Duncan Jones

For the Welsh rugby union international, see Duncan Jones (rugby player).

Duncan Jones
Born	(1971-05-30) 30 May 1971 Beckenham, Kent, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Film director

Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones (born 30 May 1971), also known as Zowie Bowie or Joey Bowie, is an English film director, best known for directing the 2009 film Moon. He is the son of rock musician David Bowie.

Childhood and family life

Duncan is the only child from the marriage of David Bowie (legal name David Robert Jones) and his first wife, the former Mary Angela Barnett. He was born at Beckenham Hospital in Kent. His son's birth prompted Bowie to write the song "Kooks" for his 1971 album Hunky Dory. Duncan Jones is the half-brother of Alexandria "Lexi" Jones (born 1998), from his father's second marriage to the fashion model Iman, and Stacia Larranna Celeste Lipka (born 1980), from his mother's relationship with musician Drew Blood (né Andrew Lipka). He also has a stepsister, Zulekha Haywood (born 1978).

As a child, Zowie spent time growing up in Berlin, London, and Vevey, Switzerland where he attended the first and second grade at the Commonwealth American School. When David and Angela divorced in 1980, David Bowie was granted custody of 9-year-old Zowie, and Zowie visited his mother on his school vacations. At age 14, he enrolled in the prestigious Scottish boarding school, Gordonstoun. As a child, he harboured dreams of someday becoming a professional wrestler, and his father often remarked that he possessed great "natural strength.".

Around age 12, Zowie decided that he preferred to be called "Joey", and used this nickname for some time until shortening it to "Joe" in his later teen years. His father has been quoted as saying, "If, when he gets old enough to care about his name, he doesn't like it, he can always change it or give himself a nickname. It's OK by me." The press reported that he went by "Joe" in 1992 when attending his father's wedding to Iman (he was the best man)Duncan arrived with a blond named Angel, whom he referred to as "sis"..

According to the New York Times, he reverted to his birth name, Duncan Jones, around the age of 18.

College and career choice

By 1995, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the College of Wooster, where he was registered under the name "Duncan Jones". His independent study thesis was titled How to Kill Your Computer Friend: An Investigation of the Mind/Body Problem and How It Relates to the Hypothetical Creation of a Thinking Machine.

He then pursued a PhD degree at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee but left before completion to attend London Film School, where he graduated as a director.

He was one of many cameramen at his father's widely-televised 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden and also at two BowieNet concerts at Roseland Ballroom in New York City in June 2000.

FCUK - Fashion vs Style

Duncan Jones directed the 2006 campaign for the French Connection fashion label. The concept of 'Fashion vs Style' was to re-invigorate the brand and move it away from the former incarnation of FCUK, which style pundits believed had become tired and overused.

The advert debuted in the week ending 20 February 2006 and featured two girls (representing fashion and style) fighting and briefly kissing each other.

The advertisement reportedly generated 127 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, but the complaints did not lead to any action.

Current projects

Jones with his father David Bowie at the premiere of Jones's directorial debut Moon.

Jones recently directed his debut feature film, Moon. Produced by Liberty Films, the film was shot in the UK between January and March 2008. It is a sci-fi thriller starring Sam Rockwell.

Moon recently premiered at the Sundance film festival, where it was purchased for distribution in the US by Sony Picture Classics. Sony Classics released the film on June 12, 2009 in the United States. The film's British premiere was held on 20th June 2009 at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh as part of the 63rd Edinburgh International Film Festival. Jones was present at the screening along with other key crew members.

Moon was screened at the NASA Space Center in Houston at the request of a professor there. The screening was part of a lecture series. "He'd been reading online that we'd done this film about Helium-3 mining and that's something that people at NASA are working on," says Jones. "We did a Q&A afterward. They asked me why the base looked so sturdy, like a bunker, and not like the kind of stuff they are designing that they are going to transport with them. I said 'Well, in the future I assume you won't want to continue carrying everything with you, you'll want to use the resources on the moon to build things' and a woman in the audience raised her hand and said, 'I'm actually working on something called Mooncrete, which is concrete that mixes lunar regolith and ice water from the moon's polar caps.'"

Jones is currently planning a follow up film, which will serve as an epilogue to Moon. "Sam has agreed to do a little cameo in the next film," says Jones, who ultimately hopes to do three films in the Moon series.

It was recently announced that he will direct the feature film adaptation of Escape from the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew by Alex Kershaw.

External links

• Duncan Jones at IMDb

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