Amy Jump (born 1972)
is a British screenwriter, film editor and film producer.
She is best known for writing and editing such films as ''
Kill List
''Kill List'' is a 2011 British psychological horror crime film directed by Ben Wheatley, co-written and co-edited with Amy Jump, and starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Michael Smiley. In the film, a British soldier joins an old friend ...
'' (2011), ''
A Field in England'' (2013) and
''High-Rise'' (2015). She and her husband,
director
Ben Wheatley
Ben Wheatley (born 1972) is an English filmmaker, film editor, and animator. Beginning his career in advertising, Wheatley first gained recognition and acclaim for his commercials and short films, before transitioning into feature films and tele ...
, have been described by ''
Creative Review
''Creative Review'' is a bimonthly print magazine and website. The magazine focuses on commercial creativity, covering design, advertising, photography, branding, digital products, film, and gaming. The magazine is published bimonthly in print an ...
'' as "one of the most formidable creative partnerships in film".
Jump won a
British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay
The British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best screenplay in a British independent film. The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony with Pa ...
for both ''Kill List'' and ''
Sightseers
''Sightseers'' is a 2012 British black comedy film directed by Ben Wheatley and written by and starring Alice Lowe and Steve Oram.
Sightseers was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on ...
'' (2012).
Life and work
Jump was born in Islington in 1972.
She met her future husband and collaborator, director Ben Wheatley, while both were studying for their A-Levels. She encouraged Wheatley to study on the same foundation art course after graduation.
The couple now live together in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
.
Jump and Wheatley's first collaboration was a series of short animations shared through their now-defunct website MrandMrsWheatley.com.
This helped to launch their respective careers, as they moved through creating live-action shorts to creating commercial work.
Since, the two have collaborated regularly on films.
Jump wrote and co-edited and co-wrote the thrillers ''Kill List'', ''Sightseers'' and ''Free Fire''; she was also the sole author of ''A Field in England '' and ''High-Rise'', all directed by Wheatley.
The couple "tag-team" on co-written scripts, writing and rewriting each other's scenes and dialogue, without the need for discussion. Wheatley claims she revised all of the dialogue he wrote for ''Free Fire''.
Jump was also executive producer on
Peter Strickland’s ''
The Duke of Burgundy''.
Jump does not give interviews or appear publicly to promote her films. Of working together, and of Jump's own approach to work and publicity, Wheatley has said:
I like the fact that we’re a couple making films, it makes it interesting... She’s completely outside of the industry, she doesn’t do interviews and doesn’t particularly like going up to London to events. She just wants to do the work, get in and get out. She’s not a cinephile, but she really cares about image and storytelling from her own unique perspective. But we’ve always had an agreement that I’ll be kind of like the face of it, I do all the press and that.
Unrealized projects
Wheatley and Jump have multiple projects in development at any given time. As-yet unmade scripts of Jump's include a remake of ''
The Wages of Fear
''The Wages of Fear'' () is a 1953 thriller film directed and co-written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck and Véra Clouzot. The film centres on a group of four down-on-their-luck European men w ...
'', adaptations of the
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book artist, comic book writer, and screenwriter known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'', for which he created the character Elektra, and ...
and
Geof Darrow
Geofrey "Geof" Darrow (born October 21, 1955) is an American comic book artist, best known for his work on comic series ''Shaolin Cowboy'', ''Hard Boiled (comics), Hard Boiled'' and ''The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot'', which was adapted into ...
comic book ''
Hard Boiled
''Hard Boiled'' ()Elder, 2005, pg. xxviii is a 1992 Hong Kong action thriller film directed by John Woo from a screenplay by Gordon Chan and Barry Wong based on a story written by Woo. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, an ...
'' and the video game ''
Gauntlet'', an original sci-fi film called ''Freakshift'' and a romantic comedy inspired by ''
What's Up, Doc?''
In April 2019, she was hired to write a script for a planned sequel to ''
Tomb Raider
''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...
'', with Wheatley later joining as director.
The pair were replaced by writer-director
Misha Green, before the project was cancelled entirely.
Filmography
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jump, Amy
Living people
1972 births
British women screenwriters
British film editors
British film producers
British women writers
People from Islington (district)