Thomas M. Wright Explained

Thomas M. Wright
Birth Date:1983 6, df=yes
Birth Place:Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Birth Name:Thomas Michael Wright
Years Active:1998–present
Other Names:Thomas M. Wright
Occupation:Actor, producer, writer, director, theatre designer

Thomas Michael Wright (born 22 June 1983) is an Australian actor, writer, film director and producer. He is the co-founder (2006) and director of theatre company Black Lung and director of the feature films Acute Misfortune (2019) and The Stranger (2022). As an actor he came to attention in Jane Campion's series Top of the Lake, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the (US-Canadian) Critics' Choice Awards. The Stranger premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Early life

Wright was born on 22 June 1983 in Melbourne.[1]

Career

Theatre

Wright created the theatre company Black Lung, also known as The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm,[2] in 2006, with fellow writer and director Thomas Henning. Their first production, Avast, was called "Insanely fast-paced, artfully arrhythmic, meta-theatrical - a breathtaking combination of precision and chaos" by Chris Kohn, writing for Realtime.[3] Under the Black Lung banner, Wright created productions with Adelaide Festival and Darwin Festival, Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre, and Queensland Theatre Co. and Brisbane Festival.[2] Black Lung were hailed as one of the most influential theatre companies of the decade.[4] [5]

Wright was the director, co-writer and production designer of Doku Rai,[6] a production created over four and a half years, with a three-month rehearsal process on the remote island of Atauro Island, East Timor. Doku Rai came about after Wright formed a close relationship with Michael Stone, then Chief Military Advisor to the President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta. Stone facilitated Wright flying in and out of the country over a number of years. Doku Rai was created with a group of independent Timorese artists, a number of them former resistance fighters. The film sequences in Doku Rai were co-directed by Wright with director Amiel Courtin-Wilson.[7] [8]

As an actor he played lead roles for the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company,[9] including the title role Baal in the controversial production commissioned by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton and directed by Simon Stone in 2011.[10]

Television and film

Wright came to attention of the world as an actor in the Disney Channel Original Movies, Stepsister From Planet Weird and in the early 2000s, and later in the Sundance / BBC TV series Top of the Lake in 2013, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the US Critics' Choice Awards.[11] [12] Regarding his casting as Johnno Mitcham in the series, director Jane Campion compared him to a young Daniel Day-Lewis.[13]

He appeared as cult-figure Steven Linder in the 2013 US adaptation of The Bridge. Executive Producer Elwood Reid said of Wright’s audition for the series: "...it was the best audition I have ever seen. He walked in and the temperature of the room changed".[14]

In 2015, Wright played the guide Mike Groom in the feature film Everest, based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.[15] He also played the murdered journalist Brian Peters in Balibo (2009), and Thomas Bodenham in Van Diemen's Land.[16]

Wright featured in the film The Man With The Iron Heart (2016), an adaptation of Laurent Binet's Prix Goncourt-winning novel, HHhH, with Jack O'Connell, Rosamund Pike, Stephen Graham and Jason Clarke.[17] He also filmed the Sony / WGN America Series Outsiders in the lead role of Sheriff Wade Houghton for producers Peter Tolan and Paul Giamatti. His performance was cited as the standout of the series by Hollywood Reporter[18] and Variety.[19]

In 2017 Wright was the subject of an Archibald Prize finalist portrait by Marcus Wills, Antagonist, Protagonist (Thomas M. Wright), with a scene set up to look like a crime drama, with Wright as protagonist.[20]

In 2018 he featured in Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country, which received the Venice Film Festival's Special Jury Prize, the AACTA Award for Best Film and the Toronto Film Festival's Platform Prize.[21]

