We were delighted to welcome back director, producer and screenwriter Paul Greengrass CBE (OS 1973) to Sevenoaks yesterday. His films include News of the World, Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy, Captain Phillips and United 93 (for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Director, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director).
Walking around the campus, Paul noticed that though many of the school buildings had significantly improved since his time, ‘the DNA of the school: academic rigour and creative opportunity’ was still strong. He was particularly pleased to visit the Art department, as the Art Room of the 1970s had played a very important role in his school life and subsequent career.
A group of drama students had a ‘once in a lifetime’ workshop with Paul where they explored the process of taking a script (selected from The Bourne Ultimatum) to final screen production. Paul and the students were brilliant.
The In Conversation evening event in The Space was attended by an audience of over 300 and presented by a group of students with interests in acting, film, writing, directing and presenting. Tim Bevan once said, ‘There are very few feature film directors around who have a brain the size of Paul Greengrass’ and this was evident in Paul’s extremely generous and insightful answers. The interest and engagement in the room was palpable.
The reception afterwards was particularly poignant with some of Paul’s schoolfriends and even his 91-year-old former art teacher, the legendary Bob White, in attendance. It was clear that Sevenoaks School had a transformative impact on Paul’s life and it was a joy and privilege to have him with us.
