Bio
Peter Chelsom is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy, The Directors Guild Of America, and The Writers Guild Of America.
Peter was born in Blackpool in the North of England. He is a US and UK citizen. (Trivia: he is an Honorary Citizen of a small town in Tuscany, Italy, called Fivizzano). He is married with three sons. He trained at London’s Central School of Drama and worked as an actor playing leading roles in TV, films, and in the theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre.
At 30, Peter became a film director/writer. His first film, TREACLE, won a BAFTA nomination and invitations to festivals all over the world, including New York.
His first full-length feature was the successful romantic comedy, HEAR MY SONG. The film is a wild and highly entertaining tale inspired by the life of the charismatic Irish tenor, Josef Locke, played in the film by Ned Beatty. Locke disappeared in the late fifties to be secretly replaced by an imposter who passed himself off as the great man for thirty years. HEAR MY SONG was praised universally by critics and was a hugely optimistic crowd-pleaser. Princess Diana attended its Royal Premiere, and the Evening Standard British Film Awards awarded the film Best Newcomer.
Peter’s second feature was FUNNY BONES, a film about comedy. Made for Hollywood Pictures and starring Oliver Platt, Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron, Freddie Davies, and newcomer Lee Evans, it once again won rave reviews in the States and the rest of the world. It won Best Picture at five European Film Festivals. Bigger, richer and darker than the first, it tells the story of two half brothers - one American and the other British - who will stop at nothing to get a laugh... even murder.
Peter’s third feature, THE MIGHTY, was based on the best-selling book, FREAK THE MIGHTY. It stars Sharon Stone, Gillian Anderson, Gena Rowlands, and Harry Dean Stanton. It received two Golden Globe Nominations.
Chelsom followed with TOWN AND COUNTRY and SERENDIPITY, which grossed $52m at the US Box Office. His next film, SHALL WE DANCE, starred Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, and Stanley Tucci. The film grossed $170m worldwide.
His next film, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS, had its US Premiere in a special presentation at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was distributed by Relativity Media, and the cast included Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Christopher Plummer, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard, and Jean Reno. It is the story of a disillusioned psychiatrist traveling the world to research what makes people happy.
Chelsom's film THE SPACE BETWEEN US opened on February 3rd, 2017. The film starred Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, and Carla Gugino, and told the story of the first boy to be born on Mars. A love story wrapped in sci-fi.
It was recently while shooting BERLIN, I LOVE YOU (ten international directors telling Berlin stories) with Jim Sturgess that Peter realized he had been neglecting his European roots and sensibilities. It all gave birth to his first fully Italian film, SECURITY for SKY CINEMA, a dark thriller starring Marco D’Amore (GOMORRAH). Four days after its release, SECURITY hit number 3 in the World for Netflix Movies. This is the first in a series of films Peter is making for Indiana Productions, Milan.
