Anthony "Tony" Hickox was born in London into a family of filmmakers. He’s the son of Director Douglas Hickox and legendary two time Academy award winning editor Anne V Coates. His brother is Director James Hickox and his Sister Emma is an award winning editor. Anthony is also the great Grandson Lord J. Arthur Rank who controlled the British film industry for over two Decades.
After starting as a club promoter in London where he raised money for his short 'Rockabyebaby', the famous English producer Michael White ('Rocky Horror Show'/ 'Monty Python') saw it and gave him a one way ticket to LA saying, "Don’t come back until you’ve made a movie!". When Tony arrived in LA in 1986 he wrote and directed 'Waxwork' which Vestron financed. The budget was $3.5 million and on it first release made $10 million and has now became a cult classic.
Tony then made 'The Vampire Western Sundown', 'Waxwork 2', and 'Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth', which started Dimension Films. The film opened NO. 3 in the US box office and is still the most successful of the series. They published a book on the making of last year.
Then he went on to make 'Warlock', 'Children of the Corn', and 'Carnival of Souls' which made him one of the top horror filmmakers in the world.
This led to HBO hiring him to make its first and most expensive movie 'Full Eclipse', which was a huge hit and spawned their Friday night action slot that lasted over 5 years and to which Hickox made several more contributions. At the same time, he continued his 5 year deal at Universal where he shot some of the biggest budgeted TV pilots ever made: 'Extreme', 'Two', 'Martial Law', and 'New York Undercover'.
After working with Natascha McElhone and William Hurt on 'Contaminated Man', Tony went on to write and direct Katherine Heigl and Stephen Moyer in Paramount’s feature-length adaptation of the 'Prince Valiant' comic strip.
For a decade he was on the board of directors of a famous Indy film distribution company Seven Arts Pictures ('Rules of Engagement', 'Rat Race', 'The Believer') run by Peter Hoffman, the ex-chairman of Carolco. At the same time, being creative advisor for FTV since it's conception with his friend Michel Adam. Where he made TV shows like 'Shoot Me!' and he made their first feature 'Exodus to Shanghai'. Anthony then became a director at Medient Studios run by Indian film producer Manu Kumaran where he produced Nick Cassavetes ‘Yellow’ which is being released this year.
He then directed Steven Seagal in 'Submerged' and Eddie Griffin in 'Blast', which made over $20 million each via a direct-to-Blockbuster release. Followed by British horror movie 'Knife Edge' with Hugh Bonneville. Then as the independent world went into flux, DVD was being replaced by streaming and no one knew what was going to happen…
Anthony, after 29 movies, decided to take a break from directing and concentrate on his writing. He went on to write scripts for some of the biggest producers in the world. Ed Pressman, Mat Vaughn , Avi Lerner, Mosha Diamant, Monica Bacardi (to name a few). He then got an offer in 2017 he couldn’t refuse...
To come to Shenzhen China and help build a studio by MD Young, who had the Chinese marketing rights to Marvel , Disney, and Funko toys under the new name ‘PopLife Global’ partnering with the chairmen of Disney China and the CEO of DreamWorks.
During that time he directed two movies while the studio was being built: 'Underdogs Rising' and 'Infamous 6'. The company made another three movies as well.
The studio was officially opened in 2019 and Anthony was about to start his period murder mystery: ‘State of Escape’… When the world fell apart. Literally.
Known as a maverick for his demand for total creative control and his playboy life style. He refuses to stop!
He’s currently started production on ‘Perfect Day’ in Mauritius followed by ‘Dead Girl’ in Greece then Van Damme’s ‘Silent Kill’ with Ovidiu Florin Toma (CryptoData) in his home town, Bucharest.
