Arthur Max

Arthur Max (born May 1, 1946) is an American production designer. He has been nominated for Academy Awards twice: once for his work on Gladiator (2000) and another for his Production Design on American Gangster (2007). In addition to his Oscar nominations, Max won several other honors for his production design on the film, including the BAFTA, the National Board of Review prize and the Broadcast Film Critics honor. He also collected the ‘Excellence in Production Design’ Award from the Art Directors Guild, the first of six nominations he received (the other five for Ridley Scott’s "Black Hawk Down" and "Robin Hood”and "American Gangster(2007)" and "Prometheus(2012)" and David Fincher’s “Panic Room”). Max has recently completed "The Counselor(2013)". The film marks Max’s ninth project for filmmaker Scott, a list of achievements which includes,” Kingdom of Heaven", "Robin Hood" and the aforementioned “Black Hawk Down" and ""Body of Lies".” He designed Fincher’s 1994 thriller, "Seven". The native New Yorker began his career as a stage lighting designer in the music industry following graduation from New York University in the late 1960s. Those assignments included work at Bill Graham’s famous music venue The Fillmore East in New York's East Village, and the historic Woodstock Festival of 1969 where he operated a spotlight for Chip Monck, a rock lighting and stage design company during the Woodstock festival in 1969. During the following decade, he designed concert lighting and festival stages for many rock and jazz artists. He was Pink Floyd's lighting designer during the bands' tours in the US and around the world in the early 70's. After studying architecture in England (earning degrees in the early ‘80s from the Polytechnic of Central London and the Royal College of Art), Max went on to do several architectural design projects in London.

He entered the British film industry as an assistant to several English production designers. First for Stuart Craig on Hugh Hudson’s “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” and “Cal” (both 1984), then for Ashetton Gorton on Hudson’s “Revolution” the following year. He commenced his own production design career in TV commercials over a period of ten years from 1985 to 1995 (for such clients as Pepsi, Nike, Jeep, Coke and Levi’s), which led to his ongoing associations with directors Scott and Fincher.