Puck van de Beek (director)

Puck van de Beek is an American film-director, screenplay writer, executive producer and occasional actor.

He begun his career writing unsuccesful but praised screenplays which were never made into a movie. When he was 16 years old, he took a job at the movierental A La Carte where he discussed multiple independent films with another worker there, Juan Keeris. He went into the Dutch filmschool where he learned things about film, cinema and how to make movies. During his time at filmschool, he directed an amateur dramafilm called De Wortelen Ontdekking in which he portrayed the main character while also Juan Keeris and a couple of other students were involved. The film was showed on several massive filmfestivals and got good reactions, but was never fully released because of the lack of the budget.

After leaving filmschool, he directed his first professional feature length film You Don't Mess With The Guys, a teenage comedy with black humor which was based on an event at his school. The film was a big hit in the theaters, but got negative reactions from critics but viewers praised the humor and original comedy style. A year later he directed the crimefilm with co-director Juan Keeris Foute Boys involving two teenagers who buy guns and rob a bank with brutal consequences. The film was nomitated for three Academy Awards, but only won one Academy Award.

His most succesful film was ''Helmondse Fictie. ''It's a 2 and a half hour crimefilm taking place completely in Helmond, the place where he was raised involving four criminal stories in non-chronological order. The film won five Academy Awards and two years it was nominated for three BAFTA Awards when his next film came out, No Guns For The Madmen, an action/crime film with Daeg Faerch. The film was very succesful, got lots of positive reviews and was a box office hit.

In 2004 he again gain attention when he directed ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. ''The film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, one for Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Story. He won all of them.

In 2006 he directed the film a movie called De Breakers Reel which involved his favorite commercials. Although fans praised the originality, it got negative reviews by critics. In 2008 he directed an actionfilm called Brutal Speed, the film was more succesful then De Breakers Reel but still got negative reactions by critics although fans loved the action-scenes and race-locations.

In 2010, he decided to go back to his Dutch films and direct the action/comedy film ''New Kids Turbo! ''The film was showed in the US, and got mixed reviews.

He is currently working on a thriller called "The Conspiracy" which is set to be partially based on a Tom Clancy novel. He also had interest into directing "Two Men" which is set to be an 1 hour and a half "interrogationfilm". He also expressed his interest into directing a sequel to Helmondse Fictie. These three films are supposed to be a trilogy of thrillerfilms.

AS DIRECTOR:

De Wortelen Ontdekking (1992)

You Don't Mess With The Guys (1998)

Foute Boys (1999)

Helmondse Fictie (2000)

No Guns For The Madmen (2002)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

De Breakers Reel (2006)

Brutal Speed (2008)

New Kids Turbo (2010)