Paul Weiland OBE (born 11 July 1953) is an English motion picture and television director, writer, and producer.
His feature film credits include Made of Honor (2008), Sixty Six (2006), Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999), Roseanna's Grave (1997), City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) and Leonard Part 6 (1987).
The commercials have featured celebrities, including English football striker Gary Lineker, boxer Lennox Lewis and Victoria Beckham.
The commercials became enormously popular in Britain, leading Weiland to then say, "A friend said to me the other day that they've become like little Woody Allen films – people want to appear in them.
[1] In 1987, Weiland made his debut as a feature film director with Leonard Part 6, a comedy starring Bill Cosby as secret agent who is called out of retirement to save the world from an evil genius who has developed the ability to brainwash small animals into killing humans.
His direction of Leonard Part 6 resulted in Weiland's being nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director.
In 2005, The Times wrote: "The director Paul Weiland made millions laugh with the television comedy series Mr Bean and Alas Smith and Jones.
"[2] In 1994, Weiland returned to feature films as the director of City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz and Jack Palance.
Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth and Kate Moss also appear in the film.
The Guardian of London wrote that, "Despite the whimsical voice-over and gloopy, sentimental tone, it's a hard film to dislike and boasts a wonderfully lugubrious performance from Eddie Marsan as the round-shouldered schlub of a dad.