Nick Willing

Nick Willing is a British director, writer, and producer of films and television programs, including Neverland, a Syfy Channel prequel to Peter and Wendy.

Willing is the son of Portuguese painter Paula Rego and English artist Victor Willing, and was largely brought up in Portugal, but settled in England at the age of 12. He graduated from The National Film and Television School in 1982 and started directing music videos for bands such as Eurythmics, Bob Geldof, Swing Out Sister, Debbie Gibson, Kirsty MacColl, Kim Appleby, Tony Banks, and Nik Kershaw.

Throughout this period he was also writing screenplays, and in 1996 his adaptation of the Steve Szilagyi novel Photographing Fairies was financed by Polygram Filmed Entertainment and made into a feature film. It was a critical success and won several awards including the Méliès d’Or in 1998.

In 1999 he directed Alice in Wonderland, an NBC adaptation of Charles Dodgson's two Alice novels, with a cast including Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Robbie Coltrane, Martin Short, Peter Ustinov, Gene Wilder, Ken Dodd, Christopher Lloyd, George Wendt, and Miranda Richardson. It won 4 Primetime Emmys. This was followed by a 2000 adaptation of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. He went on to develop the short stories of H. G. Wells into a semi-biographical television series The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, which premiered in 2001.

He directed the 2007 made-for-TV film Tin Man for the Sci Fi Channel (now Syfy), which reimagined the story of Dorothy's first visit to Oz as a technological fantasy. He then returned to the subject of Alice, writing and directing the Syfy/Showcase series Alice, which received 2 Primetime Emmy nominations. After that he wrote and directed Neverland for the Syfy and Sky Movies.

Director filmography

 * 1997 - Photographing Fairies
 * 1999 - Alice in Wonderland
 * 2000 - Jason and the Argonauts
 * 2002 - Doctor Sleep
 * 2004 - Sea of Souls
 * 2005 - The River King
 * 2006 - Jackanory, The Magician of Samarkand, Muddle Earth
 * 2007 - Tin Man
 * 2009 - Alice
 * 2011 - Neverland