Chris Hanley

About Chris Hanley

Chris Hanley is best known for producing landmark films with independent spirit and popular reach which include Spring Breakers (2012), American Psycho (2000), and The Virgin Suicides (1999). They are often breakthrough films for the artists involved as well as items of enduring cultural value. The 38 produced titles over Hanley's 23 year career cover an array of genres and include two documentaries features (Oliver Stone's South of the Border (2009) and Castro in Winter (2012)) and the Showtime docuseries The Untold History of the United States (2012).Hanley was educated in English literature and philosophy (philosophy of the mind, artificial intelligence, mathematical physics) at Amherst College and Oxford for additional coursework. Hanley was a visiting scholar in philosophy at Columbia University and did postgraduate studies at the Rockefeller Institute in mathematics. From studies in pioneering neurological research on mind-brain identity, Turing machines and neural network algorithms including effects of music on neural pathways, Hanley seamlessly migrated to music production, forming Intergalactic Music in New York (from his own electronic music recording work at Hampshire College). Intergalactic became the studio that first introduced digital synthesis into pop recording artists, eventually earning a gold record for Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" which was the advent of electronic rap music. Hanley brought Intergalactic to the forefront of music production recording artists such as Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Billy Idol, The Tibetan Monks of The Dalai Lama (on the 24 track), Bobby Brown, and recorded two albums of the Ramones.In 1984, Hanley entered the burgeoning field of music video, forming Rock Video International and distributed music videos for the first time to Japan; his pioneering efforts included later bringing music videos to the U.S.S.R and to the rest of the Eastern Bloc for the first time in history. Hanley is later known as the father of karaoke in the West. Not only did Hanley and his RVI make history by first bringing music videos to all Asia, the Soviet and Eastern Bloc, but soon after he introduced the Japanese phenomenon of karaoke to the Western world, making the first Western audio and music videos the USA, England, Europe and then onto Africa and the Middle East had ever seen. The American and British productions involved 25 directors and 250 studio musicians in the filming of 1000 video clips and 1000 music publishing licenses. Hanley segued from one visual arts medium to another when he founded Art Associates in 1987 originally to bring to market the art of Andy Warhol who he was friends with through the music studio and Jean Michel Basquiat who Hanley played music with in the New York underground music scene. By 1990, Art Associates was known internationally for representing to collectors the biggest names in contemporary art such as Warhol, Basquiat, Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, Edward Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, and Keith Haring, who he was friends with.Hanley founded Muse Productions with his wife Roberta Hanley in 1991. Its first outing was the sci-fi actioner Split Second (1992). Starring Rutger Hauer and Kim Cattrall, and featuring special effects by Stephen Norrington of Aliens (1986) fame, the film (directed by The Burning (1981)'s Tony Maylam) has gone on to achieve cult status. Hanley's first producing venture while based in Venice Beach, Califor...

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