March 2011
The Haunting in Connecticut [the videos].
Peter's first feature film, The Haunting in Connecticut premiered at Austin Texas at The South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2009. It proved extremely popular, and took more than $US53 million in the US and over $US73 million world wide. There are two video interviews on the web at interview-kyle-gallner on u-tube and movieweb, and the trailer for the film at http://www.traileraddict.com/search.
Peter is currentlty finalising a contract to direct another feature film.
He directed one short episode of a series for television, entitled "Post Apovcalyptic Pizza", after supervising pre-production in Toronto for a film called "The Occupants". produced by David Heyman for Warner Brothers.
Watch this space.
June 2007
AFC News
This month's feature interview is with Australian filmmaker Peter Cornwell, currently in pre-production in LA for his first feature The Haunting in Connecticut, starring Virginia Madsen.
Tell us about your journey from independent filmmaker with your own production company in Australia to directing A Haunting in Connecticut in LA?
I obsessed in my spare time about making this crazy little film [Ward 13] while working as a sound recordist at ABC TV. I didn't really give that much thought to what would happen afterwards - I just wanted to make this film that, as a fan of cinema, I wanted to see. I'd never seen a totally action-packed film like Ward 13 in stop motion before. When I did work experience at Zap Productions many years ago I read some Cinefex magazines about Ray Harryhausen [a cult figure in stop-motion filmmaking]. I realised that, with enough time, I could make a really awesome blockbuster film basically by myself - just as Harryhausen did, except without compositing the characters into real environments.
I did the post-production sound over in San Francisco with my friend Luke Dunn Gielmuda, who is a genius sound designer. His boss Ren Klyce (who was Academy Award nominated for Sound Design on Fight Club) volunteered to mix it. From there various people got to see it. It was invited to screen at Pixar and many other places. On the morning I was to fly back to Australia I met Peter McHugh, who is now my manager.
By the time I came back to the US, somehow I had 50 meetings lined up with producers, most of whom I was meeting about doing live action. So to cut a long story short I also got a great agent and lawyer and things almost started to happen. After I met [director/producer/writer/actor] Sam Raimi and it got around that he really loved my film then things kicked up to another level. He is a really generous, great guy!
For full article see AFC latestnews
15 May 2007
Hollywood Reporter tells: Madsen nabs 'Haunting' role
Virginia Madsen will star in A Haunting in Connecticut, a supernatural thriller that Peter Cornwell is directing for Gold Circle.
Haunting tells the true story of a family forced to relocate near a clinic where their teenage son is being treated for cancer. There, they discover that the house they have rented, is a former mortuary with a dark history that might account for the extraordinary manifestations of the boy's illness, and the supernatural events that threaten the family.
Tim Metcalfe and Adam Simon wrote the screenplay.
Gold Circle Films is financing. Mandate Pictures will handle international sales.
Gold Circle topper Paul Brooks is producing with Andrew Trapani, Wendy Rhoads and Daniel Farrands. Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt and Steve Whitney are executive producing.
Gold Circle's Brad Kessell, who brought the project in, is overseeing.
A late summer start is being eyed.
Cornwell, repped by UTA and Gotham Group, wrote, produced and directed the acclaimed animated short film Ward 13.
Madsen, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Sideways, most recently appeared on the big screen opposite Jim Carrey in The Number 23. She is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
March 2007
Peter Cornwell is approached by Gold Circle Films to direct the feature "A Haunting in Connecticut"
July 2006
"Dionaea House," renamed "Sanctum", transferred to Universal Pictures from Warner Brothers. Further script revisions are underway prior to shooting in Vancouver.
March 2006
Cornwell starts casting for "Dionaea House" with Executive Producer Marc Rosen from Warner Brothers Pictures.
21 December 2005
Hollywood Reporter tells: Calling-card shorts now mostly a long shot
Excerpt from article by Borys Kit
On rare occasions, cinematic calling cards sometimes do their job. Peter Cornwell, an Australian sound man, spent years crafting "Ward 13," a 14-minute short about a man waking up in an insane asylum, trying to break free, facing all sorts of bad guys. With the idea of crafting a calling card, Cornwell began constructing the figurines [sic] and sets in his bedroom, and when the project expanded, he started moving pieces and construction into his friends' homes. His hard work paid off when, in November, he was hired to direct "The Dionaea House," a horror thriller David Heyman is producing for Warner Bros. Pictures.