He co-wrote, directed and produced the feature film Acute Misfortune, released in 2019, based on Sydney journalist Erik Jensen's award-winning biography of Australian artist Adam Cullen, Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen. The film received The Age Critics' Prize at Melbourne International Film Festival, where it premiered. It received a five star review in The Guardian,[22] and was named one of The Guardians "10 Best Australian Films of the decade 2010-2020"[23] and the best Australian film of 2019.[24] It was given a "Notable mention" (along with Sweet Country) in The Monthly Awards 2018,[25] and Screen Daily called it an "Overlooked gem" in their list of the year's best films.[26] [27] [28] [29] [30] The film was nominated for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Independent Film.[31] The score, by Evelyn Ida Morris, was nominated for best soundtrack at the 2018 ARIA Music Awards.[32] The Hollywood Reporter called Acute Misfortune "one of the year's most striking and accomplished directorial debuts".[33] Wright is nominated in the Best Director (Feature Film) category for the 2020 Australian Director's Guild Awards.[34]

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, it was announced that a new film, The Stranger, would begin filming in South Australia as soon as enough of the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Written and directed by Wright, it was produced by and starred Joel Edgerton. Sean Harris played the second lead role. The film was originally announced at Berlin’s European Film Market in February, and was made by Anonymous Content and See-Saw Films, with support from Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation.[35] [36] [37] [38] The script was shortlisted for the Betty Ronald Prize for Scriptwriting at the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.[39] The Stranger screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[40]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRole
2000 Cutter Colburne
2001 Orion
2007 The King Alfie
2009 Van Diemen's Land Thomas Bodenham
2009 Balibo Brian Peters
2010 Torn Tim Strauss
2015 Michael Groom
2016 The Man with the Iron Heart Josef Valcik
2017 Sweet Country Mick Kennedy
2019 Acute Misfortune Director
2021 The Stranger Director
2024 Sleeping Dogs Wayne Devereaux

Television

YearTitleRole
2013 Top of the Lake Johnno Mitcham
2013–2014 The Bridge Steven Linder
2016–2017 Outsiders Sheriff Wade Houghton
2020 Barkskins Cooke

Stage

YearTitleRoleNotes
2004 51 Ashworth St. The Boy Co-writer, co-director, designer
2005 Hamlet Laertes Beggars Theatre
2007 The Glass Soldier Jonas Fink Melbourne Theatre Company
2007 Pimms Dying Man Writer, co-director
The Black Lung Theatre
2008 Love Song Beane Melbourne Theatre Company
2008 Avast I The Older Brother Malthouse Theatre
2008 Avast II Jack Lemmon Co-director, designer
Malthouse Theatre
2009 Glasson God The Black Lung Theatre
2010 Furious Mattress The Exorcist Malthouse Theatre
2011 Baal Baal Sydney Theatre Company
2011 And They Called Him Mr. Glamour Director, designer
Belvoir St. Theatre
2011 I Feel Awful Writer, director, designer
Brisbane Festival
2013 Doku Rai Co-writer, director, designer
The Black Lung Theatre

