Writers, producers & Film directors
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Ashley Avis is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and is married to Edward Winters, who is her partner in their Los Angeles based production company, Winterstone Pictures.
After beginning her career as a journalist in New York City, and directing and producing several independent films in her twenties; in 2020 she wrote, directed, as well as edited Disney's Black Beauty starring Oscar Winner Kate Winslet and Twilight's Mackenize Foy. Inspired by Anna Sewell's timeless classic, the film was an official selection to 2021 Cameraimage and reviewed as a "gorgeous, sweeping epic" by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Passionate about horses, and working with children through her nonprofit, she next embarked on a four-year documentary in Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West (2022). The film won "Best Director" and "Best Cinematography" at DOCLA, "Best Documentary" at the Boston Film Festival and "Best Documentary" at the St. Louis International Film Festival; in addition to raising unprecedented awareness for wild horses and public lands protection.
Ashley lives in California with her husband Edward, and is the founder of The Wild Beauty Foundation.- Director
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- Actor
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Brett Simon is a Javits Fellow, a PhD candidate in Film Studies, and an MFA graduate in Art Practice at UC Berkeley. He graduated from Princeton University in 1997 with a degree in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing. His films and videos have screened in festivals around the world including ResFest, Toronto, Telluride, and Sundance. He won first prize in the Black Maria Film Festival. Since 1998, he has been teaching film history, film theory and video production at UC Berkeley and has since moved to Los Angeles. His movie "The Sailor Girl" screened at the Sundance Film Festival 2005. He has also directed numerous music videos including the award winning "Somebody Told Me" for The Killers and is a successful commercial director. He is currently directing his first feature, "The Sophmore" starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton in New York City.- Writer
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Chad Faust was born on 14 July 1980 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is a writer and director, known for Ballistic, Girl (2020) and The 4400 (2004).- Director
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Gilles Paquet-Brenner was born on 14 September 1974 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for Crooked House (2017), Sarah's Key (2010) and Dark Places (2015).- Producer
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In 1997, Morgan's debut feature, Hurricane Streets, became the first narrative film to win three awards at the Sundance Film Festival (Audience Award, Best Director, and Best Cinematography). It was bought by MGM/UA and distributed the following year.
Born in Long Beach, California, Morgan received his BA in Film Studies in 1992 from UC Santa Barbara. Morgan spent the following year in Paris studying film theory at the Sorbonne. In 1993, he entered NYU's Graduate Film Program where he earned his M.F.A. During the summer of 1994, Morgan interned at a small production company where he was introduced to Todd Solondz, who was prepping to shoot Welcome to the Dollhouse. Morgan was an Assistant Director on Dollhouse, which went on to win the 1996 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. It was also on this film that he became friends with actor Brendan Sexton III, the eventual star of Hurricane Streets.
Following the critical success of Hurricane Streets, Morgan wrote and directed Desert Blue. The film was distributed by the Samuel Goldwyn Company and re-teamed Morgan with Brendan Sexton III. The film also starred Christina Ricci, Casey Affleck, Ethan Suplee, Peter Sarsgaard, and was Kate Hudson's debut film.
In 2000, Morgan wrote and directed The Cherry Picker for Showtime starring Janeane Garofalo. Morgan directed several music videos, including two for the breakout indie band Rilo Kiley, and he directed the teen hit Dawson's Creek for the WB. In 2001, Morgan directed American Psycho 2 for Lions Gate Films. In 2003, he helmed the independent feature Piggy Banks, which starred Gabriel Mann, Kelli Garner and Tom Sizemore. Later that year, Morgan produced the groundbreaking MTV series Laguna Beach.
Morgan's latest feature from his own screenplay, Just Like The Son, will be premiering at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. The film stars Mark Webber, Brendan Sexton III and Rosie Perez.
Morgan currently lives in New York City where he is writing his next screenplay.- Producer
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Roland Joffé was born on 17 November 1945 in London, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for The Mission (1986), The Killing Fields (1984) and The Great Hunger.- Producer
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Bryce wrote, produced, and directed the thriller Phobic (2020), anthology film Mission Stories (2021), and the horror film Blessed (2024). He has also written for Yo Gabba Gabba!, and is the author of the books Red Shirt Kids and Secret Santa. He lives in the Salt Lake City area with his wife, Stephanie.- Director
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Mark Edwin Robinson was born in San Diego, California, USA. Mark Edwin is a director and writer, known for Breaking Dawn (2004), The Levenger Tapes (2013) and I Will Follow You Into the Dark (2012).- Producer
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Chief Executive Officer of MonteCristo International Entertainment and Broadside Enterprises Inc.
Michael is a multi-talented entertainment industry veteran - he has written, directed, produced and distributed a host of notable films. These include MANAGUA with Academy Award Winner Louis Gossett Jr, and BY THE SWORD with Academy Award winning actor F. Murray Abraham, and most recently APARTMENT 1303-3D with Mischa Barton and Rebecca De Mornay. Mr Taverna joined Horizon Entertainment in 2001 as its Sales and Acquisition Executive and contributed to growing Horizon from 3 to 60 completed pictures. Among these were the highly acclaimed horror genres THE RING, THE GRUDGE and DARK WATER. In addition, Michael Executive Produced SHADOWS OF THE DEAD, OUTLIER, INA AND THE BLUE TIGER and a number of other Films. In 2006 Mr. Taverna formed MonteCristo International as a sales, distribution and film production company, participating in all major film markets including Cannes, AFM, Berlin, MIP TV, Pusan and establishing a strong network of foreign buyers worldwide. In January 2021 MonteCristo International was acquired by Broadside Enterprises (OTC: BRSE) in a reverse merger transaction. Mr. Taverna continues to direct & produce feature film via MonteCristo Pictures.- Director
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Timothy Woodward Jr is an Emmy Award Winning Director, Producer and Showrunner. Timothy was born October 15, 1983 in Georgetown, SC. His love for film began early when he saw his first theatrical film. Woodward, who got his start in the entertainment industry on the other side of the camera, began directing music videos before making his directorial feature debut in 2013.
In 2015, Woodward directed his first period piece, "Traded" which released to great commercial success and critical acclaim. It became a prototype for successful indie westerns. Woodward quickly followed "Traded" with the bio-pics "Hickok" about the life of Wild Bill Hickok and "Gangster Land", a noir thriller about the Al Capone and his right hand enforcer Machine Gun Jack McGurn.
Often compared to western filmmaking legend Sergio Leone, Woodward continues to create beautiful pieces of art with his Director of Photography Pablo Diez.
Their first venture into the world of independent horror, "The Final Wish", premiered at ScreamFest in 2018.
In 2021 Woodward won The Emmy Award for his work in the Outstanding Limited Drama Series "Studios City" on Amazon Prime.- Director
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Matt Winn is known for The Trouble with Jessica (2023), We Are Happy (2015) and The Brunchers (2013).- Writer
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Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a film until he was 18. Although he more than made up for lost time when studying at Calvin College, Columbia University and UCLA's graduate film program, his influences were far removed from those of his contemporaries--Robert Bresson, Yasujirô Ozu and Carl Theodor Dreyer (about whom he wrote a book, "Transcendental Style in Film") rather than Saturday-morning serials. After a period as a film critic (and protégé of Pauline Kael), he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he and his brother, Leonard Schrader (a Japanese expert), were paid the then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, which was consolidated when Martin Scorsese filmed Schrader's script Taxi Driver (1976), written in the early 1970s during a bout of drinking and depression. The success of the film allowed Schrader to start directing his own films, which have been notable for their willingness to take stylistic and thematic risks while still working squarely within the Hollywood system. The most original of his films (which he and many others regard as his best) was the Japanese co-production Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985).- Writer
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Malcolm D. Lee was born on 11 January 1970 in the USA. He is a writer and director, known for Girls Trip (2017), The Best Man (1999) and The Best Man: The Final Chapters (2022). He has been married to Camilla Banks since 2000. They have three children.- Producer
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Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none were as captivated as the 12-year-old Rodriguez, who sat with his friends in a crowded cinema. Many people watch films and arrogantly proclaim "I can do that." This young man said something different: "I WILL do that. I'm gonna make movies." That day was the catalyst of his dream career. Born and raised in Texas, Robert was the middle child of a family that would include 10 children. While many a child would easily succumb to a Jan Brady sense of being lost in the shuffle, Robert always stood out as a very creative and very active young man. An artist by nature, he was very rarely seen sans pencil-in-hand doodling some abstract (yet astounding) dramatic feature on a piece of paper. His mother, not a fan of the "dreary" cinema of the 1970s, instills a sense of cinema in her children by taking them on weekly trips to San Antonio's famed Olmos Theatre movie house and treats them to a healthy dose of Hollywood's "Golden Age" wonders, from Sergio Leone to the silent classic of Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
In a short amount of time, young Robert finds the family's old Super-8 film camera and makes his first films. The genres are unlimited: action, sci-fi, horror, drama, stop-motion animation. He uses props from around the house, settings from around town, and makes use of the largest cast and crew at his disposal: his family. At the end of the decade, his father, a salesman, brings home the latest home-made technological wonder: a VCR, and with it (as a gift from the manufacturer) a video camera. With this new equipment at his disposal, he makes movies his entire life. He screens the movies for friends, all of whom desperately want to star in the next one. He gains a reputation in the neighborhood as "the kid who makes movies". Rather than handing in term papers, he is allowed to hand in "term movies" because, as he himself explains, "[the teachers] knew I'd put more effort into a movie than I ever would into an essay." He starts his own comic strip, "Los Hooligans". His movies win every local film competition and festival. When low academic grades threaten to keep him out of UT Austin's renowned film department, he proves his worth the only way he knows how: he makes a movie. Three, in fact: trilogy of short movies called "Austin Stories" starring his siblings. It beats the entries of the school's top students and allows Robert to enter the program. After being accepted into the film department, Robert takes $400 of his own money to make his "biggest" film yet: a 16mm short comedy/fantasy called Bedhead (1991).
