Simon West
English film director
title: "Simon West" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1961-births", "american-television-directors", "english-film-directors", "english-television-directors", "english-film-producers", "living-people", "people-educated-at-fearnhill-school", "people-from-letchworth", "action-film-directors"] description: "English film director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_West" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary English film director ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Simon West |
| birth_name | Simon Alexander West |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England |
| occupation | {{Flatlist |
| years_active | 1986–present |
| notable_works | {{Flatlist |
| spouse | Amadea West |
| children | Lillie West |
| :: |
::callout[type=note]
::
| name = Simon West | image = | caption = | birth_name = Simon Alexander West | birth_date = | birth_place = Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England | occupation = {{Flatlist|
- Film director
- film producer | years_active = 1986–present | notable_works = {{Flatlist|
- Rickroll
- Con Air
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
- The Mechanic
- The Expendables 2 | spouse = Amadea West | children = Lillie West Emily West William West Oliver West
Simon Alexander West (born 17 July 1961) is an English filmmaker. He has primarily worked in the action genre, including as the director of Con Air (1997), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), The Mechanic (2011), and The Expendables 2 (2012). Outside of action, he directed the mystery thriller film The General's Daughter (1999) and the psychological horror film When a Stranger Calls (2006).
Early life
West was born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. He began his career as an assistant film editor with the BBC Film Department, where he worked on dramas and documentaries. He then left the BBC to work on commercials and music videos.
Career
1990s
West's directorial debut in 1997 with Con Air, starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich.
2000s
West directed the 2001 action film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Although it's an adaptation of the popular video game Tomb Raider, the development of the film was influenced by a market that "wasn't used to women leading summer blockbusters" (with the exception of the Alien film series). This factor influenced his decision to cast Angelina Jolie as Croft, though she was not well known (she was not the studio's first choice, in contrast to Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ashley Judd, and Jennifer Lopez). While Lara Croft led to box office totals that were the highest for a female-led action film at that time, ($131 million), inspired theme park rides, led to a sequel, and made a star of Jolie,{{cite web |url=https://ew.com/movies/2018/03/16/tomb-raider-alicia-vikander-interview/ |title=Dedicated to the Croft: Alicia Vikander, Tomb Raider team on Lara's superheroic legacy |access-date=23 November 2019 |last=Nolfi |first=Joey |date=16 March 2018 |work= Entertainment Weekly}} West was disappointed that it did not lead to similar films. He noted that "at the time, the studio was incredibly nervous at what the outcome could have been. I'm surprised it's taken so long [for other female-fronted action stories to rise up], because I thought that two or three years after, there'd be 10 other movies like it cashing in on its success ... but it's amazing how things work so slowly. Finally The Hunger Games and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman have caught up!"
Joey Nolfi (Entertainment Weekly) states that West "molded his heroine – never bogged down by romantic subplots – as a badass genre role model for girls, with more scenes of assured tomb raiding and less overt sexuality" (West said to have done so "probably would've been the death of the film and the character").
2010s–present
West would eventually work on a number of action films including the 2012 film The Expendables 2 with Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2017 West directed his first feature musical comedy Gun Shy starring Antonio Banderas and based on the novel Salty by Mark Haskhell Smith. West directed the 2019 big-budget disaster movie from China, Skyfire, and will also direct another Chinese action film, The Legend Hunters.
Filmography
Films
Director ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Con Air | |
| 1999 | The General's Daughter | |
| 2001 | Lara Croft: Tomb Raider | Also writer |
| 2006 | When a Stranger Calls | |
| 2011 | The Mechanic | |
| 2012 | The Expendables 2 | |
| Stolen | ||
| 2015 | Wild Card | |
| 2016 | Gun Shy | |
| 2017 | Stratton | |
| 2019 | Skyfire | |
| 2024 | Old Guy | |
| 2025 | The Legend Hunters | Co-directed with Li Yifan |
| Bride Hard | ||
| TBA | Fortitude | Filming |
| :: |
Executive producer
- Black Hawk Down (2002)
Producer
Television
Director ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Keen Eddie | Episodes "Pilot" and "Horse Heir"; also executive producer |
| 2005 | Close to Home | Episode "Pilot"; also executive producer |
| 2006 | Split Decision | Unsold pilot |
| 2010 | Human Target | Episode "Pilot"; also executive producer |
| 2011 | The Cape | Episode "Pilot"; also executive producer |
| 2022 | Sin límites (Boundless) | Miniseries |
| :: |
Executive producer
- The Saint (2017) (TV movie)
Music videos
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Artist(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | "Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)" | Mel & Kim |
| 1987 | "Respectable" | |
| "Never Gonna Give You Up" | Rick Astley | |
| 1992 | "Everybody Gets a Second Chance" | Mike and the Mechanics |
| :: |
References
References
- "Simon West".
- "Index entry". ONS.
- West, Simon. "About". Official Website.
- His daughter Lillie West of the band [[Lala Lala]] described the experience being a filmmaker's daughter to Paper Magazine in a 2018 interview, "My dad is a filmmaker, and he has filmed pretty much every moment of my life from when I was born."[https://www.papermag.com/amp/lala-lala-2608598758 papermag.com]
- Nolfi, Joey. (8 March 2018). "Tomb Raider director fought for Angelina Jolie as 'wicked' Lara Croft over 'safer' actresses". Entertainment Weekly.
- (2004). "Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration". Palgrave.
- Lambie, Ryan. (5 August 2013). "Director Simon West: Stolen, Con Air, Rick Astley and more". Den of Geek.
- Davis, Rebecca. (14 May 2019). "Cannes: ‘Skyfire,’ China’s First Big-Budget Disaster Movie, Shopped by Meridian Ent. (EXCLUSIVE)". [[Variety (magazine).
- Davis, Rebecca. (15 June 2019). "Why Simon West Is Making Movies in China (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
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