Napoleon, a film by Ridley Scott, is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise of the iconic Napoleon Bonaparte
Arthur Max
BrowsingARTHUR MAX began his affiliation with filmmaker Ridley Scott in the TV commercial arena more than two decades ago. He continued that collaboration on many of Scott’s feature films (sixteen to date), triumphing in 2000 with an Academy Award® nomination for his magnificent designs of Ancient Rome in Scott’s Best Picture Oscar® winner, Gladiator. A second Oscar® nomination followed in 2007 for his recreation of 1970’s Harlem for American Gangster, and a third for The Martian.
In addition to his Oscar® nominations, Arthur Max won several other honors for his production design on Gladiator, including the BAFTA, the National Board of Review prize, and the Broadcast Film Critics honor. He also has collected a total of seven nominations for Excellence in Production Design Awards from the Art Directors Guild, winning two for Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.
Max’s many films for Scott include House of Gucci, The Last Duel, All the Money in the World, The Martian, Prometheus, Kingdom of Heaven, G.I. Jane, Robin Hood, Black Hawk Down, and Body of Lies. He also designed David Fincher’s 1994 thriller Se7en and Panic Room in 2002.
The native New Yorker began his career as a stage lighting designer in the music industry following graduation from New York University in the late 1960s. Those assignments included work at Bill Graham’s famous music venue The Fillmore East in New York’s East Village, and the historic Woodstock Festival of 1969. During the following decade, he designed concert stages for such legendary musical artists as T-Rex and Pink Floyd.
After studying architecture in England (earning degrees in the early ‘80s from Polytechnic of Central London and the Royal College of Art), Max went on to do several architectural design projects in London. He entered the British film industry as an assistant to several English production designers, first for Stuart Craig on Hugh Hudson’s Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and Cal (both 1984), then for Ashetton Gorton on Hudson’s Revolution the following year.
He commenced his own production design career in TV commercials over a period of ten years from 1985-95 (for such clients as Pepsi, Nike, Jeep, Coke and Levi’s), which led to his ongoing associations with directors Scott and Fincher.
As from the press release from Sony Pictures, Cristiana Caimmi.