Pouring every idea and camera trick he knew into the short, it went on to win multiple awards. After meeting and marrying fellow Austin resident Elizabeth Avellan, Robert comes up with a crazy idea: he will sell his body to science in order to finance his first feature-length picture (a Mexican action adventure about a guitarist with no name looking for work but getting caught up in a shoot-'em-up adventure) that he will sell to the Spanish video market and use as an entry point to a lucrative Hollywood career. With his "guinea pig" money he raises a mere $7,000 and creates El Mariachi (1992). But rather than lingering in obscurity, the film finds its way to the Sundance film festival where it becomes an instant favorite, wins Robert a distribution deal with Columbia Pictures and turns him into an icon among would-be film-makers the world over. Not one to rest on his laurels, he immediately helms the straight-to-cable movie Roadracers (1994) and contributes a segment to the anthology comedy Four Rooms (1995) (his will be the most lauded segment).
His first "genuine" studio effort would soon have people referring to him as "John Woo from south-of-the-border". It is the "Mariachi" remake/sequel Desperado (1995). More lavish and action-packed than its own predecessor, the movie--while not a blockbuster hit--does decent business and launches the American film careers of Antonio Banderas as the guitarist-turned-gunslinger and Salma Hayek as his love interest (the two would star in several of his movies from then on). It also furthers the director's reputation of working on low budgets to create big results. In the year when movies like Batman Forever (1995) and GoldenEye (1995) were pushing budgets past the $100 million mark, Rodriguez brought in "Desperado" for just under $7 million. The film also featured a cameo by fellow indie film wunderkind, Quentin Tarantino. It would be the beginning of a long friendship between the two sprinkled with numerous collaborations. Most notable the Tarantino-penned vampire schlock-fest From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). The kitschy flick (about a pair of criminal brothers on the run from the Texas Rangers, only to find themselves in a vamp-infested Mexican bar) became an instant cult favorite and launched the lucrative film career of ER (1994) star George Clooney.
After a two-year break from directing (primarily to spend with his family, but also developing story ideas and declining Hollywood offers) he returned to "Dusk till Dawn" territory with the teen sci-fi/horror movie The Faculty (1998), written by Scream (1996) writer, Kevin Williamson. Although it's developed a small following of its own, it would prove to be Robert's least-successful film. Critics and fans alike took issue with the pedestrian script, the off-kilter casting and the flick's blatant over-commercialization (due to a marketing deal with clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger). After another three-year break, Rodriguez returned to make his most successful (and most unexpected) movie yet, based on his own segment from Four Rooms (1995). After a string of bloody, adult-oriented action fare, no one anticipated him to write and direct the colorful and creative Spy Kids (2001), a movie about a pair of prepubescent Latino sibs who discover that their lame parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are actually two of the world's greatest secret agents. The film was hit among both audiences and critics alike.
After quitting the Writers' Guild of America and being introduced to digital filmmaking by George Lucas, Robert immediately applied the creative, flexible (and cost-effective) technology to every one of his movies from then on, starting with an immediate sequel to his family friendly hit: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) which was THEN immediately followed by the trilogy-capper Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003). The latter would prove to be the most financially-lucrative of the series and employ the long-banished movie gimmick of 3-D with eye-popping results. Later the same year Rodriguez career came full circle when he completed the final entry of the story that made brought him to prominence: "El Mariachi". The last chapter, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), would be his most direct homage to the Sergio Leone westerns he grew up on. With a cast boasting Antonio Banderas (returning as the gunslinging guitarist), Johnny Depp (as a corrupt CIA agent attempting to manipulate him), Salma Hayek, Mickey Rourke, Willem Dafoe and Eva Mendes, the film delivered even more of the Mexican shoot-'em-up spectacle than both of the previous films combined.
Now given his choice of movies to do next, Robert sought out famed comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, a man who had been very vocal of never letting his works be adapted for the screen. Even so, he was wholeheartedly convinced and elated when Rodriguez presented him with a plan to turn Miller's signature work into the film Sin City (2005). A collection of noir-ish tales set in a fictional, crime-ridden slum, the movie boasted the largest cast Rodriguez had worked with to that date. Saying he didn't want to mere "adapt" Miller's comics but "translate" them, Rodriguez' insistence that Miller co-direct the movie lead to Robert's resignation from the Director's Guild of America (and his subsequent dismissal from the film John Carter (2012) as a result). Many critics cited that Sin City was created as a pure film noir piece to adapt Miller's comics onto the screen. Co-directing with Frank Miller and bringing in Quentin Tarantino to guest-direct a scene allowed Rodriguez to again shock Hollywood with his talent.
In late 2007, Rodriguez again teamed up with his friend Tarantino to create the double feature Grindhouse (2007). Rodriguez's offering, Planet Terror (2007), was a film made to be "hardcore, extreme, sex-fueled, action-packed." Rodriguez flirts with his passion to make a showy film exploiting all of his experience to make an extremely entertaining thrill ride. The film is encompassed around Cherry (Rose McGowan), a reluctant go-go dancer who is found wanting when she meets her ex-lover El Wray (played by Freddy Rodríguez) who turns up at a local BBQ grill. They then, after a turn of events, find themselves fending off brain-eating zombies whilst trying to flee to Mexico (here we go off to Mexico again). Apart from directing, Rodriguez also involves himself in camera work, editing and composing music for his movies' sound tracks (he composed Planet Terror's main theme). He also shoots a lot of his own action scenes to get a direct idea from his eye as the director into the film. In El Mariachi (1992), Rodriguez spent hours in front of a pay-to-use, computer editing his film. This allowed him to capture the ideal footage exactly as he wanted it. Away from the filming aspect of Hollywood, Rodriguez is an expert chef who cooks gourmet meals for the cast and crew. Rodriguez is also known for his ability to turn a low-budgeted film with a small crew into an example of film mastery. El mariachi was "the movie made on seven grand" and still managed to rank as one of Rodriguez' best films (receiving a rating of 92% on the Rotten Tomatoes film review site).
Because Rodriguez is involved so deeply in his films, he is able to capture what he wants first time, which saves both time and money. Rodriguez's films share some similar threads and ideas, whilst also having differences. In El Mariachi (1992), he uses a hand-held camera. He made this decision for several reasons. First, he couldn't afford a tripod and secondly, he wanted to make the audience more aware of the action. In the action sequences he is given more mobility with a hand-held camera and also allows for distortion of the unprofessional action sequences (because the cost of all special effects in the film totaled $600). However, in Sin City (2005) and Planet Terror (2007), the budget was much greater, and Rodriguez could afford to spend more on special affects (especially since both films were filmed predominately with green screen) and, thus, there was no need to cover for error.
Playing by his own rules or not at all, Robert Rodriguez has redefined what a filmmaker can or cannot do. Shunning Hollywood's ridiculously high budgets, multi-picture deals and the two most powerful unions for the sake of maintaining creative freedom are decisions that would (and have) cost many directors their careers. Rodriguez has turned these into his strengths, creating some of the most imaginative works the big-screen has ever seen.- Writer
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Chris Sivertson is known for I Know Who Killed Me (2007), Brawler (2011) and Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018).- Editor
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Patrick Lussier is known for Drive Angry (2011), My Bloody Valentine (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015).- Producer
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Kyle Newman is an award-wining filmmaker and New York Times Bestselling, Hugo Award-nominated author.
His directorial work encompasses multiple feature films including, Fanboys, the Star Wars-fueled comedy starring Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen, the action-comedy Barely Lethal starring Oscar Nominees Hailee Steinfeld and Samuel L. Jackson for A24 Films, and his most recent, 1UP, starring Ruby Rose for Lionsgate and Buzzfeed Studios set in the world of eSports.
He has directed the music industry's top artists including Taylor Swift ("Style", "Clean" and 1989 World Tour content featuring Selena Gomez, Haim and more), Lana Del Rey ("Summertime Sadness") and Cyn ("House with a View") guest starring Katy Perry with his video work garnering billions of views.
Newman produced the critically acclaimed documentary Raiders: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, about three teenagers who set out to recreate Steven Spielberg's classic Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot (distributed by Drafthouse Films/Neon) and executive produced the 2021 thriller Happily. He also crafted the story for the hit Netflix Original animated feature Gnome Alone for Shrek-producer John H. Williams.
He is a New York Times bestselling author known for his work on the Hugo Award and Locus Award-nominated Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, a history of the world's greatest roleplaying game as well as Heroes' Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook, which debuted on all major bestseller lists including The Wall Street Journal, USA Todayand Publisher's Weekly. He is at work on his soon to be announced third and fourth books for publisher Penguin Random House.
