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Doug Liman

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Doug Liman
Liman at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
Born
Douglas Eric Liman[1]

(1965-07-24) July 24, 1965 (age 59)
New York City, New York, United States
Alma materBrown University
Occupation(s)Film director, producer
Years active1994–present

Douglas Eric Liman (/ˈlaɪmən/; born July 24, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing the films Swingers (1996), Go (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Jumper (2008), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and American Made (2017).

Early and personal life

Liman was born in New York City, the son of Ellen (née Fogelson), a painter and writer, and Arthur L. Liman, a lawyer well known for his public service, which included serving as chief counsel for the Senate Iran-Contra hearings. He has two siblings, Emily and Lewis.[2]

Liman began making short films while still in junior high school and studied at International Center of Photography in New York City. While attending Brown University, he helped to co-found the student-run cable television station BTV and served as its first station manager. He also co-founded the National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB), the first trade association geared to student-staffed radio and television stations, in 1988.

Liman attended the graduate program at University of Southern California, where he was tapped to helm his first project in 1993, the comedy film Getting In.[3]

Career

Liman's first major success was Swingers, released in 1996. The film, written by Jon Favreau, is a comedy about struggling actors amid the L.A. club milieu, based on Favreau's life. Liman raised the funding and it was made on the cheap, starring Favreau and his friends (Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, and Patrick Van Horn), ultimately costing $250,000. The film was a critical success, and jump-started the careers of Liman and the featured actors. Liman sold the film to Miramax for $5.5 million.[4]

Liman next directed Go (1999), which tracks the events of a drug deal gone wrong through three different points of view as plot lines diverged and reconverged; Liman was also the film's cinematographer. The film was an indie hit and made a profit at the box office grossing $28.4 million worldwide against a $6.5 million budget.

In 1999, Liman shot a commercial for Nike in which Tiger Woods, without letting the ball touch the ground, repeatedly bounced a ball on his club and then drove it into the distance.

Liman at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2010

Liman next directed the 2002 action thriller The Bourne Identity starring Matt Damon, an adaptation of the 1980 Robert Ludlum novel The Bourne Identity was a box office success, earning over $200 million, and began a Bourne film franchise that has since included four additional films. Liman did not direct any Bourne films after the first one, but served as an executive producer for three of the four subsequent films (2004's The Bourne Supremacy, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum and 2016's Jason Bourne).

Liman executive produced and directed the first two episodes ("Premiere" and "The Model Home") of the successful Fox prime time drama The O.C. (2003–2007). Liman produced and directed a series of comedy shorts for the Chrysler Film Project and Cannes Film Festival entitled Indie Is Great.

Liman also directed Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), a comedic thriller about an increasingly distant married couple, both secretly assassins, who are hired to kill each other. The film, his most commercially successful to date, is also well known for the off-screen romance that developed between stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie after making the film. In 2005, Liman signed on to direct the pilot episode of NBC's television series Heist, which is about a season-long attempt to rob three jewelry stores on Beverly Hills' swanky Rodeo Drive.

His film adaptation of Steven Gould's science fiction novel Jumper was released in 2008.[5]

In 2009, he co-founded the website 30ninjas.com which is geared towards fans of action movies and television, gaming, extreme sports and viral videos. He also maintains a blog on the site.

He directed 2010's Fair Game, about the Plame affair, which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.[6]

In 2011, Liman directed and produced I Just Want My Pants Back, a television series that aired on MTV. He produces Covert Affairs and Suits, two original series on the USA Network. He directed the film adaptation of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel, All You Need is Kill, released as Edge of Tomorrow (2014), starring Tom Cruise. In 2017, he directed Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena in the military thriller The Wall, and directed Cruise again, in the crime-action film American Made, a biopic of pilot Barry Seal.[7]

In August 2016, Liman signed on to direct Dark Universe, a film set within the DC Extended Universe and based on superhero team Justice League Dark after leaving the adaptation of Gambit.[8] However, Liman has departed from the project due to schedule conflicts with the film Chaos Walking (2021), that Liman was working on that time.[9]

Most of his career has been associated with the production company Hypnotic. He is co-owner with Dave Bartis, whom he met as an undergraduate at Brown University where they co-founded BTV and NACB.

Liman is on the advisory board of the Legal Action Center and the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law.

In January 2020, Liman reported that the Edge of Tomorrow sequel, Live Die Repeat and Repeat, was currently in its early planning stages.[10]

In May 2020, it was reported that Liman would be directing, writing, and producing the first ever movie shot in Outer space. Tom Cruise is set to star and produce, with Elon Musk and NASA involved with the project as well.[11]

Filmography

Film

Year Film Director Producer DoP. Notes
1994 Getting In Yes No No
1996 Swingers Yes No Yes MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker
1999 Go Yes No Yes Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Director
2002 The Bourne Identity Yes Yes No
2004 Mail Order Wife No Yes No
2005 Mr. & Mrs. Smith Yes No No
2008 Jumper Yes No No
2010 Fair Game Yes Yes Yes Nominated – Palme d'Or
2014 Edge of Tomorrow Yes Executive No Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Director
2017 The Wall Yes No No
American Made Yes No No
2021 Chaos Walking Yes No No Post-production
TBA Live Die Repeat and Repeat Yes No No Pre-production

Executive producer only

Television

Year(s) Title Director Executive
Producer
2003–2004 The O.C. Yes Yes
2006 Heist Yes Yes
2010–2014 Covert Affairs No Yes
2011–2012 I Just Want My Pants Back Yes Yes
2011–2019 Suits No Yes
2016 Captive No Yes
2018-2019 Impulse Yes Yes

Internet content

Year(s) Title Director Executive
Producer
2016 Invisible (video series) Yes

References

  1. ^ "Doug Liman". The Film Daily. 127. Wid's Films and Film Folk Inc.: 37 1965.
  2. ^ "Doug Liman Biography (1965?-)". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  3. ^ Notable Alumni, USC School of Cinematic Arts Archived February 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ http://nymag.com/news/features/42823/
  5. ^ "Prized Director In Talks for 'All You Need Is Kill'". BloodyDisgusting.
  6. ^ "Hollywood Reporter: Cannes Lineup". hollywoodreporter. Archived from the original on April 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  7. ^ Kit, Borys (November 12, 2015). "Doug Liman Near Deal to Direct Channing Tatum's 'Gambit'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  8. ^ Kroll, Justin (August 24, 2016). "Doug Liman to Direct 'Dark Universe' for DC, Warner Bros. (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
  9. ^ Kroll, Justin (2017-05-23). "Doug Liman Parts Ways With Justice League Dark Movie (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  10. ^ Sandwell, Ian (2020-05-20). "Edge of Tomorrow 2: Everything you need to know". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  11. ^ "Doug Liman to Direct Tom Cruise Movie That Will Shoot in Space". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
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