Gregory Dark

Gregory Dark (born Gregory Hippolyte Brown on July 12, 1957, in Los Angeles) is an American film director, film producer, music video director, and screenwriter.[1] Dark is an adult filmmaker who transitioned into directing Hollywood movies. He has also been credited as Alexander Hippolyte, Gregory Hippolyte, Gregory Brown, and as The Dark Brothers.

Gregory Dark
Born
Gregory Hippolyte Brown

(1957-07-12) July 12, 1957
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • writer

Early career

Dark began his career as a fine artist of both paintings and conceptual art and installations. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stanford University, he moved to New York City to pursue graduate studies in film at New York University.[2]

From the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Dark directed hardcore and Rated R films. His work from this period helped create the current "alt porn" genre as well as invent the noir-romance genre of the erotic thriller. Sight & Sound the journal of the British Film Institute considered Dark's erotic thrillers groundbreaking films of the genre. In the 1980s, Dark, along with Richard Lerner and Wendy Apple, directed and produced Fallen Angels, the seminal documentary about the early Los Angeles porn scene.

Dark directed or produced more than 30 action films and erotic thrillers as head of production for Axis Films, a B movie company, from 1987 to 1995. Dark's erotic thrillers in the early 1990s such as Animal Instincts I and II, Body of Influence, and Mirror Images II featured Shannon Whirry in various stages of undress. In 1994, he directed the film Stranger by Night starring Steven Bauer.

Dark's films of this period won him accolades such as "the Steven Spielberg of the soft-core set" and "the Martin Scorsese of the erotic thriller".[3]

Music videos

In 1996, Dark directed the music video for "Bar-X-The Rocking M" by the Melvins.[4] In 1998, he directed the video for "Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies, which won the Daddies a nomination for "Best New Artist in a Video" at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.[5] That same year, he directed "Fuck Dying" and "Pushin' Weight" for Ice Cube.[6] Dark's 1998 video "What U See Is What U Get" for Xzibit remained at the top of the Charts on BET for almost a year and won a Source Award.[7] In 1999, he directed the video for "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" by Britney Spears.[8] In 2000, Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)" and Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" video, were shot in Los Angeles, sixty-three feet underground in an abandoned subway tunnel.[9] In 2002, he directed the video for the A*Teens cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love" for the Disney feature Lilo & Stitch.[10]

Dark directed the music video for "Undercover Funk" by Snoop Dogg featuring Bootsy Collins for the film Undercover Brother. The video featured acting performances by the film's stars Eddie Griffin, who morphs into Snoop Dogg at the beginning of the video, and dancing and lip-synching performances by Neil Patrick Harris and Denise Richards.

Major motion pictures

Dark's first major motion picture, the horror film See No Evil, was released nationwide on May 19, 2006, for WWE Films and Lions Gate Entertainment. It was directed by Dark, written by Dan Madigan, produced by Joel Simon, and starred professional wrestler Kane. See No Evil grossed almost $19 million worldwide theatrical with a budget of $8 million[11] The movie grossed over $45 million on DVD sales and rentals.[12]

In 2008 Dark directed the independent film Little Fish, Strange Pond, which was seen at a number of film festivals. The film starred Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Callum Blue, Zach Galifianakis, Liza Weil, and Paul Adelstein and was retitled Frenemy for its December 2010 Lions Gate Entertainment DVD release. During 2009, Dark directed An Evening With Stephen Lynch, a concert film starring comedian and musician Stephen Lynch.

Selected filmography

As director – Film

Awards

References
  1. "Filmmaker Gregory Dark, his "Fallen Angels," and the other side of Hollywood". Nightflight.com. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  2. Sunderland, Mitchell (August 29, 2018). "Going Into The Gregory Dark". Penthouse. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  3. Williams, Linda Ruth (2005). The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. p. 306. ISBN 0-253-21836-5.
  4. "Site Maintenance". mvdbase.com.
  5. "Cherry Poppin' Daddies Talk About Getting Surreal In New Video". MTV. August 3, 1998. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  6. "Ice Cube Videography". Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  7. "Puffy, Stoute Come Together To Announce Source Award Nominees; DMX Leads Pack". MTV. June 22, 1999. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  8. "This Day in Pop: 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart' music video premieres in 1999". Exhale. December 17, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  9. Rampton, Mike (December 9, 2016). "Video Breakdown: Linkin Park – One Step Closer". Louder. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  10. "Beyond Glamour Lies Drugs, Abuse". el Don News. May 12, 2014. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  11. "See No Evil". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  12. "See No Evil (2006) - Financial Information".
  13. "BEST OF 1993–2002". Retrieved September 20, 2014.
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