Newman, an honors graduate of NYU's Tisch School of Film/TV and the recipient of the esteemed 'Martin Scorsese Award for Excellence in Directing', has written and/or directed for clients including The Microsoft Corp., Interscope Records, Starz Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro), The Coca-Cola Company, Starwars,20th Century Fox, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Big Machine Records, Lionsgate, Endemol Shine, Millennium Films, Pacific Life Insurance, Lucasfilm, Ltd., Games For Windows, A24 Films, Awesomeness TV, Hooters of America, Titan Publishing, Unsub Records, The Saturday Group and Universal Republic Music.
A proud member of the Director's Guild of America, he resides in Los Angeles with his three sons James Knight, Leo Thames and Etienne Noel.- Director
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Steven C. Miller was born in Decatur, Ga. His love for film began early when his father bought him a VHS video camera. Miller started off small with multiple music videos and short films. In 2005 Miller attended and graduated Full Sail University.
In 2005, immediately after graduating film school at Full Sail University, Steven moved from Florida to Hollywood where he and two close friends raised the money to fund his feature film debut. "Automaton Transfusion." The no-budget cult phenomenon (which Miller also wrote and edited) was shot in 9 days and had a budget of under 30k.
In October 2007, "Automaton Transfusion" premiered at the "ScreamFest" horror festival at the Mann's Chinese Theater. It was purchased and distributed by Dimension films.
Over the next several years, Steven was attached to several studio films including MGM's remake of "Motel Hell," Paramount Vantage's "Ink" and "Area 52" that never materialized into actual films. He learned the meaning of "development hell."
In 2011, Steven decided to return to his roots, work outside of the studio system and shot two independent low budget features: "Under The Bed" and "The Aggression Scale."
The Amblin-esque "Under The Bed" premiered at the 2012 Fantasia Film Festival and played film festivals around the globe. "The Aggression Scale" premiered to rave reviews at the 2012 South By Southwest Film Festival and was described as "Home Alone" meets "Straw Dogs" and was purchased by Anchor Bay.
In April of 2012 Miller began shooting the remake of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" starring Malcolm McDowell and Jaime King. Anchor Bay is set to distribute in December 2012.
In October 2013 Miller finished his first action thriller "Submerged". The film was bought by IFC films and is being released in theaters Nov 27th 2015.
In 2015, Emmitt/Furla Films and Grindstone Entertainment hired Miller to helm two Bruce Willis films back to back, Extraction and Marauders. Extraction hits Theaters December 18th 2015.- Producer
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Shane Dax Taylor was born on 7 August 1975 in Henderson, Kentucky, USA. Shane Dax is a producer and writer, known for The Christmas Classic (2023), Bloodworth (2010) and The Best Man (2023). Shane Dax has been married to Robyn Corum since 28 May 2005.- Producer
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Matthew Coppola is known for Fresh Cut Grass (2002), Sports: at&T Original Documentaries (2010) and Love on Ice (2017).- Director
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Scott began his career as a director of music videos creating acclaimed work for Will.I.am, Jordin Sparks, and Jason Derulo, winning an MVPA Award for Directorial Debut of the Year, two GMA Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. National campaigns followed with commercials for Buick, Colgate, and Sara Lee. Scott made his feature film debut with Step Up Revolution which grossed over 142 million worldwide. He went on to direct Midnight Sun for Open Road/Universal and I Still See You for Lionsgate.
In television, Scott directed MTV's Finding Carter pilot and served as series producing director. His episodic work includes MTV's Scream and Eye Candy as well as Hulu's The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.- Actor
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Actor, writer. New York City native Jason Fuchs has been acting since the age of 7 when he appeared at Lincoln Center in the play "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" with Sam Waterston. In 1996, Jason made his feature film debut as Marvin in "Flipper" opposite Elijah Wood and Paul Hogan. Back on stage, Jason originated the role of Jonathan the "turkey boy" in Madison Square Garden's musical production of "A Christmas Carol", a role he reprised for the first three seasons of the show's run. In 1999, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for his performance in the feature film comedy "Jane Austen's Mafia!". Jason was next seen in a leading role opposite Ben Kingsley in the family film "Spooky House".
Jason has also been seen in a number of guest-starring roles on TV, including episodes of "Cosby", "The Sopranos", "The Beat", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", and "Ed". He received his second Young Artist Award nomination for his guest starring role on an episode of "Law & Order: SVU" in 2003.
On stage, Jason originated the role of JoJo in the initial New York reading and subsequent Toronto workshop of "Seussical the Musical". In 2004, Jason performed in the Atlantic Theater Company's production of the Howard Korder play "Sea of Tranquility". In 2005, Jason starred on-stage in the off-Broadway rock musical "Gorilla Man" from OBIE-award winning playwright Kyle Jarrow. Jason and the cast of "Gorilla Man" were invited to and performed at the 2005 OBIE Awards in New York City.
Most recently, Jason wrote, produced and starred in the 2006 short film "Pitch". The film made its premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.- Producer
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Ross Clarke was born on 18 October 1967. He is a producer and director, known for The Birdcatcher (2019), Desiree (2014) and Nowhere Boy (2009).- Director
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Award-winning filmmaker and scientist, Dr. Valerie Weiss has infused her signature blend of elevated and emotional storytelling into her four feature films and dozens of television episodes. Her work has been called "daringly light" for the way it embraces controversial topics in enchanting ways and spans the genres of action, thriller, drama, science-fiction and comedy. Valerie's fourth feature film, Mixtape, which she directed for Netflix from a Blacklist-winning script, has scored a coveted 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and ranks as one of the best family films of 2021 according to The Washington Post and Common Sense Media. Mixtape, a nostalgic musical odyssey through the 80s and 90s follows 12-year old Beverly Moody as she seeks to learn about her late parents from a punk rock mixtape she finds in her basement.
Valerie's recent television work includes directing the finale of the limited series Echoes (Netflix) for showrunners Brian Yorkey and Quinton Peeples, two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount +), and multiple episodes across all seasons of Netflix's global megahit Outer Banks (Netflix). Additionally, she has directed multiple episodes for several of television's biggest producers including Shonda Rhimes, Dick Wolf, Greg Berlanti and Marc Cherry.
Valerie's third feature, The Archer, is a feminist coming-of-age action film best described as Thelma and Louise meets First Blood and premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival. Her other films have played at a multitude of film festivals and won various awards including the Audience Award at the Mill Valley Film Festival and Best Director at the Whistler Film Festival.
A proud member of the DGA, Valerie is the Co-Chair of the Women's Steering Committee, and has been appointed to the DGA's Sustainable Future and Special Projects Committees by President Lesli Linka Glatter. In 2018, Valerie won the top honors in the Fox Filmmaking Lab for her pitch of a female-centric sequel in the Maze Runner franchise called True Maze. She participated in the WeForShe DirectHer Program, and the inaugural DGA Director Development Initiative. Valerie is on the Board of Advisors for the Paperless App Scriptation for which she recently won an Engineering Emmy. She is an alum of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) Program and holds a Ph.D. in biophysics and a Masters in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School. She is repped by CAA and John Bauman Management. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two daughters and goldendoodle, Murphy.- Writer
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David Pastor was born on 25 July 1978 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He is a writer and producer, known for Carriers (2009), The Last Days (2013) and Self/less (2015).- Writer
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Àlex Pastor was born on 13 March 1981 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He is a writer and producer, known for Carriers (2009), The Last Days (2013) and The Natural Route (2004).- Director
- Producer
- Visual Effects
Stewart Hendler was born on 22 December 1978. He is a director and producer, known for H+ (2011), One (2001) and Sorority Row (2009).- Additional Crew
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Josh Stolberg was born on 7 March 1971 in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. He is a writer and assistant director, known for Spiral (2021), Piranha 3D (2010) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005). He has been married to Leila Leigh since 15 September 2001. They have two children.- Director
- Producer
A dual citizen of Canada and the USA, David DeCoteau has worked professionally in the movie business since he was 18 years old. He got his start through a generous offer from movie legend Roger Corman, who hired him in 1980 as a production assistant at New World Pictures. In 1986, DeCoteau directed and produced his first feature film for another generous film legend, Charles Band. DeCoteau has gone on to produce and direct more than 170 motion pictures over the past forty years. His passion lies in the creation of popular genre programming made for world consumption. DeCoteau's experience in creating content in countries all over the world makes him a proven choice for exceptionally challenging movie projects. He resides in British Columbia, Canada and Hollywood, California.- Producer
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George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max films, Miller has been involved in a wide range of projects. These include the Academy Award-winning Babe (1995) and Happy Feet (2006) film series.
Miller is co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. His younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have been producers on almost all the films in Miller's later career, since the death of his original producing partner Byron Kennedy.
In 2006, Miller won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet (2006). He has been nominated for five other Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay in 1992 for Lorenzo's Oil (1992), Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1995 for Babe (1995), and Best Picture and Best Director for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).- Producer
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Joss Whedon is the middle of five brothers - his younger brothers are Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon. Both his father, Tom Whedon and his grandfather, John Whedon were successful television writers. Joss' mother, Lee Stearns, was a history teacher and she also wrote novels as Lee Whedon. Whedon was raised in New York and was educated at Riverdale Country School, where his mother also taught. He also attended Winchester College in England for two years, before graduating with a film degree from Wesleyan University.
