. Fortunately, Mary’s an artist; she paints, and often finds inspiration from our locations.”

He supports Australia becoming a republic and is a founding member of the Australian Republican Movement. —Wikipedia

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