James Gray is an American director and screenwriter. With many critical acclaimed movies under his belt.
Let’s find out some more trivia and facts about his life and career!
- James Gray was born on April 14, 1969
- He is an American film director and screenwriter
- His feature debut was Little Odessa in 1994
- He has made five other features
- Four of which competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival
- Gray was born in New York City
- He is of Ukrainian Jewish descent
- With grandparents from Ostropol, Western Ukraine
- His father was once an electronics contractor
- Gray attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts
- There his student film, Cowboys and Angels, helped him get an agent
- And the attention of producer Paul Webster
- He encouraged him to write a script which he could produce
- In 1994, at age 25, Gray made his first feature film Little Odessa
- A film starring Tim Roth
- It was about a hit man confronted by his younger brother upon returning to his hometown, “Little Odessa,” a section of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
- The film won the Silver Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival
- In 2000, Miramax released his second film, The Yards
- A crime drama shot in 1998
- His third film, We Own the Night, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, played in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May
- Receiving widely divergent reviews from international critics
- We Own the Night was released theatrically in the US on October 12, 2007
- In November 2012 he was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2012 International Film Festival of Marrakech
- His 2013 film The Immigrant was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
- He wrote the screenplay for Guillaume Canet’s 2013 film Blood Ties with Canet
- In August 2013, it was announced that Warner Bros tapped Gray to write and direct White Devil
- A film based on the life of John Willis
- In October 2016, Gray’s film The Lost City of Z premiered at the New York Film Festival
- The film, based on the book by David Grann
- It depicts the life of explorer Percy Fawcett, played by Charlie Hunnam
- Gray first confirmed his plans to write and direct sci-fi space epic Ad Astra on May 12 during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
- The film will be released in September 2019
- Gray married Alexandra Dickson in 2005
- The couple have three children
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