After relocating to Los Angeles, Whedon landed his first TV writing job on "Roseanne", and moved on to script a season of "Parenthood". He then developed a film script which went on to become Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). Whedon was very unhappy with the final film - his original script was extensively re-written and made lighter in tone. After this he earned screenwriting credits on such high profile productions as Alien: Resurrection (1997) and Toy Story (1995), for which he was Oscar nominated. He also worked as a 'script doctor' on various features, notably Speed (1994).
In 1997, Whedon had the opportunity to resurrect his character Buffy in a television series on The WB Network. This time, as showrunner and executive producer, he retained full artistic control. The series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was a popular and critical hit, which ran for several seasons, the last two on UPN. Whedon also produced a spin-off series, "Angel", which was also successful. A foray in to sci-fi television followed with "Firefly", which developed a cult following, but did not stay on air long. It did find an audience on DVD and through re-runs, and a spin-off feature film Serenity (2005) was released in 2005.
Other projects have included comic book writing, the sci-fi drama "Dollhouse" and the screenplay for Marvel blockbuster The Avengers (2012).- Actress
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Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She is the daughter of Anne Marie (Wallace), who worked in a bank, and Mark Phineas Mitchell, a factory worker. Elizabeth describes herself as having been seen as a "goody two-shoes" in her youth who was nominated for the local Harvest Queen.
Banks left home to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania--from which she graduated Magna cum Laude--and went on to attend the Advanced Training Program at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, graduating in 1996. She then moved to New York and worked in the theater, and began getting small roles in films and on television. Seeking more screen work, she moved to Los Angeles and was soon cast in supporting roles. She also had to change her last name, to Banks, in order to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.
Her breakthrough role was as Betty Brant, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002). She followed up this performance with small roles in other movies: Swept Away (2002), Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). In 2003 she won the Exciting New Face Award at the Young Hollywood Awards. The winsome, beautiful Banks projected an exceptionally charming screen presence that drew comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and Hollywood eventually began to take notice, Banks being cast in the lead in such films as Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and in Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, W. (2008), as Laura Bush.
In television, Banks was a recurring guest star on Scrubs (2001) as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of Zach Braff's J.D. In 2010 she was cast as Alec Baldwin's love interest in season four of 30 Rock (2006). Originally scheduled to appear in only four episodes, she was brought back as a recurring character for two more seasons, and earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years. Elizabeth has also appeared in such films as Our Idiot Brother (2011), Man on a Ledge (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), People Like Us (2012), and Pitch Perfect (2012). She also won the coveted role as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).
After an eleven-year courtship, Banks married Max Handelman, a sports writer and producer, in 2003. They have two sons, Felix, who was born in March 2011, and Magnus, born in Nov. 2012, both by gestational surrogacy.- Producer
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Kay Cannon is a screenwriter, actress and producer, best known for Pitch Perfect (2012), Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), and Pitch Perfect 3 (2017). She is also known for her work on NBC's 30 Rock (2006) and the Netflix Original Series Girlboss (2017).
Cannon has won three Writers Guild of America Awards and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.- Writer
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Alex Garland is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for the films Ex Machina (2015) and Annihilation (2018).
Garland's others works as a writer includes The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2011) and Dredd (2012).
He is also the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In 2015, Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Writing, Original Screenplay category.- Producer
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James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010), The Conjuring (2013) and Furious 7 (2015).
Before his success in the mainstream film industry, he made his first feature-length film, Stygian, with Shannon Young, which won "Best Guerrilla Film" at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) in 2000.
Prior to 2003, Wan and Leigh Whannell had begun writing a script based for a horror film, citing inspiration from their dreams and fears. Upon completing the script, Leigh and James had wanted to select an excerpt from their script, later to be known as Saw (2004), and film it to pitch their film to studios. With the help of Charlie Clouser, who had composed the score for the film, and a few stand-in actors, Leigh and James shot the film with relatively no budget. Leigh had decided to star in the film as well.
After the release of the full-length Saw (2004), the film was met with overwhelming success in the box office both domestically and internationally. The film ended up grossing 55 million dollars in America, and 48 million dollars in other countries, totaling over $103 million worldwide. This was over 100 million dollars profit, over 80 times the production budget. This green-lit the sequel Saw II (2005), and later the rest of the Saw franchise based on the yearly success of the previous installment. Since its inception, Saw (2004) has become the highest grossing horror franchise of all time worldwide in unadjusted dollars. In the United States only, Saw (2004) is the second highest grossing horror franchise, behind only the Friday the 13th (1980) films by a margin of $10 million.- Producer
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Chris Morgan is known for Furious 7 (2015), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013).- Producer
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David Ayer is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. David Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois and grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager. Ayer then lived with his cousin in Los Angeles, California, where his experiences in South Central Los Angeles became the inspiration for many of his films. Ayer then enlisted in the United States Navy as a submariner.- Director
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Director and screenwriter Katharine OBrien was born in Santa Barbara, CA and studied English at Wellesley College. Katharine worked at Muse Film (Virgin Suicides, Buffalo 66) and as a television writing assistant with Kids in the Hall and Russo Brothers before receiving her MFA in film directing at Columbia Universitys graduate film program. Katharines award-winning short films have played numerous film festivals. Her first feature film The Automatic Hate, which she co-wrote, premiered at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and played top international festivals such as Busan and Mar del Plata, winning the Audience Award at the Mill Valley Film Festival. In Katharines directorial debut, Lost Transmissions, she draws heavily from personal experience dealing with mental health in her own family. Her upbringing was varied, her father was a police officer in South Boston, and her stepfather was a prominent art dealer in New York City. Through her stepfather she was exposed to the great artists of the 20th century and was inspired to pursue art, photography and writing at an early age. Katharines career in narrative film allows her to combine these passions with a dose of social realism, believing that film is a conversation between art and popular culture. Katharine currently resides in Silverlake, Los Angeles, where she is actively involved in promoting art and film culture, having served on the boards of Lacma and the Cinefamily Foundation.- Director
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John Asher is an award-winning writer/director whose passion for storytelling through the lens was ignited in his early years. As a child, he inadvertently honed his craft by breaking his father's video cameras while attempting to capture epic shots. Dyslexia posed a unique challenge for John, pushing him to express himself visually, ultimately steering him toward his dream of becoming a director.
His journey into the world of entertainment began as an actor, seizing every opportunity to observe directors at work. The pivotal four years spent on "Weird Science" served as John's informal film school, laying the foundation for his future success.
At the young age of 24, John directed his first film, "Kounterfeit" (1996), featuring Oscar winner Hillary Swank. This was followed by "Chick Flick" (1998) and the Miramax production "Diamonds" (1999), starring Kirk Douglas and Dan Aykroyd-all accomplished before turning 30. His 2005 Sundance premiere, "Dirty Love," marked another milestone in his directing career.
Venturing into television, John helmed episodes of the Showtime series "Going to California" (2001) and the CW hit show "One Tree Hill" (2006). He also showcased his versatility directing LIVE comedy specials, including "Margaret Cho: PsyCHO" (Showtime), "Sebastian Maniscalco: Aren't You Embarrassed" (Showtime), and "Ralphie May: Unruly" (Netflix).
In 2013, John returned to filmmaking with "Somebody Marry Me," an innovative romantic comedy shot in one continuous take-a testament to his commitment to pushing creative boundaries. This was followed by "A Boy Called Po" (2016), a deeply personal exploration of autism inspired by John's son, Evan, who has been a profound influence on both his personal and professional life.
In 2017, John showcased his comedic flair with "TOOKEN," a spoof that hilariously lampoons the Taken franchise, starring Margaret Cho. His directorial journey continued with the family comedy "I Hate Kids" in 2019.
In 2024, John Asher continues his trajectory of captivating storytelling with his latest cinematic endeavor, "A Love Like This." A poignant dramatic romance feature with a stellar cast, staring Emmanuelle Chriqui and Hayes McArthur, who help bring John's vision to life.