But Cornwell's experience is very much the exception to the prevailing rule. It's not that attention-grabbing short films — whether they begin life as fan films or Internet novelties — aren't the calling cards they once were in the movie industry. The truth is that, despite a few illusory examples, they never did guarantee the entree for which their creators hoped. Despite all the initial acclaim that greeted such short films as the "Stars Wars" spoof "George Lucas in Love" or "405," in which an airplane lands on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, their creators were not instantly given the directing assignments for which they were angling. And the flood of ersatz films that have followed in their wake pretty much has rendered the Internet fallow ground for recruitment.
16th November 2005
Hollywood Reporter tells: "Cornwell has 'House' plan at Warners
Australian newcomer Peter Cornwell is in negotiations to direct "The Dionaea House," a horror thriller that David Heyman is producing for Warner Bros. Pictures. Written by Eric Heisserer, the story centers on a married man who has grown apart from his old friends. When one of them commits a double murder-suicide, the men feel compelled to investigate, eventually stumbling upon an evil force. Marc Rosen and Ali Bell are overseeing "Dionaea" for Heyday. Kevin McCormick is shepherding the project at the studio.
See the article on the Hollywood Reporter web site
July 2005
Peter commences work doing storyboards for Disney's Toy Story 3.
28 February 2005
RESFEST screening
"Our February 28th screening will feature the presentation of the RESFEST 2004 Audience Choice Awards for Best Short Film (Peter Cornwell's Ward 13) and Best Music Video (Michel Gondry's "Walkie Talkie Man"). Expected guests include RESFEST winners Michel Gondry and Peter Cornwell, as well as Olivier Gondry. We will also screen select audience favorites from RESFEST international events, including Japan and Canada. "
January 2005
WARD 13 screens in San Francisco
WARD 13 has also screened recently at the ASIFA-SF (San Francisco branch of the International Animated Film Association) to great applause. This was an annual open screening for student and independent animators.
 13 December 2004
WARD 13 wins Audience Award at Animadrid
At the prestigious Animadrid animation festival in Madrid, Spain, WARD 13 earned the Audience Award. This is the fourteenth award won by the film since it premiered in June 2003.
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WARD 13 has been shortlisted for nomination for Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards 2005
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November-December 2004
WARD 13 shortlisted for nomination for 2005 Academy Awards
Australian animated short film WARD 13 is one of 10 short animations short-listed for Academy Award nomination — for the same category in which Harvey Krumpet was given an Academy Award last year.
WARD 13, written & directed by Sydney-based Peter Cornwell, is a 15-minute action, suspense, hospital escape thriller, starring characters brought to life through a combination of metal, clay, silicone and polyurethane.
Cornwell spent years crafting the film using the laborious stop-motion animation process, which originally started in the corner of his bedroom in his spare time. For most of the shoot Peter continued to work full-time at ABC TV & was able to complete the film with the help of the Australian Film Commission.
WARD 13 has been successful on the film festival circuits both in Australia and overseas, and screened in 2004 at the Resfest Digital Film Festival around the world, showing at the Dendy Opera Quays in December.
WARD 13 has been honoured with twenty two festival awards, and special recognition , seven of which were Audience Awards for most popular film, including the Audience Award for Best Short Film, Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, Canada. It also received the FIPRESCI PRIZE at Valladolid Film Festival, given by the International Federation of Film Critics. Another seven awards were won despite the added obstacle of being in competition with live action short films.
WARD 13 was one of only three Australian Films to screen at the prestigious Clermont Ferrand Festival in France. It also screened in the Best of Edinburgh Film Festival in London, and The Best of Annecy screening in Paris. While in California, WARD 13 was invited to official screenings at Skywalker Sound, Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic, Vinton Studios, Digital Domain, Rythm & Hues, and Tippet Studios.
The film has already caught the eye of a number of Hollywood producers and US studio executives, with whom Peter is discussing other possible directing assignments for live action films as well as animation.
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