Laurence Bowen
Laurence J. Bowen (born 17 August 1964) is a British television and film producer.[1]
Career
After graduating from Oxford University in the 1980s, Bowen began his television career working for Bill Bryden at BBC Scotland as a researcher and trainee script editor before moving on to run the development arm of non-profit organisation First Film Foundation. In 1993 he left to work for Simon Curtis in BBC Drama where he produced Paradise (with Penny Downie and Dave Hill) for BBC2.
Soon after he was appointed Head of Drama at Diverse Productions where he went on to produce The Hello Girls, Stone, Scissors, Paper (with Juliet Stevenson and Ken Stott, winner of the inaugural Dennis Potter Award) and Dual Balls (nominated for Bafta Film Award). Bowen and Philip Clarke then founded production company Feelgood Fiction in 1997. Bowen won a BAFTA for My Life as a Popat and a BAFTA nomination for Suburban Shootout together with RTS, Broadcast and Chicago Film Festival awards, Prix Jeunesse, Rose D'or, Emmy and BANFF nominations and most recently the Monte Carlo Golden Nymph for Best International Producer of the Year.
Bowen's Producer and Executive Producer credits at Feelgood also include The Hello Girls (Series 2), Badger, Miranda, one-off TV films Double Bill, The English Harem, George and Bernard Shaw and comedy series Gates for Sky Living.
Gates was acquired by Warner Brothers and NBC and a US pilot commissioned written by Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldstein and directed by Mark Buckland. A US version of Suburban Shootout was developed by HBO and a pilot commissioned written by Michelle Ashford and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. My Life as a Popat was acquired by Nickelodeon. All three series were co-created and Executive Produced by Bowen.
Bowen recently produced the BAFTA nominated BBC drama "Found" and Executive Produced the BAFTA winning BBC "Lizard Girl".
He has just produced feature film "The Eichmann Show" starring Martin Freeman and Anthony LaPaglia with Paul Andrew Williams directing which will be distributed by The Weinstein Company in the US.
His new "Unmade Movies" season of productions of lost screenplays by the greatest writers of the Twentieth Century begins this month on BBC Radio 4. James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Hugh Laurie, David Suchet and Rebecca Front star in pieces by Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Harold Pinter, Ernest Lehman and Arthur Miller. Directed by Richard Eyre, Jamie Lloyd, Mark Gatiss, Joanna Hogg and Adrian Noble.
Bowen launched new production company Dancing Ledge Productions with backing from FremantleMedia in 2016.[2]
Suburban Shootout
In the US, HBO and now ABC are developing a US version of Suburban Shootout[3] and NBC a US version of Gates.[4] Bowen co-created and is Executive Producing both shows.
References
- ↑ Laurence Bowen at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑
- ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (7 October 2011). "ABC Developing U.S. Version Of British Crime Comedy 'Suburban Shootout'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
- ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (21 September 2012). "Fox Buys LIVE Family Sitcom From Cathy Yuspa And Josh Goldsmith With Penalty". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 16 October 2012.