John Asher's career is a testament to his unwavering dedication to storytelling, visual innovation, and the power of film to captivate and connect audiences. who knows what's next. One thing we know for sure, is you can't put Asher in a box!- Producer
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Douglas Eric Liman is a Jewish-American filmmaker and producer who directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, Chaos Walking, Jumper, Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Fair Game, Locked Down, Edge of Tomorrow, The Wall and American Made. He executive produced the Bourne sequels except The Bourne Legacy, The Phantom and The Killing Floor.- Writer
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David S. Goyer was born on 22 December 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Dark City (1998), The Dark Knight (2008) and Flashforward (2009). He is married to Marina Black. They have two children. He was previously married to Jessika Borsiczky.- Producer
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Simon Kinberg is a British film producer, director and screenwriter who is known for producing the X-Men films, Fant4stic, Logan, the Deadpool films, Cinderella and The Martian. He directed Dark Phoenix, the finale of the X-Men Beginnings films. He created Star Wars Rebels, an animated series set after Revenge of the Sith and before Rogue One. He also wrote Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men: The Last Stand and Jumper.- Director
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Michael Polish was born on 30 October 1970 in El Centro, California, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Twin Falls Idaho (1999), Northfork (2003) and Jackpot (2001). He was previously married to Kate Bosworth and Jo Strettell.- Producer
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Jane Goldman was born on 11 June 1970 in England, UK. She is a producer and writer, known for Kick-Ass (2010), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Stardust (2007). She has been married to Jonathan Ross since August 1988. They have three children.- Director
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Neill Blomkamp is a South African-Canadian film director and screenwriter who is known for the science fiction films District 9, Elysium and Chappie. He also directed the supernatural horror film Demonic and the 2007 short film Halo: Landfall, based on the Microsoft science fiction video game franchise. He had a child from his wife Terri Tatchell.- Writer
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Born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, Colin Trevorrow started making short films when he was 12 years old. He studied film and dramatic writing at New York University. After graduation, he wrote and directed "Home Base" a digital short that became one of the early viral successes on the internet. His first feature film, "Safety Not Guaranteed" was written by fellow NYU graduate Derek Connolly, who met Trevorrow while they were both interns on Saturday Night Live.- Writer
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Amanda Silver was born on 24 May 1963 in the USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Jurassic World (2015). She has been married to Rick Jaffa since 29 July 1989. They have two children.- Writer
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Derek Connolly is known for Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Jurassic World Dominion (2022) and Jurassic World (2015).- Writer
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Rick Jaffa was born on 8 May 1956 in Dallas County, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Jurassic World (2015). He has been married to Amanda Silver since 29 June 1989. They have two children.- Director
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Dean Israelite was born on 20 September 1984 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a director and producer, known for Acholiland (2009), Power Rangers (2017) and Project Almanac (2015).- Director
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Gil Kenan was born on 16 October 1976 in London, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), Monster House (2006) and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). He has been married to Eliza Chaikin since 2005.- Producer
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One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Jaws (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies. In 1964, he directed Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens invading a small town. In 1967, he directed Slipstream (1967), which was unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed Amblin' (1968), which featured the desert prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would feature. Amblin' also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project, Duel (1971), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Murder by the Book (1971). All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would dazzle audiences all over the world.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and followed that effort with Used Cars (1980), a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell/Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reese's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T." and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail (1986), a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the Future (1985), which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed Empire of the Sun (1987), a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long, though.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Always (1989) as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Back to the Future Part II (1989). All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. Also, in 1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results. Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", he produced the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Freakazoid! (1995), Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998), Family Dog (1993) and Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as The Land Before Time (1988), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Casper (1995) (the live action version) as well as the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller Arachnophobia (1990), Back to the Future Part III (1990) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed Schindler's List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Men in Black (1997) and Deep Impact (1998). However, it was on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and produced the epic Amistad (1997), a spectacular film that was shorted at the Oscars and in release due to the fact that its release date was moved around so much in late 1997. The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of the best films of his career: Saving Private Ryan (1998), a film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spielberg produced a series of films, including Evolution (2001), The Haunting (1999) and Shrek (2001). he also produced two sequels to Jurassic Park (1993), which were financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered varied reviews from critics.
Spielberg has been extremely active in films there are many other things he has done as well. He produced the short-lived TV series SeaQuest 2032 (1993), an anthology series entitled Amazing Stories (1985), created the video-game series "Medal of Honor" set during World War Two, and was a starting producer of ER (1994). Spielberg, if you haven't noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and Tom Hanks collaborated on Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a documentary about World War II combat photographers, and he produced a documentary about the Holocaust called Eyes of the Holocaust (2000). With all of this to Spielberg's credit, it's no wonder that he's looked at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.- Producer
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Glenn Ficarra is known for I Love You Phillip Morris (2009), Cats & Dogs (2001) and This Is Us (2016).- Producer
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Sadie is an actress, writer, producer and documentarian with an award named in her honor (AMDOC'S Sadie Katz Award for Hustle.) She spent the last two decades balancing being a single mom and a scream queen genre actress and recently opened own production company "See You Next Tuesday Films" with the goal of telling female focused stories that don't involve sexed-up super villains or girls running through the woods. Sadie is mother to Gen Z artist/model Griffin Katz. She is engaged to documentarian Myles Reiff with whom she is expecting a child this September. They live in Atwater Village with their two cats Audrey Hepburn & Deliliah and a precocious chihuahua named Buffy.- Writer
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Eric Heisserer was born in 1970 in Norman, Oklahoma, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Arrival (2016), Bird Box (2018) and Hours (2013). He has been married to Christine Boylan since 23 October 2010.- Director
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Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Incendies (2010). He is married to Tanya Lapointe.- Director
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Hailing from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Nick Simon's journey into filmmaking began in a multicultural household, providing him a unique perspective on his Syrian/Lebanese heritage. The interest in cinema turned to an obsession as Simon began filming the local bands raging against the inertia of Middle America, eventually crafting music videos that played on MTV. Simon moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to attend the American Film Institute, which led to him being mentored by the late horror legend, Wes Craven. Simon has directed and written several feature and television films including THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS, which premiered at TIFF and THE PYRAMID, released by 20th Century Fox and TRUTH OR DARE, consistently ranking among the top ten films on Netflix every Halloween season for five consecutive years. Simon is also a co-writer on Alexandre Aja's upcoming branch narrative project for Paramount Pictures. Simon's most recent cinematic endeavor, UNTITLED HORROR MOVIE, stands as a pioneering achievement filmed entirely remotely during the 2020 lockdown and released in 2021. The film not only showcases innovation but has also achieved massive critical success.- Writer
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Adam Alleca was born on 16 February 1983 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Cell (2016), The Last House on the Left (2009) and Standoff (2016). He is married to Ashley Christine Beyer.- Director
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Mike Flanagan is a prolific writer, director, and editor. He entered into an exclusive overall deal with Amazon Studios in 2023 for television projects (after a similar exclusive deal with Netflix from 2018-2022), and has made feature films for Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Netflix and more. Flanagan is best known for his work in horror films and television series, which has attracted the praise of critics for his focus on character and lack of reliance on jump scares. Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, and William Friedkin, among others, have praised him.
Flanagan was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Timothy and Laura Flanagan. The family relocated frequently, as Timothy was in the U.S. Coast Guard, and finally settled in Bowie, Maryland. As a child, he would shoot and edit short movies on VHS. This continued as he attended Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland, where he was active in the theatre department and the president of the Student Government Association. A graduate of Towson University's Electronic Media and Film department, Mike moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and began working as an editor of sketch comedy shows, reality television, documentary programming and commercials before his Kickstarter-funded breakout feature Absentia (2011) launched his filmmaking career.
Flanagan's films, all of which he directed, wrote, and edited, include Oculus (2013), Hush (2016), Before I Wake (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Gerald's Game (2017), Doctor Sleep (2019), and The Life of Chuck (2024). He also created, directed, and served as showrunner on the series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), the teen horror series The Midnight Club (2022) and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).
Flanagan has been nominated for dozens of awards for writing, directing and editing, and was presented with the Visionary Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 2022. He is an active member of the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America West, Motion Picture Editors Guild, and Screen Actors Guild.
Flanagan lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Kate Siegel, whom he married in 2016. They have a son and a daughter together, as well as a son from Flanagan's previous relationship with Absentia actress Courtney Bell. He has been sober since 2018, and frequently uses his work to explore themes of addiction, recovery, and empathy.- Producer
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Jeff Howard is an American writer and producer who has worked extensively in the genre space. On the television front, Jeff was a writer on the first season of Netflix's horror series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), as well as Resident Evil (2022). His most recent television work was as an executive producer of Midnight Mass (2021). Jeff got his start in the feature space co-writing the Blumhouse hit Oculus (2013) with Mike Flanagan. He also has shared writing credits on Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016) for Universal Studios and Gerald's Game (2017) for Netflix.- Producer
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Adam Schindler is known for 50 States of Fright (2020), Intruders (2015) and Delivery: The Beast Within (2013).- Director
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Jon is a civil-rights-lawyer-turned-filmmaker. He is known for the documentary "Surviving Cliffside" (SXSW 2014, Sundance Channel) and "Black Dog, Red Dog," starring James Franco, Olivia Wilde and Whoopi Goldberg.
Jon grew up in a hollow, called Booger Hole, in Alum Creek, West Virginia. Before becoming a filmmaker, Jon was a lawyer. He practiced civil rights law for seven years. His last job was legal director for the ACLU of Connecticut. At 31, Jon decided to give up law and enroll in NYU's graduate film program. At NYU, Jon studied under James Franco, Todd Solondz, Ira Sachs, and Spike Lee. Jon also worked as Spike Lee's teaching assistant, during his third year at NYU. In the spring of 2012, Jon co-directed a film with James Franco and ten NYU classmates. The film was produced by James Franco and stars Whoopi Goldberg, James Franco, Olivia Wilde, and Logan Marshall-Green. In January 2013, Jon received a grant, awarded by Spike Lee, to finish his documentary, Surviving Cliffside, his first feature documentary.- Director
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Mark was born in Manila, Philippines, and raised in San Jose, California. At age 7, Leonardo DiCaprio, Spielberg, and 1930s horror films got him into the cinematic arts which led to a high interest in filmmaking. Mark's silent crime drama Pitch Black Heist (2012) was inspired by J.J. Abrams TED Talks speech: "The Mystery Box" & Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Schoonmaker made his feature-length directorial debut with horror crime thriller Dual (2024) which features Jamie Pasquinelli (The Black Phone), and the voices of actors Steve Wilcox (Swamp Thing], Johanna Watts (Bullet Train), and Garrett Hines (Deepwater Horizon).
