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IMDbPro

John Landis(I)

  • Producer
  • Director
  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
John Landis
Trailer for Tales of Halloween
Play trailer1:09
Tales of Halloween (2015)
16 Videos
46 Photos
John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "spaghetti" westerns. Returning to the US, he made his feature debut as a writer-director at age 21 with Schlock (1973), an affectionate tribute to monster movies. Clad in a Rick Baker-designed gorilla suit, Landis starred as "Schlockthropus", the missing link. After working as a writer, actor and production assistant, Landis made his second film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), in collaboration with the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams. Landis rose to international recognition as director of the wildly successful National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). With blockbusters such as The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), Three Amigos! (1986) and Coming to America (1988), Landis has directed some of the most popular film comedies of all time. Other feature credits include Into the Night (1985), Innocent Blood (1992) and the comedy/horror genre classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), which he also wrote. In 1986, Landis and four others were acquitted of responsibility for the tragic accident that occurred in Landis' segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) in which actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed. The film also included segments directed by Joe Dante, George Miller and Steven Spielberg. In 1983 Landis wrote and directed the groundbreaking music video of Michael Jackson's Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983), created originally to play as a theatrical short. "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos, garnering multiple accolades including the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Overall Video, Viewer's Choice, and the Video Vanguard Award - The Greatest Video in the History of the World. In 1991 "Thriller" was inducted into the MVPA's Hall of Fame. In 1991, Landis collaborated again with Jackson (I) on Michael Jackson: Black or White (1991), which premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million. Although it was not the first motion picture or music video to do so, "Black or White" popularized the use of "digital morphing", where one object appears to seamlessly metamorphoses into another; the project raised the standard for state-of-the-art special effects in music videos. Landis has also been active in television as the executive producer (and often director) of the Ace- and Emmy Award-winning HBO series Dream On (1990). Other TV shows produced by his company, St. Clare Entertainment (St. Clare is the patron saint of television), include Weird Science (1994), Sliders (1995), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997), Campus Cops (1995) and The Lost World (1998). In 2004 the Independent Film Channel broadcast his feature-length documentary about a used-car salesman, Slasher (2004). Deer Woman, an original one-hour episode written by Landis and his son Max Landis, inaugurated the Masters of Horror (2005) series in the fall of 2005 on Showtime. "Masters of Horror" also features one-hour episodes by John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, Dario Argento and Larry Cohen.

A sought-after commercial director, Landis has worked for a variety of companies including Direct TV, Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg's and Disney. He was made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1985, awarded the Federico Fellini Prize by Rimini Cinema Festival in Italy and was named a George Eastman Scholar by The Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Both the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival have held career retrospectives of his films. In 2004 Landis received the Time Machine Career Achievement Award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Sent as a filmmaker/scholar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Landis has lectured at many film schools and universities including Yale, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, UCSB, USC, Texas A&M, The North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Miami and Indiana University. He has also acted as a teacher and advisor to aspiring filmmakers at the Sundance Institute in Utah. Additionally, he edited Best American Movie Writing 2001 (Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 2001). Born in Chicago, Illinois, Landis moved to Los Angeles soon after his birth. He is married to Deborah Nadoolman, an Oscar-nominated costume designer, and President of the Costume Designers Guild, with whom he has two children.
BornAugust 3, 1950
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornAugust 3, 1950
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Won 1 Primetime Emmy
    • 11 wins & 16 nominations total

Photos46

Dan Aykroyd, John Landis, and Eddie Murphy in Trading Places (1983)
John Landis and George Folsey Jr. in The Movies That Made Us (2019)
John Landis in An American Werewolf in London (1981)
John Landis in The Blues Brothers (1980)
John Landis in Trespassing Bergman (2013)
Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and John Landis in Three Amigos! (1986)
John Landis, Joe Dante, Cynthia Garris, and Jim Haynie in Sleepwalkers (1992)
John Landis in Surviving Eden (2004)
John Landis and Mick Garris in Post Mortem with Mick Garris (2009)
"An American Werewolf in London" Director John Landis 1981 Universal Pictures
Director John Landis and Producer Tonia Madenford at the 2004 Phoenix Film Festival.
"Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project" John Landis, Roger Corman

Known for

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers (1980)
The Blues Brothers
7.9
  • Director
  • 1980
John Landis in Schlock (1973)
Schlock
5.6
  • Director
  • 1973
Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, J. Evan Bonifant, and Joe Morton in Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
Blues Brothers 2000
4.9
  • Producer
  • 1998
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Twilight Zone: The Movie
6.4
  • Producer
  • 1983

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Producer

  • An American Werewolf in London
    • executive producer
    • In Development
  • Blue (2022)
    Blue
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2022
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger in Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten (2021)
    Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten
    • executive producer
    • TV Series
    • 2021
  • I Hate Kids (2019)
    I Hate Kids
    • executive producer
    • 2019
  • The Last Kill (2015)
    The Last Kill
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2015
  • Wendy Liebman: Taller on TV (2011)
    Wendy Liebman: Taller on TV
    • producer
    • 2011
  • Some Guy Who Kills People (2011)
    Some Guy Who Kills People
    • executive producer
    • 2011
  • Starz Inside: Ladies or Gentlemen (2008)
    Starz Inside: Ladies or Gentlemen
    • executive producer
    • TV Movie
    • 2008
  • Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007)
    Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
    • producer
    • 2007
  • Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson: Number Ones (2003)
    Michael Jackson: Number Ones
    • producer (segment Thriller)
    • Video
    • 2003
  • The Kronenberg Chronicles
    • executive producer
    • TV Movie
    • 2002
  • Rachel Blakely, Peter McCauley, Jennifer O'Dell, David Orth, and William Snow in The Lost World (1999)
    The Lost World
    • executive producer
    • TV Series
    • 1999–2001
  • Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997)
    Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show
    • executive producer
    • TV Series
    • 1997–1999
  • The Lost World (1999)
    The Lost World
    • executive producer
    • TV Movie
    • 1999
  • Susan's Plan (1998)
    Susan's Plan
    • producer
    • 1998
  • The Lost World (1998)
    The Lost World
    • executive producer
    • 1998

