Archive 2000.01: January 2000 - May 2000 | back to 2000 Archived News

(May 23, 2000)
Paul Hunter directed the new video Next Episode by Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg, which premiered on MTV this week.  The video features Dre & Snoop Dogg in a strip club.
view streaming Real Video clip from MTV.com
(thanks to Clint for the info)

(May 17, 2000)
Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits album and home video were released in stores yesterday.  The Greatest Hits home video and DVD include all of Whitney's music videos, including the video for Step By Step (directed by Paul Hunter).

(April 27, 2000)
On Wednesday, rumor surfaced on the Fan Insider website that the movie Vertical Run, which has been in "development hell" for quite awhile (meaning that the project was not going anywhere) might finally get made.  The film is based on the 1995 bestselling novel by Joseph R. Garber, and has been described as a cross between Total Recall and Die Hard.  Paul Hunter has been rumored to have been approached to direct the movie.
click here to read article

(April 14, 2000)
I haven't updated the site in about a month, and there were several bits of Paul Hunter news in the past weeks that I'll list now:

Paul Hunter directed Kelis's new video Get Along With You.  I've seen a clip of it and I must say that it is one of my favorites at the moment!  The video has a Gothic look similar to Paul Hunter's previous clips for Mack 10's Only In California and Tamia's Imagination (which were inspired in part by director Mark Romanek's clip for Nine Inch Nails' The Perfect Drug video).  Kelis has her hair straightened out in the blue-tinted video and floats around the street breathing breaths of colored air (!), wearing a 17th century Gothic style dress.  Not your typical R&B video, but a good video still.  Check out a clip from the video at kelis.com.
(thanks to Joe for the info!)

The 9th Annual MVPA (Music Video Production Association) Awards were held on April 7 in Los Angeles.  Paul Hunter videos received a total of six nominations.  American Woman by Lenny Kravitz was nominated for 4 awards: Best Pop Video, Best Soudtrack Video, Best Direction of a Male Artist, & Best Rock Video.  Paul won one award, Best Direction of a Male Artist for Untitled by D'Angelo.  Congrats Paul!  Apparently, Paul was a no-show for the awards banquet.  The 6th nomination was for Best Choreography in a Video, Wild Wild West by Will Smith, but the nomination went to the choreographer, Fatima Washington.

Rumor had it that Paul Hunter directed a video for Celine Dion's new single I Want You To Need Me.  However, reports are that her record company canned the clip and reshot it with another director.  Thats all I heard about that.

(March 15, 2000)
Paul Hunter directed the new Brian McKnight video Stay Or Let It Go.
(thanks to Kevin & Gerald for the info)

(February 18, 2000)
Yesterday, MTV.com reported that a new video by R&B singer Kelis will be directed by Paul Hunter. The video for Get Along With You will be shot in New York this week, and the video will surface in late-March.

(February 12, 2000)
Will Smith's new video Freakin' It premiered on MTV earlier this week.

(January 25, 2000)
Will Smith was back in his hometown of Philadelphia on January 21 to shoot a new video for Freakin' It with Paul Hunter. The concept of the video is "a typical day in Philadelphia". Scenes were shot around the city during the day and filming moved to the First Union Center, where more footage was shot at half time during the Sixers-Pacers game. The video should begin airing in mid-February.
(thanks to MTV.com, Joe Fox, and Hot Boy for the info)

(January 16, 2000)
This is not exactly new news, but Lenny Kravitz's video for American Woman (which was directed by Paul Hunter) is included on the DVD version of Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me. As reported earlier, Will Smith's video for Wild Wild West appears on both the home video and DVD versions of Wild Wild West (the movie). I just found out that a "Making Of..." documentary on the music video is also included on the DVD disc version of the movie! The "Making Of..." featurette includes interviews with Paul Hunter and Fatima (choreographer). I also recently discovered other music videos (directed by Paul Hunter) on DVD versions of movies: Lauryn Hill's The Sweetest Thing included on the love jones. DVD and Ice Cube's We Be Clubbin' included on The Player's Club DVD.

(January 7, 2000)
Nominations for the 2000 Grammy Awards were announced on January 4, and one Paul Hunter-directed music video was nominated. TLC's Unpretty was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video. The other nominees in the category are:

All Is Full Of Love - Bjork (dir: Chris Cunningham)
Everything Is Everything - Lauryn Hill (dir: Sanji)
Freak On A Leash - Korn (dir: Dayton/Faris)
Back At One - Brian McKnight (dir: Francis Lawrence)

(go to grammy.org for more info) The awards will be handed out on February 23.