About

Known credits:
11
Birthday:
1976-09-15
Place of birth:
Johannesburg, South Africa
Website:
N/A

Jonathan Liebesman

Overview

Jonathan Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 15, 1976. He would remain in his home country, studying filmmaking at the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, until 1996; that year, he traveled to New York City to visit his cousin who was attending New York University. Soon after the visit, Jonathan enrolled at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

For his student first film, Jonathan turned Roald Dahl's short story Genesis and Catastrophe (2000) into a 8-minute, award-winning short that help him land Hollywood representation; accolades included the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival's Young Filmmaker Award and the Austin Film Festival's Student Short Film Award.

Jonathan would make his feature-film debut in 2002 with Darkness Falls (2003), a dark twist on the Tooth Fairy tale that opened at #1 at the box office despite being critically panned. It also served as the big-screen debut for Emma Caulfield Ford, long a fan-favorite as Anya Jenkins on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).

Rings (2005), his short film that connected The Ring (2002) and its sequel, was first released as a bonus disc with the re-release of The Ring on DVD. The short caught the attention of Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, and soon Jonathan was installed as the director of the company's project The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), the widely successful remake of the original.

Initially announced as the director of the Friday the 13th reboot, Jonathan's next feature would instead be The Killing Room (2009) with Peter Stormare, Chloƫ Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Timothy Hutton, Nick Cannon and Shea Whigham. The psychological thriller played the festival circuit before being released on DVD in the United States.

A few months before The Killing Room's Sundance world premiere in January 2009, Jonathan was announced as the director of Battle Los Angeles (2011), an alien-invasion film starring Aaron Eckhart and released by Columbia Pictures. The sci-fi/action film was a worldwide hit and put Jonathan in the running for a handful of big-studio pictures.

Before Battle LA's release, he had handed the job of directing Odysseus as Warner Bros., though that project remains in development at this time. Instead, Jonathan took the reins for Wrath of the Titans (2012), the sequel to successful but maligned Clash of the Titans (2010).

Known for

Directing

2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Directing Director 58
Average
2012 Wrath of the Titans Directing Director 57
Average
2011 Battle: Los Angeles Directing Director 57
Average
2009 The Killing Room Directing Director 58
Average
2006 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Directing Director 60
Fair
2005 Rings Directing Director 58
Average
2003 Darkness Falls Directing Director 57
Average
2000 Genesis and Catastrophe Directing Director 59
Average
Wolf Night Directing Director N/A
N/A

Writing

2005 Rings Writing Writer 58
Average

Production

2009 The Killing Room Production Executive Producer 58
Average