Max Landis Biography

Max Landis (born August 3, 1985) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He is best known for writing the films Chronicle (2012), American Ultra (2015), and Victor Frankenstein (2015), a film adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, as well as a variety of short films including The Death and Return of Superman. He is the son of director John Landis and costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis.

Early life

Landis was born in Beverly Hills, California, the son of director John Landis and costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis. His family is Jewish. He left Beverly Hills High School for a therapeutic boarding school in Connecticut, but still graduated with Beverly Hills High School diploma.

Career

Since he started writing at 16, Landis has written 75 screenplays. He sold his first script at the age of 18, a collaboration with his father, John, on the Masters of Horror episode "Deer Woman". He would later be asked to return to the series in its second incarnation, Fear Itself, independently penning the episode "Something with Bite". He also wrote for Bluewater Productions' Back to Mysterious Island, a 2008 comic series. Landis has made cameo appearances in a number of John Landis' films, including The Stupids, Blues Brothers 2000 and Burke and Hare. In 2011 and 2012, Landis was listed among Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" young people to watch in the entertainment industry.

While attending the University of Miami, Landis wrote numerous shorts which were produced by students in the school's film program. Upon leaving the university, Landis went on a "spec-selling streak", having three of his pitches optioned within six months. First, Landis sold Chronicle to producer John Davis and 20th Century Fox's Davis Entertainment. The Chronicle script was previously included on the Black List, an annual compendium of the year's best unproduced screenplays. A documentary-style movie about three Seattle teenagers that develop superpowers after encountering a strange substance in the woods, Chronicle was directed by Josh Trank, and takes a different approach to handling superpowered characters.

Chronicle was released on February 3, 2012. It received wide acclaim and currently holds a "Fresh" rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, which said the film "transcends its gimmicks with a smart script, fast-paced direction, and engaging performances from its young, talented cast". Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert praised the movie, saying, "sometimes a movie arrives out of the blue that announces the arrival of considerable new talents", and singling out Landis' dialogue as adding a natural authenticity to the proceedings. The film opened in 2,907 theaters and exceeded expectations by grossing $22,000,000 to win the weekend box office. It has grossed over $126,000,000. It was announced in early March that Landis would pen a sequel for Fox. On October 10, 2012 it was revealed that Fox was unhappy with Landis' draft for Chronicle 2. On July 18, 2013, Landis confirmed he was no longer attached to Chronicle 2, saying he had been "off Chronicle 2 for months now".

Davis and Fox again opted to team with Landis for a film based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

In September 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Landis created a TV series for Fox and would executive produce it with Homeland producer Howard Gordon. The series, entitled Vigilant, centers on a young woman who creates a fictional vigilante persona to stop crime and combat a brutally coercive police department and its corrupt internal affairs department. Landis will also write the pilot script. Though the initial report described the show as a "superhero police drama," Landis said on his Twitter that it is not a superhero show and "has more in common with The Wire than Smallville."

On the same day Chronicle was released, Landis released a short comedic film to YouTube entitled The Death and Return of Superman. The video, drawing inspiration from the Drunk History series of short films (including Landis' own Drunk Comic Book History videos about Robin and Batman: Knightfall) retells the story of Superman's death and return through Landis' voice and perspective, with scenes acted out by his friends and actors including Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Simon Pegg, Jennette McCurdy, Ron Howard, Elizabeth Gillies and more.

In 2012 Landis began work on his directorial debut Me Him Her. The film began production in late 2012, and wrapped at the end of summer 2013. Post production began in September 2013, and ended in early 2014. The film was eventually released in March 2016.

In February 2015, Landis directed Ariana Grande's music video "One Last Time".

In March 2015, Landis, a wrestling fan, released a short film, Wrestling Isn't Wrestling, for free on YouTube. The comedic film explained the nature of professional wrestling using the career of wrestler Triple H. Several actors and wrestlers had cameos. In response, Triple H described the film as "awesome" and that Landis "gets it". PWInsider described it as "very engaging" with "unique and creative production", "especially worth passing on to anyone who ever questions why you enjoy pro wrestling"; while prowrestling.net said it was "must-see", "innovative" and funny.

