Francis Lawrence was born on March 26, 1971 in Vienna, Austria. At the age of three, his family moved to Los Angeles, California. He went to Layola Marymount University Film School and before graduating, he was the 2nd assistant camera on the feature PUMP UP THE VOLUME, directed by Allan Moyle. Years later, Lawrence went on to co-direct music videos with an ex-classmate. He directed his first music video for Michael Blakey, the Tidal Force drummer, for the band’s single, A MAN RIDES THROUGH. The rest went on from there and became history.
Francis Lawrence is best known as a music video and film director. He has directed many music videos for artists such as the Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Aerosmith, and many more. He even won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form for directing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” music video.
In 2005, he got the chance to direct his first film, CONSTANTINE, starring Keanu Reeves. Constantine was a pretty big stretch to direct a film for the first time, but that didn’t phase Lawrence. Constantine was reviewed well enough to allow Lawrence to direct other films. He went on to direct I AM LEGEND (2007), WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011), and the upcoming film THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013).
Lawrence got the opportunity to direct Catching Fire as well as the two final parts of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKING JAY (2014 & 2015).
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