Max 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 a 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. Landis wrote a draft for a sequel, but Fox was unhappy with the draft and Landis is no longer working on the project.

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.

In 2012 Landis began work on his directorial debut Me Him Her. The film was 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 was later on secretly hired as a consultant for WWE Raw.

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, Joëlle Jones, Jae Lee, Francis Manapul, Jonathan Case, and Jock, with covers drawn by Ryan Sook.) The collected hardcover edition with bonus material was 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.

On March 30, 2016, it was announced that Landis's script for a psychological drama-thriller titled Deeper is set to be directed by Kornél Mundruczó, starring Bradley Cooper and produced by Landis and David S. Goyer. Production is expected to start late in 2017.

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

On November 7, 2016, Deadline reported that Max Landis will write and direct a remake of his father's film An American Werewolf in London. The remake will be produced by Skybound Entertainment and being helmed by The Walking Dead executive producers Robert Kirkman and David Alpert.

Personal life

Landis is an outspoken fan of pro wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, as well as pop artist Carly Rae Jepsen; A Scar No One Else Can See: The Jepsen Pattern, a "living document" essay written by Landis that deconstructs Jepsen's song lyrics by theorizing a specific, recurring personal motif that encompasses her entire discography, was posted online on September 12, 2017.