Director

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger in Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten (2021)
    Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2021
  • Heather Locklear, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Breckin Meyer in Franklin & Bash (2011)
    Franklin & Bash
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2012
  • Isla Fisher, Simon Pegg, and Andy Serkis in Burke and Hare (2010)
    Burke and Hare
    • Director
    • 2010
  • What If...?
    • co-director
    • TV Series
    • 2009
  • Dulé Hill and James Roday Rodriguez in Psych (2006)
    Psych
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2007–2008
  • Fear Itself (2008)
    Fear Itself
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2008
  • Paul McCartney in The McCartney Years (2007)
    The McCartney Years
    • music video director
    • Video
    • 2007
  • Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007)
    Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
    • Director
    • 2007
  • Masters of Horror (2005)
    Masters of Horror
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2005–2006
  • The Great Sketch Experiment (2006)
    The Great Sketch Experiment
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2006
  • Slasher (2004)
    Slasher
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 2004
  • Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson: Number Ones (2003)
    Michael Jackson: Number Ones
    • Director (videos Thriller, Black or White)
    • Video
    • 2003
  • The Kronenberg Chronicles
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 2002
  • Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997)
    Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 1999
  • Susan's Plan (1998)
    Susan's Plan
    • Director
    • 1998

Actor

  • Robot Dracula
    • John
    • In Production
  • I Hate Kids (2019)
    I Hate Kids
    • Psychic #4
    • 2019
  • Into the Dark (2018)
    Into the Dark
    • Man in Bathroom
    • TV Series
    • 2018
  • Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Cassel, Philippe Katerine, François Damiens, Karim Leklou, and Oulaya Amamra in The World Is Yours (2018)
    The World Is Yours
    • Homme couple Ladurée
    • 2018
  • Tales of Halloween (2015)
    Tales of Halloween
    • Jebediah Rex (segment "The Ransom of Rusty Rex")
    • 2015
  • Anna Akana in Wrestling Isn't Wrestling (2015)
    Wrestling Isn't Wrestling
    • Therapist
    • Video
    • 2015
  • Frankie Muniz and Maggie Castle in Destruction: Las Vegas (2013)
    Destruction: Las Vegas
    • Salesman #1
    • TV Movie
    • 2013
  • Blue Residents (2012)
    Blue Residents
    • Professor
    • 2012
  • Capital (2012)
    Capital
    • man exiting The Sherry-Netherland (uncredited)
    • 2012
  • Holliston (2012)
    Holliston
    • John Landis
    • TV Series
    • 2012
  • Psychoville (2009)
    Psychoville
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2011
  • The Boondocks (2005)
    The Boondocks
    • Counseling Group Leader (voice)
    • TV Series
    • 2010
  • The Scenesters (2009)
    The Scenesters
    • Judge Paxton B Johnson
    • 2009
  • Parasomnia (2008)
    Parasomnia
    • Dept. Store Manager
    • 2008
  • Look (2007)
    Look
    • Aggravated Director
    • 2007
  • Torrente 3: El protector (2005)
    Torrente 3: El protector
    • Embajador árabe
    • 2005
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos17

American Grindhouse
Clip 3:26
American Grindhouse
"Post Mortem with Mick Garris" -- John Landis Episode
Interview 4:47
"Post Mortem with Mick Garris" -- John Landis Episode
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:05
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:39
Official Trailer
Schlock
Trailer 1:33
Schlock
Out of Print
Trailer 2:35
Out of Print
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Trailer 2:41
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Mr. Warmth: The Ultimate Don Rickles: Complete Collection
Trailer 2:26
Mr. Warmth: The Ultimate Don Rickles: Complete Collection
Tales of Halloween
Trailer 1:09
Tales of Halloween
American Grindhouse
Trailer 2:03
American Grindhouse
The Muppet Movie
Trailer 0:58
The Muppet Movie
The Scenesters
Trailer 2:09
The Scenesters

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • John Landie
  • Height
    • 5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)
  • Born
    • August 3, 1950
    • Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Spouse
    • Deborah NadoolmanJuly 27, 1980 - present (2 children)
  • Children
      Max Landis
  • Parents
      Marshall Landis
  • Other works
    TV commercial: Directed a commercial for Charter Cable with Dan Aykroyd & Kylie Tyndall
  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Biographical Movies
    • 4 Print Biographies
    • 2 Portrayals
    • 16 Interviews
    • 7 Articles
    • 1 Pictorial

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    He considers An American Werewolf in London (1981) to be his masterpiece.
  • Quotes
    The [movie industry] ratings board reflect[s] the morals of the times. So now, with Reagan as president, it's all right to shred children, but bare breasts are pretty disgusting. The morality of the times is deeply sick.
  • Trademarks
      The phrase "See You Next Wednesday". Supposedly, the phrase is the title of a film that Landis had an idea for at the age of 15. The title is a direct reference to a line in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He describes the film as the kind of movie that a 15 year old adolescent boy would have made. He sometimes uses ideas from this movie, and when he does he puts the phrase in as a "homage". It is not in all of his movies [SYNW].

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