Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

French director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan learned his craft working in visual effects. His first film credits were as a compositor on "Assassins" (1997), "Paparazzi" (1998), "The Wall" (1998) and "Cuisine Américaine" (1998) in his native France. He moved into visual effects on his first American project, Mark Romanek's creepy "One Hour Photo" (2002) starring Robin Williams. This move to America led to more work on a series of big-budget, effects-heavy films including the remake of "The Ring" (2002) and two "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies ("The Curse of the Black Pearl", 2003, and "Dead Man's Chest", 2006). As part of creative collective design/animation PSYOP, Nicolas-Troyan also directed several ads for high profile clients including Samsung, Sega, Peugeot, Audi and Time Warner, alongside quirky shorts "You Don't See Me" and "Carrot vs Ninja" (both 2011). This experience stood him in good stead as while working on the modern retelling of the classic fairy-tale "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012), starring Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. Nicolas-Troyan acted as second unit director alongside his usual visual effects duties. This was swiftly followed by more second unit directorial work on the similarly themed "Maleficent" (2014) with Angelina Jolie. Nicolas-Troyan's directorial debut was announced in 2013 when he was attached to the remake of "The Highlander" (1986). After the announcement that Frank Darabont was leaving "The Huntsman" (2016), a prequel to "Snow White and the Huntsmen", Nicolas-Troyan was the natural choice to take over the reins due to his experience on the previous film.