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  2. Web site: Black Lung. AusStage . 20 April 2020.
  3. Web site: The sweet breath of The Black Lung . Chris. Kohn. RealTime Arts . 20 April 2020. RealTime issue #74 Aug-Sept 2006 pg. 43.
  4. News: The Australian. And now for something different. Subscription paywall.
  5. Web site: [photo of three men outside Black Lung Theatre]]. https://web.archive.org/web/20070721133502/http://www.theblacklung.com/Webpages/Adelaide/Blacklungo/Lung10.html. 21 July 2007. photo.
  6. Web site: Doku Rai: You, Dead Man, I Don't Believe You. AusStage . 17 September 2013 . 25 April 2020.
  7. News: From the wild zone . Power. Liza. 11 August 2012. The Age. 10 April 2016.
  8. Web site: Actor and director Thomas M Wright and 'Doku Rai'. Radio National. 19 September 2013. en-AU. 10 April 2016.
  9. Web site: Thomas Wright. AusStage . 20 April 2020.
  10. Web site: Blake . Jason . Baal . The Sydney Morning Herald . 12 May 2011 . 20 April 2020.
  11. Web site: Big Bang Theory unbeatable as Aussies sink at TV Critics' awards . The Sydney Morning Herald . 12 June 2013 . 20 April 2020.
  12. Web site: Critics' Choice TV Awards Announced – Variety . Variety . 22 May 2013 . 20 April 2020.
  13. News: Actor Tom Wright is at the top of his game with Jane Campion television project. The Australian.
  14. Web site: The West Australian . Aussie actor Wright repulses US producer . The West Australian . 2 July 2013 . 21 April 2020.
  15. Web site: Everest Movie vs. True Story of 1996 Mount Everest Disaster . HistoryvsHollywood.com . 21 April 2020.
  16. Web site: Review: Van Diemen's Land . Alison. Croggan. 3 March 2009. theatre notes . 21 April 2020.
  17. Web site: The Man with the Iron Heart (HHhH) . Cineuropa . 3 April 2020 . 21 April 2020.
  18. Web site: TV Review: 'Outsiders'. Lowry. Brian. Variety. 22 January 2016. en-US. 10 April 2016.
  19. Web site: 'Outsiders': TV Review. The Hollywood Reporter. 26 January 2016. 10 April 2016.
  20. Web site: Archibald Prize Archibald 2017 finalist: Protagonist, antagonist (Thomas M Wright) by Marcus Wills . Art Gallery of New South Wales . 21 April 2020.
  21. Web site: Maddox . Garry . Sweet Country dominates AACTA Awards, with a surprise best actor win . The Sydney Morning Herald . 5 December 2018 . 21 April 2020.
  22. Web site: Buckmaster . Luke . Acute Misfortune first-look review – Adam Cullen biopic is an enthralling, complex triumph . The Guardian . 3 August 2018 . 21 April 2020.
  23. Web site: Buckmaster . Luke . From Animal Kingdom to The Babadook: the best Australian films of the decade . The Guardian . 10 December 2019 . 21 April 2020.
  24. Web site: Buckmaster . Luke . From The Final Quarter to Judy & Punch: the best Australian films of 2019 . The Guardian . 16 December 2019 . 21 April 2020.
  25. Web site: The Monthly. The Monthly Awards 2018: Film: 'Terror Nullius' by Soda–Jerk . Alexie . Glass-Kantor. October 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20190413124802/https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2018/october/1538316000/monthly-awards-2018/2018#8. 13 April 2019.
  26. Web site: Ward . Sarah . Films of the year 2018: Sarah Ward . Screen . 20 December 2018 . 21 April 2020.
  27. Web site: Home . Acute Misfortune . 20 April 2020.
  28. Web site: Acute Misfortune (2019) - The Screen Guide . Screen Australia . 20 April 2020.
  29. Web site: Morris . Linda . Erik Jensen's biography of flawed artist Adam Cullen wins Sydney literary award . The Sydney Morning Herald . 25 November 2015 . 21 April 2020.
  30. Web site: Acute Misfortune. MIFF. en-AU. 24 August 2018.
  31. Web site: Winners & Nominees . AACTA . 21 April 2020.
  32. Web site: Aria Awards . ARIA Awards . 28 November 2019 . 21 April 2020.
  33. Web site: 'Acute Misfortune': Film Review - Melbourne 2018 . The Hollywood Reporter . Neil. Young. 17 August 2018 . 21 April 2020.
  34. Web site: ADG - Australian Directors' Guild ADG AWARDS 2020.
  35. Web site: Joel Edgerton Thriller 'The Unknown Man' To Shoot In South Australia . Glam Adelaide . 20 April 2020 . 21 April 2020.
  36. Web site: Crime thriller The Unknown Man to be filmed in SA . InDaily . 20 April 2020 . 21 April 2020.
  37. Web site: Work in the Screen Industry . SAFC . 19 April 2020 . 21 April 2020.
  38. Web site: Frater . Patrick . Joel Edgerton's 'The Unknown Man' Heads for South Australia Shoot . Variety . 20 April 2020 . 21 April 2020.
  39. Web site: 2 February 2023 . The Stranger . 1 March 2023 . State Library of NSW.
  40. The Cannes 2022 Lineup Highlights: Movie Stars, Auteurs, and Some Kind of Body Horror. Vanity Fair. Richard. Lawson. 14 April 2022. 16 April 2022.