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STUDENTNEWS


Statesidesuccessfor award-winningMatt


STAR TALENT: Screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script for Nowhere Boy which covers the early life of former Beatles superstar John Lennon. Right, The cinema poster for Nowhere Boy.


In a nostalgic trip to the Warrington campus, multi award-winning screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh spoke candidly to RICHARD AULT of his days as a student and his glittering career that has followed.


FOR a man who has won aBAFTA and is now being courted by some of Hollywood’s biggest names, Matt Greenhalgh is as down-to-earth a person as you could hope to meet. Warrington is somewhere he clearly


holds close to his heart. “Warrington saved me from prison,”


he saidwith a reflective smile.Honesty is something that is in plentiful supply with Matt. A former Print Media student, his


career has taken off since heworked in a junior role forMersey Television, shortly after graduating in 1995. He continued: “I was always going home toManchesterwhen Iwas first a


student, but Iwas not in the best of company. University gotme out of that – it reallydid save me in many ways because Ihad a place to go to where I could just get away from it. Things could have been alot different I think.” It was a chance meeting in the


University cricket team that got him his first break, as he was invited to Mersey Television, and things went from there. He initiallyworked as a full-time runner on Hollyoaks, and sometimes Brookside, although he’d never previouslythought about work- ing in television. His days on these shows opened his eyes to the employment ladder within


the industry. He worked his way up to first assistant director, aposition that allowedhim to view the scripts of the shows on which he was working. Matt said: “I looked through the


script and thought it was awful, it was really bad. I didn’t think I could do any better at that point, it hadn’t really registered with me that I was once a writer before I came toWarrington, or that I had a creative mind. “I began to see what good writing


could do in the script form, and then somebodytold me to go and write something myself –she’s nowmy wife!” After spending time away at a se-


cluded cottage in Scotland,Matt began to write scripts good enough to land him with an agent. Some freelance work for television followed, and he wrote for programmes such as Clock- ing Off and Burn It, and latterly Cold Feet and Legless. Then came another big break in


Matt’scareer –the 2007 movie biopic Control, documenting the life of former Joy Division front man Ian Curtis, based on a book by the singer’s wife,Deborah Curtis. Aformer col- league of Matt’son the programme


Burn It was in Hollywood and had heard that some producers had se- cured the rights to the book. Matt recalled: “They wanted a Man-


cunianwriter on it so I askedmy agent if we could pursue it. They had an American script already, but it wasn’t very good. Cutting along story short, they came over toManchester andmet Debbie, and then I met both them and Debbie.They read my stuff–Ihadn’t done anyfilms by then so they were taking a bit of a risk – andDebbie liked me. I had a good take on the subject matter, and they went for it…thank God!” The filmwas a success, earningMatt


the Carl Foreman Award forBest Newcomer at theBAFTAs.His next job was also a music biopic, this time covering the early life of former Beatles superstar John Lennon. As a Beatles fan, the importance of the film was not lost on Matt, although it wasn’t themusical angle that appealed to him. Matt said: “I read Julia Lennon’s


[John’s half-sister’s] book and it was amazing. It was a different angle – it was more about the central story of a kid trying to find hismother that Iwas


attracted to. “Iwouldn’t have done it if it had been


about the iconic John Lennon –it was the actual story and the period of time that appealed to me.” Nowhere Boy was released to critical


acclaimin the UK on Boxing Day 2009, and is nowout in America, having premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah in January. Matt’s next project is with US tele-


vision networkHBO, writing a film about a child soldier who arrives in NewYork to claimasylum. Inspired by a true story, the film follows the pro- cesses the child must go through in order to be accepted into the United States. And for Matt personally, he sees


himselfmaking themove toAmerica a permanent one. “My wife wants a bit sun, and it is


quite easy as a writer to move to LA. I have agents over in America and they’re constantly trying to tempt me. They have been trying to get me over for about two years,” he added. “American cultureis alot different,


and I think towrite a decentAmerican film youhave to immerse yourself in the culture.”


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