John Mathieson has earned two Oscar nominations for his work on Ridley Scott’s 2000 drama Gladiator and Joel Shumacher’s 2004 big screen adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera.
In addition to the Oscar nominations, Mathieson won the BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography for Gladiator along with a British Society of Cinematographers for Best Cinematography for his work on The Phantom of the Opera as well as a nomination for Great Expectations.
The native of Dorset, UK, began his career shooting music videos and soon garnered recognition for the ground breaking video “Peek-a-Boo” for Siouxsie and the Banshees. The video was chosen by the British music video program The Chart Show to be their “Best Video of the Year” for 1988. He continued shooting music videos collaborating with artists like Sinead O’Connor on the video “Nothing Compares 2 U” as well as Madonna, Prince, and Massive Attack along with numerous television commercials.
Mathieson soon after began shooting shorts and TV Movies, ultimately breaking into the feature world. It was his work on Jake Scott’s 1999-action adventure Plunkett & Macleane, that attracted the attention of Ridley Scott (Jake’s father) who invited Mathieson to work on his next project, Gladiator. Since, Mathieson and Ridley Scott have collaborated on four other films including Hannibal, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, and Robin Hood.
In addition to his work with Scott, Mathieson’s almost four dozen credits as director of photography include Kristen Sheridan’s August Rush, Stephen Woolley’s Stoned, Baillie Walsh’s Flashbacks of a Fool, Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, Carl Rinsch’s 47 Ronin, Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mike Newell’s Great Expectations. The latter earning Mathieson the nomination for British Society of Cinematographers award for Best cinematography in 2012 and 2013.
Mathieson reteamed with Guy Ritchie on his upcoming action adventure King Arthur: Legend of the Sword based on the classic King Arthur story to be released spring 2017.