Son of Hollywood choreographer Nick Castle Sr., this writer-director has crafted a variety of mainstream entertainments for film and TV. Castle's most memorable works include his sly screenplay for John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" (1983), his own "The Boy Who Could Fly" (1986), a slightly flawed, but well-intentioned "small movie", and his old-fashioned homage to black dancers, "Tap" (1989). He has also earned a small footnote to the history of the horror film for playing "The Shape," writer-director John Carpenter's nickname for the masked silent stalker of his "Halloween" (1978). Credited for providing the original story for Steven Spielberg's "Hook" (1991), Castle was also slated to helm that quirky Peter Pan update until Spielberg came aboard. He did return to the director's chair for John Hughes' production of "Dennis the Menace" (1993), the film version of the venerable children's comic strip.
Profession(s):
director, screenwriter, camera operator, dancer, camera assistant
Sometimes Credited As:
Nick Castle
Nick Castle Jr
2007 Wrote the screenplay for "August Rush," a musical-drama starring Freddie Highmore, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Keri Russell
2001 Helmed "Delivering Milo," starring Anton Yelchin and Albert Finney
1995 Directed Damon Wayans in the comedy, "Major Payne"
1993 Directed the live-action film, "Dennis the Menace," based on the comic strip
1989 Directed "Tap," co-starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. in his final film appearance
1987 Helmed an episode of Steven Spielberg's anthology series "Amazing Stories" (NBC)
1986 Helmed the family film, "The Boy Who Could Fly"
1984 Helmed "The Last Starfighter" an adventure film, using computer graphics for its special effects
1982 Feature film directing debut, "Tag: The Assassination Game"
1979 Feature film screenwriting debut, "Skatetown, U.S.A"
1978 Appeared as 'The Shape' in John Carpenter's "Halloween"
1970 With USC classmates (including John Carpenter), worked on the Oscar-winning short, "The Resurrection of Bronco Billy"
As a child appeared as a dancer in a few films that his father choreographed, such as "Artists and Models" (1955)