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Mark directed Castlemont (2024), a late '90s period drama exploring loss, grief, divorce, and the creative arts. The film features Wilcox, Pasquinelli, and introduces Isaac Smelcer-Zhang. The original story was inspired by his childhood growing up in Northern, California, and the wisdom he gained from Ethan Hawke in 2018. Schoonmaker recently obtained the film rights to the crime novel, Maidstone and is slated to direct the crime drama thriller next with actors, Kevin Durand (The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Mason Thames (The Black Phone), and Scott Speedman (Underworld, The Strangers) to headline. At age 23 Mark was mentored by filmmaker, Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men). Bryan taught Mark a lot about the business side of filmmaking. Mark also learned from him that "Actors" equal "Production Value." When Mark was attending college studying film, one of the most important pieces of advice he gained from J.J. Abrams was to figure out what to make movies about than how to make movies. That quote and mindset have forever stuck with Schoonmaker.
Schoonmaker was originally developing Amaranth, a coming-of-age sci-fi adventure drama with producers, Amy Soto, Ryan Carnes & screenwriter, Tom Huckabee for actor, Bill Paxton (Aliens, Twister). Originally, Schoonmaker had producer John J. Kelly (Deadpool, Warrior) read an initial draft of "Amaranth." Kelly was the first studio producer to give his time to read what Mark developed. Soto and Huckabee were close friends with Paxton to help gain his involvement, unfortunately, Bill's untimely death put the project on hold, and Schoonmaker pursued other creative endeavors. Dread Central announced in May 2019 Schoonmaker was set to direct mid-90s horror crime thriller, 'Pitch Black Heist'. The film was slated to feature Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, Crash), J.J. Nolan (You, Silicon Valley), Speedman, Evan Jonigkeit (The Empty Man, The Night House), Stefan Rollins (Powers), and Hines. The feature is based on his 8 min student-made short of the same title from 2012. Bryan Singer was the one who gave Schoonmaker the idea to make Pitch Black Heist on a low budget. Schoonmaker has also developed a coming-of-age drama mystery thriller, A Touch of Evil in which he is circling Katherine Waterston and Patrick Wilson to lead the project which will explore alienation, identity, adoption, bullying; and has sought-after Oscar-nominated producer, Howard Barish.
Schoonmaker has built experience making short films and has produced several projects in the short film category. His latest short film Gridlock (2020), a noir mystery crime drama stars - Wilcox, and Rollins. Gridlock was a Semi-Finalist at Los Angeles CineFest 2020. Asian Movie Pulse critic, Adam Symchuk wrote "Gridlock's visual presentation feels on par with bigger productions. There is a certain degree of commitment and reserve to the performances which compliments the production." Schoonmaker is building his filmography and set out to work with industry professionals as he continues to produce original material. At the age of 17, Mark began studying film production at American University in 2008. He produced his first student-made short film on an Arriflex 16mm film camera. He was taught by Jon Alderman, Steve Erdman, and Sarah Menke-Fish. For an internship opportunity in high school, Schoonmaker's first academic mentors in Film/Journalism were Nick Clooney & Menke-Fish at American University. Further film instructors were screenwriting professor, Jonathan Eig, and film production/editing professor, Perry Schwartz at Montgomery Community College. In his late teens, Schoonmaker produced & directed Hindrance (2012), a supernatural horror thriller which was an homage to 1979's Alien & 2001's Thirteen Ghosts. He also produced a black & white skateboard dramedy titled Rockville (2011) which was inspired by his experiences growing up around skateboarders in San Jose, California and also Spike Jonze's skate video, "Mouse."- Director
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Gustavo Ron was born on 14 December 1972 in Madrid, Spain. He is a director and writer, known for Cable Girls (2017), Velvet Colección (2017) and Senda Prohibida (2023). He has been married to Kiruca Utrera since 21 September 2002. They have two children.- Writer
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Stephen Susco is known for Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), The Grudge (2004) and Texas Chainsaw (2013).- Actor
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David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent film-making and in Canadian television programs.
Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal film-making identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of a famous American horror movie.
With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two film projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids expressing his teratologic and oneiric expressionism in favor of a more psychological exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies.- Writer
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Bruce Wagner was born on 20 March 1954 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Maps to the Stars (2014), Knight of Cups (2015) and Wild Palms (1993).- Producer
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Patty Jenkins is a writer/director best known for directing Wonder Woman, the Warner Bros./DC Comics blockbuster of 2017, and her debut feature Monster. Patty also works in television where she is best known for the pilot and finale episode of AMC's hit show The Killing.
Patty began her career as a painter at The Cooper Union in New York City. Upon transitioning to filmmaking, she spent eight years as an Assistant Camera Person/Focus Puller on commercials and music videos. After attending the AFI in Los Angeles, she wrote and directed Monster.
Roger Ebert named Monster as The #1 Best Film of 2004 and #3 Best Film of the decade. AFI named it on the Ten Best Films of the Year. Patty also garnered a number of awards and nominations, including winning Best First Feature at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards. Charlize Theron went on to sweep the awards circuit winning the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG Award, and numerous critics' awards in the Best Actress category.
Jenkins went on to direct many commercials and TV programs including Fox's Arrested Development and HBO's Entourage and the pilot episodes for ABC's Betrayal and Exposed. She won the DGA award for best directing for The Killing pilot, as well as being nominated for an Emmy. She also received an Emmy nomination for her work on the final segment of FIVE - a series of short films about breast cancer.
In 2017, Jenkins broke the record for Biggest Grossing Live-Action Film Directed by a Woman, Domestic and Worldwide, with Wonder Woman. The film also received critical acclaim, broke several records and went on to become highest grossing film of the summer of 2017.- Director
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Darren Lynn Bousman was born on 11 January 1979 in Overland Park, Kansas, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), Saw II (2005) and Abattoir (2016). He has been married to Laura Bousman since 2 January 2010. They have two children.- Actor
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Leigh Whannell grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where, at the age of four, he developed an obsession with telling stories. Whether it be through acting, writing or filmmaking, his primary love was getting a reaction from an audience. In 1995, at the age of 18, he was accepted into the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's prestigious Media Arts course, where he met fellow filmmaker James Wan. In his second year of college, he landed the role of "film guy" on a Saturday morning TV show aimed at teens called Recovery (1996). Filmed totally live in the studio and hosted by actual teenagers, the ground-breaking show was hugely popular down under and was the first to bring "alternative culture" to Australia's TV screens, featuring live performances from bands like Sonic Youth, Weezer, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, Pulp and hundreds more. Hosting the film component of the show, Leigh was lucky enough to interview people like Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Russell Crowe, George Clooney, and eventually went on the host the show in 1999. After graduating from college, Leigh found himself working more and more as a "host" or "presenter" on Australian TV - all the while hatching a plan with James Wan to finally fulfill his dream of making a film. Small acting roles cropped up from time to time (including one in The Matrix Reloaded (2003), which Leigh has said was "the most fun I've ever had in my life") and, along with those, some frustrating near-misses (and not so near-misses: like his cringe-inducing audition for "Lord Of The Rings", in which he paid $90 to have "hobbit ears" grafted onto his head, turning up at the casting office dressed as a hobbit - needless to say he didn't get the role). However, it was missing out on a role in Alex Proyas Australian film Garage Days (2002) that finally broke the camel's back. He called Wan and told him that if they wanted to get a film made, they would have to pay for it themselves. Saw (2004) was born. After nine months of writing, Leigh had written the screenplay for what he thought would be a self-financed, "Blair Witch"-style feature, with him starring and James directing. The script gained so much attention that soon enough, they were shopping it around Hollywood....and the rest is history.- Director
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Alan Taylor is an American film and television director from San Francisco known for directing episodes of HBO shows such as The Sopranos, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, and Sex in the City. He directed the feature films Thor: The Dark World, Palookaville, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Many Saints of Newark, and Terminator Genisys.- Writer
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- Script and Continuity Department
Laeta Kalogridis was born on 30 August 1965 in Winter Haven, Florida, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Shutter Island (2010), Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and Alexander (2004).- Producer
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Gregory Jacobs was born on 14 August 1968 in New Jersey, USA. He is a producer and assistant director, known for Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).- Writer
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Daniel Alfredson was born on 23 May 1959 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He is a producer and director, known for The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) and Varg (2008). He is married to Stina. They have three children.- Producer
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Reid Carolin was born on 10 January 1982 in Lake Forest, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Magic Mike (2012), Dog (2022) and Magic Mike XXL (2015).- Producer
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Wellesley Wild was born on 27 April 1972 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Family Guy (1999), Ted 2 (2015) and A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).- Art Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Dallas Richard Hallam was born on 10 March 1979 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He is an assistant director and writer, known for Entrance (2012), I Am a Knife with Legs (2014) and Southbound (2015).- Additional Crew
- Production Manager
- Camera and Electrical Department
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- Additional Crew
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Zachary Edward "Zack" Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter, best known for action and science fiction films. Snyder made his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead and has gone on to be known for his comic book movies and superhero films, including 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), Man of Steel (2013) and its upcoming sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Snyder is the co-founder of Cruel and Unusual Films, a production company he established in 2004, alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller.- Writer
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James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leota and James Francis Gunn. He is from a large Catholic family, with Irish and Czech ancestry. His father and his uncles were all lawyers. He has been writing and performing as long as he can remember. He began making 8mm films at the age of twelve. Many of these were comedic splatter films featuring his brothers being disemboweled by zombies. He attended Saint Louis University High (SLUH) college preparatory school but later dropped out of college to pursue a rock and roll career.
