Reg Traviss

Reg Traviss
Born (1977-02-12) 12 February 1977
Occupation Film director, screenwriter
Years active 2000–present
Partner(s) Amy Winehouse (2010–11; her death)

Reginald Stephen "Reg" Traviss (born 12 February 1977) is a British film director and writer. Traviss came to public attention in the UK in 2006 with the theatrical release of his debut feature film Joy Division which starred Ed Stoppard, Bernard Hill, Tom Schilling, Bernadette Heerwagen and Ricci Harnett. Traviss followed up his World War Two drama with Psychosis, a psychological thriller, released worldwide by Lionsgate in 2010, which starred Charisma Carpenter, Ricci Harnett and Justin Hawkins, lead singer of rock group The Darkness. Traviss directed Screwed, a prison drama based on the 2008 book Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer, by a former prison guard writing under the pseudonym Ronnie Thompson. The film, released theatrically in the UK in June 2011, starred Noel Clarke, James D'Arcy, Frank Harper and Kate Magowan.

Early career

Traviss was born in London, England. He began making short films in the late 1990s. His first production, in 1996, was sponsored in part by The Prince's Trust. In 2000 he started work as an Idents and Promos director for the BBC's BBC Choice TV station, then in February 2003 he co-founded feature film production company Kingsway Films.

Films

From 2003 to 2005 Traviss worked on his directorial debut for the big screen Joy Division, a fictionalised biopic which he wrote with Rosemary Mason, based on real life events set in the last months of World War II and the early years of the Cold War.[1] The film was co-produced by German production company Dreamtool Entertainment and Traviss' company Kingsway Films on a budget of $6,000,000. The film starred an ensemble of German, British and Hungarian actors including the rising European stars Tom Schilling and Bernadette Heerwagen, British actor Ed Stoppard, television actress and pop singer Michelle Gayle, alongside veteran big screen performers Bernard Hill and Suzanne von Borsody and was filmed in London, Canada, Hungary, Germany and Slovakia. The story was influenced by the bestselling books Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor and Armageddon by Max Hastings. Joy Division was received at the Copenhagen International Film Festival in September 2006 and was released in theatres in the UK, Germany, New Zealand and Australia from 2006 to late 2007. The film received good reviews by critics[2][3][4] and Film Review magazine in 2007 named Traviss as one of the UK's most promising new filmmakers. The film also attracted the attention of wider review and debate within the cultural press.[5]

In 2008 to 2009 Traviss worked on his second film Psychosis, a psychological-thriller and homage in the style of cult British chillers Hammer House of Horror and Tales of the Unexpected.[6][7][8][9] The story was a reworking of the segment Dreamhouse from the Michael Armstrong film Screamtime, and starred Charisma Carpenter in the lead role, supported by Ricci Harnett, Paul Sculfor and rock singer Justin Hawkins.[10] The film premiered in 2010 at the 'Home of Cult British Horror' Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, London. In 2010 Traviss directed Screwed, the film adaptation of Ronnie Thompson's bestselling Prison Officer's memoir Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer, by Headline Publishing about an ex-British soldier who returns from Iraq to take job in one of England's toughest jails only to find that the Officers are more corrupt than the convicts.[11] Screwed was released in theatres across the UK in June 2011 and starred acclaimed actors Noel Clarke and James D'Arcy alongside tough guy actors Frank Harper and Jamie Foreman[12][13][14]

In 2015, a documentary film about Traviss's late former girlfriend Amy Winehouse was released in the summer, entitled Amy. Winehouse's family and Traviss publicly disapproved of the film, saying that it was "downright inaccurate" and contained "basic untruths". Traviss and Winehouse's father Mitch have asked the film crew to edit the film, as it portrays Winehouse's father as a villain and contains nothing about Traviss. However, since the editors behind the movie declined their request, Mitch Winehouse and Traviss are now intending to create a new film about Winehouse, to correct all the wrongs and omissions that were in the documentary.

Personal life

Between 2008 and 2010, Traviss was in a relationship with Suicide Girls burlesque dancer Raven Isis Holt, who featured in his 2010 film Psychosis.

Traviss was in a relationship with singer Amy Winehouse from early 2010 until her death on 23 July 2011.[15] A mutual friend of the pair had introduced them to each other in 2009 (Mitch Winehouse wrote in his book Amy My Daughter that Amy and Reg met at a bar owned by Reg's family. There is no mention of a mutual friend introducing them). According to media reports and a biography written by Winehouse's father, Traviss and Winehouse had planned to marry and intended to have children.[16]

On 10 December 2012, Traviss appeared at Southwark Crown Court accused of twice raping a friend as she slept on 31 December 2011.[17] On 13 December 2012, Traviss was found not guilty after it was proven in court that the woman had lied.[18][19][20]

Filmography

Feature Films

Year Film Notes Credited as UK Distributor
TBA Untitled Amy Winehouse Film Director TBA
2015 Anti-Social Director, writer TBA
2011 Screwed Director Lionsgate Films
2010 Psychosis Director, writer Lionsgate Films
2006 Joy Division Feature film debut Director, writer Momentum Pictures

Short Films

Year Film Notes Credited as
2003 JD Pilot Momentum Pictures (DVD extras release) Director
2000 Apocalyptic Adventure on the Eastern Frontier Edinburgh International Film Festival (Videotech) Director

References

  1. ↑ "Joy Division Official Promo". IMDb. 2005.
  2. ↑ "Joy Division A Film Divided". Lumiere New Zealand. 2007.
  3. ↑ Czech and Slovak Film Database, Czech and Slovak Film Database, 2008
  4. ↑ "Joy Division review by Sam Toy". Empire. November 2006.
  5. ↑ "A Subject For Sympathy Germany's Rehabilitation". London. The Independent, Reg Traviss interview. 17 November 2006.
  6. ↑ "Psychosis A Homage to Hammer House of Horror". Static Mass. June 2010.
  7. ↑ "Psychosis behind the scenes with Reg Traviss". Static Mass Emporium. September 2010.
  8. ↑ "Reg Traviss Fear Division". Total SciFi. July 2010.
  9. ↑ "Interview with Reg Traviss Director of Psychosis". Watching Horror Films Behind the Couch. March 2012.
  10. ↑ "Psychosis Official US Trailer". IMDb. 2010.
  11. ↑ "Screwed Official Trailer". IMDb. 2011.
  12. ↑ Movie Review Screwed, The Critical Critics US, December 2012
  13. ↑ Reg Traviss Interview Love Film, Love Film, 7 June 2011
  14. ↑ Reg Traviss Review, Little White Lies, 14 October 2011
  15. ↑ Cable, Simon (2 June 2010). "Revealed, the clean cut new boyfriend who may tame Amy Winehouse". Daily Mail. London.
  16. ↑ "Amy Winehouse and Reg Traviss would have married". Digital Spy. 12 September 2011.
  17. ↑ "Film director Reg Traviss 'raped sleeping woman'". BBC news website. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  18. ↑ "Reg Traviss, film director, cleared of rape". BBC news website. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  19. ↑ Gye, Hugo (13 December 2012). "crazy rape trial was like runaway train". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  20. ↑ "Reg Traviss speaks out ITV Day Break". Retrieved 17 December 2012.
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