J.R. Bookwalter
- Producer
- Editor
- Actor
J.R. Bookwalter began his filmmaking career at the tender age of 11
years old in Akron, Ohio. Born August 16th, 1966, Bookwalter was raised
on Dark Shadows (1966), the classic soap opera, which his mother used to watch
religiously. After graduating high school in 1984, Bookwalter took
photography classes at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. When his
apartment was robbed a week into his second year there, the fledgling
director took it as a sign to return home, and a mere month later he
touched base with filmmaker Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead (1981)), who would wind up
financing his first feature-length effort, The Dead Next Door (1989). That production
dragged on for nearly four years, finally being completed in Los
Angeles, where Bookwalter ran into David DeCoteau (Creepozoids (1987)), a producer who
was in the early stages of starting a distribution company. From 1989
to 1992, Bookwalter wound up either writing, directing, producing,
scoring or mixing the sound for nine features and four special interest
videos for DeCoteau. In 1991, Bookwalter used what he learned from
DeCoteau to start Tempe Entertainment and began self-distributing his
features, such as the critically-acclaimed Ozone (1993). Bookwalter has
taught himself the ins and outs of low-budget production; in addition
to the duties above, he has also done a bit of acting, explosives work,
makeup effects, lighting, cinematography...you name it, and J.R.
Bookwalter has probably at least tried it. He feels that working with
talents as varied as Raimi, DeCoteau, Night of the Living Dead (1990) co-creator John A. Russo and
B-movie maven Charles Band has taught him when and where to cut corners in
the name of a low-cost movie and when and where to work harder in the
name of art.