His band, "the Icons", released one album, "Mom, We Like It Here on Earth". He earned very little money doing this and so during this time, he also worked as an orderly in Tucson, Arizona, upon which many of the situations in his first novel, "The Toy Collector", are based. He wrote and drew comic strips for underground and college newspapers.
Gunn eventually returned to school and received his B.A. at Saint Louis University in his native St. Louis. He moved to New York where he received an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, which he today thinks may have been a wonderfully expensive waste of time. While finishing his MFA, he started writing "The Toy Collector" and began working for "Troma Studios", America's leading B-Movie production company. While there he wrote and produced the cult classic Tromeo and Juliet (1996) and, with Lloyd Kaufman, he wrote "All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger".
Gunn had a spiritual awakening in Cannes in 1997 and quit Troma and relocated from New York to Los Angeles. He wrote and acted in the film The Specials (2000) with Rob Lowe, Jamie Kennedy, Thomas J. Churchill and his brother Sean Gunn. He wrote two scripts for Warner Brothers live action movies: Spy vs. Spy (1985) and Scooby-Doo (2002). In 1999, after almost five years, he finished "The Toy Collector". After doing Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Gunn made his directorial debut with Slither (2006). He later made the superhero film Super (2010) and the successful Marvel films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Gunn has four brothers, all of whom are in the entertainment industry. His brother, Patrick Gunn, is a Senior VP at Artisan Entertainment, the company responsible for distributing (and the marketing campaign of) The Blair Witch Project (1999). His brother, Brian Gunn, is a screenwriter who works in partnership with their cousin Mark Gunn.
Gunn's brother, Matt Gunn wrote and starred in the winner of the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, Man About Town (1997). Gunn's brother, Sean Gunn, is an actor regularly seen in films, commercials, and such TV shows as Angel (1999). James and Sean have collaborated on two occasions Sean starred in Tromeo and Juliet (1996), and they acted together and co-produced The Specials (2000). The brothers have one sister, Beth, who is a lawyer.
Gunn married actress and cartoonist Jenna Fischer in 2000. They divorced in 2008. He is now in a relationship with Jennifer Holland- Writer
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Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen broke into show business at 15 years when he started writing jokes for a local paper, receiving $200 a week. He later moved on to write jokes for talk shows but felt that his jokes were being wasted. His agents, Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, convinced him to start doing stand-up and telling his own jokes. Reluctantly he agreed and, although he initially performed with such fear of the audience that he would cover his ears when they applauded his jokes, he eventually became very successful at stand-up. After performing on stage for a few years, he was approached to write a script for Warren Beatty to star in: What's New Pussycat (1965) and would also have a moderate role as a character in the film. During production, Woody gave himself more and better lines and left Beatty with less compelling dialogue. Beatty inevitably quit the project and was replaced by Peter Sellers, who demanded all the best lines and more screen-time.
It was from this experience that Woody realized that he could not work on a film without complete control over its production. Woody's theoretical directorial debut was in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966); a Japanese spy flick that he dubbed over with his own comedic dialogue about spies searching for the secret recipe for egg salad. His real directorial debut came the next year in the mockumentary Take the Money and Run (1969). He has written, directed and, more often than not, starred in about a film a year ever since, while simultaneously writing more than a dozen plays and several books of comedy.
While best known for his romantic comedies Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), Woody has made many transitions in his films throughout the years, transitioning from his "early, funny ones" of Bananas (1971), Love and Death (1975) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972); to his more storied and romantic comedies of Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); to the Bergmanesque films of Stardust Memories (1980) and Interiors (1978); and then on to the more recent, but varied works of Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Celebrity (1998) and Deconstructing Harry (1997); and finally to his films of the last decade, which vary from the light comedy of Scoop (2006), to the self-destructive darkness of Match Point (2005) and, most recently, to the cinematically beautiful tale of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Although his stories and style have changed over the years, he is regarded as one of the best filmmakers of our time because of his views on art and his mastery of filmmaking.- Producer
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Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making movies with an 8mm camera. He was a devoted fan of The Three Stooges, so much of Raimi's film work in his teens, with good friends Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert, was slapstick comedy based around what they had observed from "Stooges" movies.
Among the three of them, they wrote, directed, produced and edited a short horror movie titled Within the Woods (1978), which was then shown to prospective investors to raise the money necessary to film The Evil Dead (1981). It met with lukewarm interest in the U.S. with local distributors, so Raimi took the film to Europe, where it was much more warmly received. After it started gaining positive reviews and, more importantly, ticket sales upon its release in Europe, U.S. distributors showed renewed interest, and "Evil Dead" was eventually released stateside to strong box office returns. His next directorial effort was Crimewave (1985), a quirky, cartoon-like effort that failed to catch fire with audiences. However, he bounced back with Evil Dead II (1987), a racier and more humorous remake/sequel to the original "Dead" that did even better at the box office. Raimi was then given his biggest budget to date to shoot Darkman (1990), a comic book-style fantasy about a scarred avenger. The film did moderate business, but Raimi's strong visual style was evident throughout the film via inventive and startling camera work that caught the attention of numerous critics.
The third chapter in the Evil Dead story beckoned, and Raimi once again directed buddy Campbell as the gritty hero "Ash", in the Gothic horror Army of Darkness (1992). Raimi surprised fans when he took a turn away from the fantasy genre and directed Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone in the sexy western, The Quick and the Dead (1995); four years later, he took the directorial reins on A Simple Plan (1998), a crime thriller about stolen money, starring Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda. In early 1999, he directed the baseball film, For Love of the Game (1999), and, in 2000, returned to the fantasy genre with a top-flight cast in The Gift (2000). In 2002, Raimi was given a real opportunity to demonstrate his dynamic visual style with the big-budget film adaptation of the Stan Lee comic book superhero, Spider-Man (2002), and fans were not disappointed. The movie was strong in both script and effects, and was a runaway success at the box office. Of course, Raimi returned for the sequel, Spider-Man 2 (2004), which surpassed the original in box-office takings.- Director
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Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Caruso came west to play tennis and study Television Production at Pepperdine University. Interned at Disney Studios in the Product Placement department and later hooked up with Director John Badham, who mentored him into a second-unit director, after Badham lost his 2nd-unit director Rob Cohen to a first-unit directing career. He hooked up with writer Scott Rosenberg, who penned a short film for him entitled, Cyclops, Baby (1997). The film helped launch Caruso's directing career.- Actor
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Wentworth Miller is a compelling and critically acclaimed actor whose credits span both television and feature film.
Wentworth Earl Miller III was born June 2, 1972 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, to American parents, Joy Marie (Palm), a special education teacher, and Wentworth Earl Miller II, a lawyer educator. He has two younger sisters, Gillian and Leigh. His father, who is black, is of Afro-Jamaican and African-American (along with English and German) descent. His mother, who is caucasian, has Dutch, French, Swedish, Lebanese/Syrian, Austrian, and Rusyn ancestry.
When Miller turned a year old, his family moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. His father became an assistant district attorney over there. Wentworth retains a dual citizenship, but affirms that he has always been an American. He comes from a diverse background. Wentworth attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn, where he was a member of Sing!, an annual musical production that was started by Midwood. He later on transferred to Quaker Valley Senior High School in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Wentworth was a straight As student in high school and was involved in the AV club and school newspaper. After graduating from high school in 1990, he attended Princeton University. He was also a cartoonist for the school paper and a member of the A Capella group, The Princeton Tigertones, where he sang baritone. It was then that he realized he was interested in performing in front of big and small audiences. Five years later, in 1995, he graduated from Princeton with a bachelor's degree in English Literature and moved to California. That same year, he was hired by a small company who made movies for television. About a year and a half later, he realized that he had unconsciously moved to Los Angeles to be an actor. He then decided to quit his job at the production company even after his employee at the production company had offered him another stable job position.
Unfortunately for Wentworth, breaking into the industry was a tough job for him. He worked as a temp at several production companies before ending up working as a temp for his former employee's production office. It wasn't too long before Wentworth started landing guest roles on show such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), ER (1994), and Popular (1999). He also starred in the Hallmark series, Dinotopia (2002), playing the character, David Scott. These guest spots later on led to a role in the feature film, The Human Stain (2003), which happened to be his breakthrough role, alongside Nicole Kidman and Sir Anthony Hopkins, where he played the younger version of Anthony Hopkins' character, Coleman Silk. Although the film didn't fare well in movie theaters, it was well received by viewers and critics, further catapulting Wentworth to bigger stardom.
After The Human Stain (2003), he appeared in the movie _Underworld_, as Dr Adam Lockwood, opposite Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman, playing the voice of EDI. He also guest-starred in the series finale of CBS' Joan of Arcadia (2003), as Ryan Hunter, a charming-yet-sinister man who revealed to Joan that he also spoke to God. It was reported that his character would be Joan's greatest challenge, but in May, CBS decided to cancel the show, leaving fans to wonder what might have been. In 2005, Wentworth appeared in the pilot of Ghost Whisperer (2005) before eventually starring on FOX network's Prison Break (2005). Wentworth played the role of Michael Scofield, a character helping his brother, Lincoln Burrows, escape death row after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit. He stars alongside actors, Dominic Purcell, Amaury Nolasco and Robert Knepper. Prison Break (2005) became an instant hit and Wentworth secured a spot among viewers as one of the hottest up-and-coming actors around. His performance in the show earned him a Golden Globe nomination, a Saturn award nomination, as well as three Teen Choice Award nominations. The Brooklyn native also appeared in two of Mariah Carey's music videos, "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together" as Mariah's love interest.
