Tony Kaye (born 8 July 1952) is an English director of films, music videos, advertisements, and documentaries. He directed the 1998 film American History X.
He made his name as a director of television commercials with award-winning spots for British Rail InterCity ("Relax", 1988) and the Solid Fuel Advisory Council ("Furry Friends", 1988), as well as his 1993 advertisement for Dunlop Tyres ("Tested for the Unexpected") set to the sound of Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground. By 1996 he had won 23 British Design and Art Direction (D&AD) awards,[2] and in 2012 was jointly named "most awarded director" (co-equal with Frank Budgen) at the organisation's 50th anniversary.[3]
His feature film debut was American History X (1998), a drama about racism starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. Kaye disowned the final cut of the film and unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from the credits.[4][5] The film was critically lauded and Norton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film. The battle over artistic control of the film, which has become part of Hollywood folklore, all but destroyed Kaye's career. He delivered his original cut on time and within budget – but when the producer, New Line Cinema, insisted on changes, the arguments began. The debate quickly escalated. Kaye spent $100,000 of his own money to take out 35 full-page ads in the Hollywood trade press denouncing Norton and the producer, using quotations from a variety of people from John Lennon to Abraham Lincoln. He attended a meeting at New Line to which (to ease negotiations) he brought a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Tibetan monk. When the company offered him an additional eight weeks to re-cut the film, he said he had discovered a new vision and needed a year to remake it, and collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott on new narration for the script.[6] Finally, when the Directors Guild refused to let him remove his name from the New Line version of the film, he demanded it to be credited to "Humpty Dumpty" instead, and filed a $200 million lawsuit when the company refused.[5]
Kaye's fourth feature film, Detachment (2011), starring Adrien Brody, as well as featuring Kaye's daughter Betty, is a drama about teachers. It centers on Brody as a struggling substitute teacher in a failing New York public school.[7] It premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film screened and won awards at the following film festivals: Deauville American Film Festival, Woodstock film festival (Honorary Maverick Award for Kaye) Valenciennes International Festival of Action and Adventure Films in France, Tokyo International Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, and Ramdam Film Festival in Tournai, Belgium.
In early 2016 Kaye was set to direct Joe Vinciguerra's screenplay titled Stranger Than the Wheel, starring Shia LaBeouf,[8] and in 2018 he was to direct Honorable Men, a crime drama written by Gary DeVore.[9] However, neither project has since come to fruition.[10] Since 2020, he has announced several new projects in development: African History Y starring Djimon Hounsou; Civil, a drama set amid the civil rights movement; and Tremendum, a partially animated film inspired by conversations Kaye had with Marlon Brando.[10][11][12]
In 2022, it was announced he would direct the dark comedy film The Trainer written by Vito Schnabel and Jeff Solomon.[13] The film premiered at the 2024 Rome Film Festival.[14]
Personal life
Kaye's wife is Chinese-American artist Yan Lin Kaye.[15] They have two daughters: Shanghai[1] and Eema Emet Kaye.[citation needed]
^McCarthy, Todd (22 October 1998). "American History X". Variety. Archived from the original on 23 April 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2009. It is possible that some otherwise well-disposed critics may restrain their praise, even unwittingly, in knee-jerk sympathy with director Kaye, who disowns this cut and lost his bid to take his name off the picture.
