Jump to content

Richard Pearson (film editor)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Pearson
Born1961 (age 62–63)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
OccupationFilm editor

Richard Pearson (born 1961) is an American film editor who is mainly associated with action films. Pearson, with Clare Douglas and Christopher Rouse, received the BAFTA Award for Best Editing for the film United 93 (2006).

Life and career

[edit]

Pearson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota,[1] and raised in New Hope, Minnesota.[1] As a college student in the early 1980s, Pearson was an intern at the television station WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. He moved to Hollywood in 1985 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.[1] His first editing credit was for the television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998). The "1968" episode of From the Earth to the Moon was nominated for an American Cinema Editors "Eddie" award (Best Edited Episode from a Television Mini-Series) and for an Emmy Award (Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie). Christopher Rouse, Pearson's co-editor on The Bourne Supremacy and United 93, also worked on this miniseries.

Following an editing credit for the film Muppets from Space (1999), Pearson edited two films (Bowfinger and The Score) that were directed by Frank Oz, who was Jim Henson's early collaborator in developing The Muppets.

United 93 was directed by Paul Greengrass, who is particularly noted for films that are "shot verité style as a detailed mass of hectic vignettes—jagged jump cuts, sudden blackouts, overlapping everything."[2] The use of three editors (Douglas, Pearson, and Rouse) on United 93 was dictated by its short post-production period; less than six months passed between the start of filming and release of the film.[3] Greengrass and Douglas had worked together quite successfully on the film Bloody Sunday (2002); Greengrass, Pearson, and Rouse had recently finished The Bourne Supremacy (2004). Despite the accelerated post-production schedule for United 93, the editing was very successful. Ellen Feldman has written an analysis of the film's editing; she notes that, "United 93 represents a complex editing feat, with a structure based on parallel cutting combined with an edgy, hyper-cranked "Cinema Verité” style, a style that disorients us but doesn't prevent us from grasping lots of necessary exposition and identifying with many characters."[4][5] In addition to the BAFTA Award, the editors were also nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing and for an ACE Eddie Award.

Pearson has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.[6]

Pearson was an editor of the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace (2008), along with Matt Chessé. He worked on Safe House (2012). He resides in California.

Editing credits

[edit]
Editor
Year Film Director Notes
1999 Muppets from Space Tim Hill
Bowfinger Frank Oz First collaboration with Frank Oz
2000 Drowning Mona Nick Gomez
2001 Scary Movie 2 Keenen Ivory Wayans
The Score Frank Oz Second collaboration with Frank Oz
2002 Men in Black II Barry Sonnenfeld
2003 The Rundown Peter Berg
2004 The Bourne Supremacy Paul Greengrass First collaboration with Paul Greengrass
2005 A Little Trip to Heaven Baltasar Kormákur
Rent Chris Columbus
2006 United 93 Paul Greengrass Second collaboration with Paul Greengrass
2007 Blades of Glory Josh Gordon
Will Speck
First collaboration with Josh Gordon and Will Speck
2008 Get Smart Peter Segal
Quantum of Solace Marc Forster
2010 Iron Man 2 Jon Favreau
2012 Safe House Daniel Espinosa
Red Dawn Dan Bradley
2014 Maleficent Robert Stromberg
Dracula Untold Gary Shore
2016 The Accountant Gavin O'Connor
2017 Kong: Skull Island Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Justice League Zack Snyder
2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters Michael Dougherty
2020 Wonder Woman 1984 Patty Jenkins
2022 Uncharted Ruben Fleischer
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
  • Josh Gordon
  • Will Speck
Second collaboration with Josh Gordon and Will Speck
2025 The Accountant 2 Gavin O'Connor Second collaboration with Gavin O'Connor
Editorial department
Year Film Director Role
2000 Bait Antoine Fuqua Additional editor
2021 Godzilla vs. Kong Adam Wingard
2024 Lift F. Gary Gray
Actor
Year Film Director Role Notes
2002 Men in Black II Barry Sonnenfeld Gordy Voice role

TV series

Editor
Year Title Notes
1993 South Beach 1 episode
1994−97 New York Undercover 22 episodes
1998 From the Earth to the Moon 4 episodes
2013 The Power Inside 3 episodes
Editorial department
Year Title Role Notes
1990 American Chronicles On-line editor
Assistant editor
6 episodes
Additional crew
Year Title Role Notes
1998 From the Earth to the Moon Title designer: Main titles 12 episodes
2015 Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore Production assistant 1 episode

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Strickler, Jeff (2007). "'Invisible artist' getting noticed. For a transplanted Minnesotan, editing film is a cut above other Hollywood jobs", interview with Richard Pearson from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 1, 2007.
  2. ^ Hoberman, J. (2002). "Collision Courses", The Village Voice, October 1, 2002. Online version retrieved April 19, 2008.
  3. ^ Wood, Jennifer M. (2007). "One Day in September". Archived February 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, interview with Christopher Rouse in Moviemaker, February 3, 2007; online version retrieved April 18, 2008.
  4. ^ Feldman, Ellen (2007). "Art of Editing Corner: United 93 (Part 1)", Avid Technology webpage archived at WebCite from this original URL on April 19, 2008.
  5. ^ Feldman, Ellen (2007). "Art of Editing Corner: United 93 (Part 2)", Avid Technology webpage archived at WebCite from this original URL on April 19, 2008.
  6. ^ "American Cinema Editors > Members", webpage archived by WebCite from this original URL on March 4, 2008.
[edit]