Chris Hanley Biography

Chris Hanley is an American film producer best known for producing independent films such as Buffalo 66, The Virgin Suicides, American Psycho, Spun, Spring Breakers, and London Fields.

Early years

Chris Hanley was raised in Montclair, New Jersey, demonstrating an interest in art and photography. Hanley studied literature and philosophy at Amherst College in Western Massachusetts. Additionally, he studied at Columbia University and Oxford. Hanley met his wife Roberta at the affiliated Hampshire College's electronic music lab. Hanley has broad interests and reads widely, on topics including the philosophy of science and mathematics, cybernetics, physics, neuroscience, and neurophysiology.

Career

Music

Hanley started his career in the music business as the founder of Intergalactic Music, Inc., a company that supplied vintage Fender and Gibson guitars to musicians such as John McLaughlin, Heart, and John Entwistle of The Who. In the early 1980s, Intergalactic opened a recording studio in New York City, and recorded artists such as Africa Bambatta, Soul Sonic Force, Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, The Ramones, and Blondie minus Debbie Harry.

In 1984, Hanley launched Rock Video International, the first company to license MTV videos for distribution in Japan and the first to bring music videos to the Eastern Bloc countries, the then-U.S.S.R. and Hungary. Rock Videos International expanded its licensing and was the first to bring the video disk jukebox to Japan, and later, the first to bring Japan's "karaoke" to the United States and the rest of the world.

Art

In 1987, Hanley formed Art Associates, Inc., to deal works by Andy Warhol and other "pop" artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha, as well as minimalists Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra and Richard Artschwager. By 1990, Art Associates was known internationally for its representation of contemporary artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Bickerton, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Prince, Andres Serrano and Damien Hirst.

Film

In 1991, Hanley and his wife Roberta founded Muse Productions, Inc. to develop and produce feature films.

Their first film was Split Second, starring Rutger Hauer, Peter Postlethwaite, Kim Cattrall, Michael J. Pollard and Ian Drury. After this first project, they went on to produce Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge, Freeway, and Buffalo 66.

In 1999, Muse produced The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. In 2000, Muse produced American Psycho, based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, directed by Mary Harron. Christian Bale's performance in the film received critical acclaim, boosting his career.

Hanley's latest production, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, received positive reviews.

In response to the perceived controversy of many of Muse's films, Hanley states, "We are not necessarily about controversy or rebelliousness as the reason we create, but rather [about depicting] aspects of reality that reflect our historical period. To communicate, in the motion picture art form, something of life that can be used by others to get through it."