Brett Ratner, who was signed on to direct both the music videos, directed the pilot episode of Prison Break (2005) and already knew who Wentworth was. Brett then brought up the idea to the songstress about using Wentworth in the videos. After showing Mariah pictures of Wentworth, she agreed to use him and Wentworth managed to work on both the videos and Prison Break with the help of crew members who constructed a special set on the set of the videos. Wentworth even admits that the two days he spent working with Mariah, was in fact, one of his career highs - even topping anything he's ever done prior to Prison Break (2005) because it gave him so much exposure. Wentworth describes himself as a very private person who likes to spend time just relaxing at home when he's not working. He enjoys swimming, reading, taking naps as well as going to different restaurants every week. He enjoys spending time at The Art Institute of Chicago because he believes that music, painting, movies and theater can all contribute to the work of an actor.
In 2013, he returned to his writing roots, linking up with acclaimed director Park Chan-wook and penning the screenplay for the film _Stoker_, which he submitted under an alias, Ted Foulke. He has also written a screenplay for a prequel called Uncle Charlie.- Director
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Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director.
González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene or best director award at Cannes (2006), the second one being Carlos Reygadas in 2012. His six feature films, 'Amores Perros' (2000), '21 Grams' (2003), 'Babel' (2006), 'Biutiful' (2010), 'Birdman' (2014) and 'The Revenant' (2015), have gained critical acclaim world-wide including two Academy Award nominations.
Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City.
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a cargo ship at the ages of seventeen and nineteen years, González Iñárritu worked his way across Europe and Africa. He himself has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a film-maker. The setting of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period.
After his travels, González Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana. In 1984, he started his career as a radio host at the Mexican radio station WFM, a rock and eclectic music station. In 1988, he became the director of the station. Over the next five years, González Iñárritu spent his time interviewing rock stars, transmitting live concerts, and making WFM the number one radio station in Mexico. From 1987 to 1989, he composed music for six Mexican feature films. He has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself.
In the nineties, González Iñárritu created Z films with Raul Olvera in Mexico. Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements. Making the final transition into T.V Film directing, he studied under well-known Polish theatre director Ludwik Margules, as well as Judith Weston in Los Angeles.
In 1995, González Iñárritu wrote and directed his first T.V pilot for Z Films, called Detras del dinero, -"Behind the Money", starring Miguel Bosé. Z Films went on to be one of the biggest and strongest film production companies in Mexico, launching seven young directors in the feature film arena. In 1999, González Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Amores perros explored Mexican society in Mexico City told via three intertwining stories. In 2000, Amores perros premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics Weeks Grand Prize. It also introduced audiences for the first time to Gael García Bernal. Amores perros went on to be nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.
After the success of Amores Perros, González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga revisited the intersecting story structure of Amores perros in González Iñárritu's second film, 21 Grams. The film starred Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, and was presented at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Volpi Cup for actor Sean Penn. At the 2004 Academy Awards, Del Toro and Watts received nominations for their performances.
In 2005 González Iñárritu embarked on his third film, Babel, set in 4 countries on 3 continents, and in 4 different languages. Babel consists of four stories set in Morocco, Mexico, the United States, and Japan. The film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Adriana Barraza. The majority of the rest of the cast, however, was made up of non-professional actors and some new actors, such as Rinko Kikuchi. It was presented at Cannes 2006, where González Iñárritu earned the Best Director Prize (Prix de la mise en scène). Babel was released in November 2006 and received seven nominations at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director nominated for a DGA award and for an Academy Award. Babel went on to win Best Motion Picture in the drama category at the Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007. Gustavo Santaolalla won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Score. After Babel, Alejandro and his writing partner Guillermo Arriaga professionally parted ways, following González Iñárritu barring Arriaga from the set during filming (Arriaga told the LA Times in 2009 "It had to come to an end, but I still respect González Iñárritu").
In 2008 and 2009, González Iñárritu directed and produced Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, written by González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, and Nicolas Giacobone. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festial on May 17, 2010. Bardem went on to win Best Actor (shared with Elio Germano for La nostra vita) at Cannes. Biutiful is González Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish since his debut feature Amores perros. For the second time in his career his film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. It was also nominated for the 2011 Golden Globes in the category of Best Foreign Film, for the 2011 BAFTA awards in the category of Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Actor. Javier Bardem's performance was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, González Iñárritu directed Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Andrea Riseborough. The film is Iñárritu's first comedy. Birdman is about an actor who played an iconic superhero, and who tries to revive his career by doing a play based on the Raymond Carver short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film was released on October 17, 2014.
In April 2014, it was announced that González Iñárritu's next film as a director will be The Revenant, which he co-wrote with Mark L. Smith. It is based on the novel of same name by Michael Punke. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter with shooting began in September 2014, for a December 25, 2015 release.The Revenant is being filmed in Alberta and B.C. with production scheduled to wrap in February 2015. The film will be a 19th Century period piece, and is described as a "gritty thriller" about a fur trapper who seeks revenge against a group of men who robbed and abandoned him after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
From 2001 to 2011, González Iñárritu directed several short films.
In 2001, he directed an 11 minute film segment for 11.09.01- which is composed of several short films that explore the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from different points of view around the world.
In 2007, he made ANNA which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival inside Chacun son cinéma. It was part of the 60th anniversary of the film festival and it was a series of shorts by 33 world-renown film directors.
In 2012, he made the experimental short film Naran Ja: One Act Orange Dance - inspired by L.A Dance Project's premiere performance. The short features excerpts of the new choreography Benjamin Millepied crafted for Moving Parts. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten.
In 2001/2002, González Iñárritu directed "Powder Keg", an episode for the BMW film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen as the driver.
In 2010, González Iñárritu directed Write the Future, a football-themed commercial for Nike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which went on to win Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.
In 2012, he directed Procter and Gamble's "Best Job" commercial spot for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies. It went on to win the Best Primetime Commercial Emmy at Creative Arts Emmy Awards.- Marc Basch is known for The Hero (2017), I'll See You in My Dreams (2015) and Hearts Beat Loud (2018).
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Brett Haley was born on 17 August 1983 in Danville, Illinois, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Hearts Beat Loud (2018), The Hero (2017) and All the Bright Places (2020).- Writer
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Christopher McQuarrie is an acclaimed producer, director and an Academy Award® winning writer. McQuarrie grew up in Princeton Junction, New Jersey and in lieu of college, he spent the first five years out of school traveling and working at a detective agency. He later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film.
In 1995, his screenplay for The Usual Suspects, directed by childhood pal, Bryan Singer, garnered him the Academy Award® and the BAFTA Award for "Best Original Screenplay". McQuarrie also went on to win the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Independent Spirit Award. The Usual Suspects has been named one of the greatest screenplays of all time by the Writer's Guild of America.
In the years following, McQuarrie directed The Way of the Gun, starring Ryan Phillippe, Benicio Del Toro and James Caan. In 2008, he collaborate with Singer once again to produce and co-write Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise. This film would lead to many more McQuarrie-Cruise collaborations. McQuarrie re-teamed with Cruise in 2012 for his sophomore directorial outing, Jack Reacher Within hours of completing the film, he was at work with Cruise again, this time re-writing the script for Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow. It was while working together on the sci-fi action film that Cruise suggested McQuarrie direct what would become Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. The highly anticipated fifth installment of the Ethan Hunt saga, written also by McQuarrie, garnered the biggest opening in the history of the Mission: Impossible franchise, was the highest-grossing 2D Hollywood film ever at the Chinese box office, earning $124 million, and garnered over $680 million worldwide. McQuarrie is confirmed to write and direct the sixth chapter in the franchise, making him the first repeat director in the film's two-decade history.- Writer
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Kurt Wimmer was born on 9 March 1964. He is a writer and producer, known for Equilibrium (2002), Total Recall (2012) and Point Break (2015).- Director
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Girl (little or teenage), woman, family, couple, friendship, emigration, class struggle, serious society subjects are terms that can be associated with the name of Sarah Gavron, one of the (too) few women directors in Great Britain.Via three major films "Brick Lane" (about the uprooting, integration and eventual return to the country of a young Bangladeshi woman), "Suffragette" (about the struggle of women in England for gender equality through the right to vote) and "Rocks" (the survival of a young Nigerian girl and her little brother of the Hackney abandoned by their mother), Sarah Gavron has imposed her universe, deeply rooted in reality and marked by an empathy devoid of any mawkishness.
Born on 20 April 1970, Gavron studied direction at the National Film and Television School. One of her teachers, and one of her major influences, was Stephen Frears. The shorts, TV films and feature films, whether fictions or documentaries, which she made between 2000 and 2020 earned her several well-deserved awards.- Writer
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Abi Morgan was born in 1968 in the UK. She is a writer and producer, known for Shame (2011), The Iron Lady (2011) and Suffragette (2015).- Director
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Karyn Kusama was born on 21 March 1968 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is a director and producer, known for The Invitation (2015), Destroyer (2018) and Girlfight (2000). She has been married to Phil Hay since October 2006. They have one child.