Landis is the author of the DC Comics seven-issue mini-series Superman: American Alien (2015-2016), which was launched on November 11, 2015, and concluded on May 18, 2016. The series has enjoyed a very positive reception for its grounded take on the titular character and artwork, which varies from issue-to-issue as an artistic choice to tell various segments of Clark Kent's life through different tonal art styles (the art for the series was drawn by Nick Dragotta, Tommy Lee Edwards, Jolle Jones, Jae Lee, Francis Manapul, Jonathan Case, and Jock, with covers drawn by Ryan Sook.) The collected hardcover edition with bonus material will be released on October 18, 2016.

Upcoming projects

Landis' script for Good Time Gang was then optioned by RCR Pictures, a production company helmed by Robin Schorr and professional poker player Chris Ferguson. The film will star Jonah Hill and Mark Wahlberg as a "bumbling pair of antiheroes". The cast also includes Chris Evans.

In April 2011, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment purchased Landis' pitch for Amnesty. Brian Grazer will produce the film and Ron Howard is attached to direct. That project has been characterized as a spy thriller set in a fantasy world.

20th Century Fox's Davis Entertainment hired Landis in May 2011 to script a reimagining of the German fairy tale of the Pied Piper. The project has been characterized as a "fantasy thriller" and is being overseen by Steve Asbell.

In January 2012, Variety reported that Disney picked up a pitch Landis made for a space adventure focusing on a brother and sister. The film is set to be produced by Wedding Crashers producer Andrew Panay. According to Landis' Twitter account, he is also working on a project entitled Villains.

It was revealed in April 2012 that Landis would produce his first movie, an "edgy family adventure" named Woogles, along with Bazelevs producers Michele Wolkoff and Timur Bekmambetov. The project will be written by Nick Antosca and Ned Vizzini and is based on a script Landis wrote in college.

He wrote a spec script titled Bright "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements", which is set to be directed by David Ayer, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton.

On March 30, 2016, it was announced that Landis's script for a psychological drama-thriller titled Deeper is set to be directed by Kornl Mundrucz, starring Bradley Cooper and produced by Landis and David S. Goyer.

In July 2016, it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that Max is currently penning a Pep Le Pew feature film for Warner Bros.

Personal life

In 2014, Landis joined the SCP Foundation fiction project. Landis is a huge fan of pro wrestling, as his short movie Wrestling isn't wrestling confirms. He's also a big supporter of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, a small but cult following Southern California federation. Clark Duke and numerous other Hollywood personalities can be seen at ringside during PWG's events.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
		Writer	Director	Producer
1996	The Stupids				Role: Graffiti Artist
1998	Blues Brothers 2000				Role: Ghostrider
2008	Dupe				Short film
2008	Tumbler				Short film
2009	Ghost Closet '07				Role: Ghost Girl / Ghost Cowboy 1 / The Gentleman Ghost. Short film
2010	Burke & Hare				Role: Handsome Coachman
2012	Chronicle				Story co-written with Josh Trank
2012	The Death and Return of Superman				Short film
2014	The Slap				Short film
2015	Wrestling Isn't Wrestling				Role: Himself. Short film
2015	American Ultra
2015	Victor Frankenstein				Based on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
2015	Me Him Her				Role: Party Bystander
2015	Mr. Right

Television

Year	Title	Credited as		Notes	Ref.
		Writer	Executive producer
2005	Masters of Horror			Writer (1 episode: "Deer Woman")
2009	Fear Itself			Writer (1 episode: "Something with Bite")
2014	Homemade Movies			Role: David Kessler (1 episode: "American Werewolf in London Transformation")
2016-present	Channel Zero
2016-present	Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency			Creator; writer. Based on the novel by Douglas Adams.

Music videos

Year	Title	Role
2015	"One Last Time"	Director

Bibliography

Year	Title	Role	Publisher
2015	Superman: American Alien	Writer	DC Comics
2016	Green Valley	Writer	Image Comics