Best Known As: The director of Being John Malkovich
Name at birth: Adam Spiegel
Spike Jonze earned an Oscar nomination for directing his first feature film, 1999's Being John Malkovich. Jonze got his start as a photographer in the late 1980s for Freestylin', a skateboarder magazine. That led to a career making short films and music videos in the '90s, while co-founding Homeboy and Dirt magazines, as well as the company Girl Skateboards. The success of Being John Malkovich came as Jonze's video career was in bloom, and that same year he appeared in a supporting role in Three Kings (alongside Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney), made the news for marrying Francis Ford Coppola's daughter, filmmaker Sofia Coppola, and managed to co-create the lowbrow TV franchise Jackass (with Johnny Knoxville). Inventive and rambunctious, Jonze has won many awards for his popular music videos, a portfolio that includes The Beastie Boys ("Sabotage"), Björk ("It's Oh So Quiet"), Weezer ("Buddy Holly"), Fatboy Slim ("Praise You" and "Weapon of Choice") and Kanye West ("We Were Once a Fairy Tale"). Likewise, he's earned respect in the advertising industry for innovative commercials for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Ikea and The Gap. His second feature film, Adaptation (2002), starred Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep, and his third feature film was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book for children, Where the Wild Things Are (2009).
His name comes from a nickname he had as a teenager working in a BMX bike shop... Spike Jones was also the name of an American drummer and bandleader of the 1940s who did raucous parodies of popular songs... Spike Jonze and Coppola were married in 1999 and filed for divorce in late 2003... It's Jonze himself who is the goofy dancer with a boombox in the video for "Praise You"... Christopher Walken is the star of the video "Weapon of Choice."
Career Highlights: Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Where the Wild Things Are
First Major Screen Credit: Free Tibet (1998)
Biography
A notoriously shy prankster with a penchant for skateboarding and tall tales, Spike Jonze might not have been the most obvious candidate for "most promising director" or "best first feature" status. With the release of Being John Malkovich in the fall of 1999, however, those were exactly the kinds of superlatives being lauded upon the impetuous wunderkind.
Purportedly an heir to the Spiegel catalog empire, Jonze was born Adam Spiegel in 1969 in St. Louis, MO. Nicknamed "Spike" at a young age -- he was fond of buzz haircuts -- he would adopt the "Jonze" later in life as an homage to the comic bandleader of the 1940s. After his parents divorced, Jonze spent most of his formative years with his mother in Maryland, where he cultivated interests in skateboarding, freestyle biking, and photography. He opted out of college to take a position at one of his favorite magazines, Freestyle, and before long, he was creating his own monthly, Dirt. The nationally distributed publication promptly failed, and Jonze returned to his bread and butter: shooting photo spreads and videos of skaters.
It was Jonze's skateboarding photography which brought the attention of the rock group Sonic Youth, who enlisted him to contribute skate footage to their "100%" video in 1992. From there, video offers streamed in, and Jonze's distinctive clips for bands such as the Breeders, R.E.M., and Weezer quickly made him one of the most sought-after video directors in the business. Even within the confines of a three-minute spot, Jonze would find ways to subtly reference pop culture: his "Sabotage" video for the Beastie Boys aped the look and feel of 1970s cop shows; in the Breeders' "Cannonball," he gave a nod to the 1956 children's classic The Red Balloon; and Jonze transformed Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" into an elaborate musical fantasy number inspired by Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
It didn't take long for the movie industry to take notice, and in 1995, Jonze was offered the chance to direct the film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, with a script by The Player scribe Michael Tolkin. After much pre-production work, however, the project went into developmental limbo, and Jonze continued to work on videos and advertisements while he searched for the perfect debut material. It arrived in 1997 in the form of Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman's dark, surreal comedy about the havoc wreaked when a disaffected puppeteer discovers a portal into the mind of the titular actor. Instead of playing up the script's more fantastical elements, Jonze chose to approach the film with an almost deadpan realism, exhibiting his skills with cinéma vérité as well as a particularly uncanny knack for re-creating corporate training films. In 1999, The National Society of Film Critics named Malkovich best picture of the year, and its director was rewarded with best debut feature awards from both the New York Film Critics Association and the Independent Spirit Foundation. Though Jonze would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, the film was shut out of the Best Picture category.
Malkovich wasn't the only film for which Jonze was receiving praise in the fall of 1999. After a handful of bit parts in such films as The Game and Mi Vida Loca, he was cast as a dim but well-meaning soldier in director David O. Russell's Gulf War saga Three Kings. Critics noted Jonze's ability to bring depth and warmth to the somewhat stereotypical role of the impudent loose cannon from the backwoods, Private Conrad Vig. 1999 was also the year that Jonze married into one of the most venerable filmmaking clans in America, as he exchanged vows with longtime girlfriend and fellow director Sofia Coppola.
Following up Being John Malkovich proved to be no easy task. At the turn of the century, Jonze laid low, lending his skills to more music videos and commercials, and teaming up with skating buddy Johnny Knoxville to create Knoxville's immediately infamous weekly revue of self-mutilation, MTV's Jackass. Around this time, Jonze learned of Kaufman's assignment to translate Susan Orlean's best-selling nonfiction account The Orchid Thief to the screen for Columbia Pictures. Unbeknownst to the studio, Kaufman had decided to write an account of his own difficulties penning the script, an idea aided and abetted by Jonze. The resulting film, Adaptation, arrived in theaters in time for 2002's awards season, and garnered reviews just as favorable as the duo's 1999 effort. Citing the film's sure-handed, matter-of-fact direction -- encompassing two separate but seamlessly integrated Nicolas Cage performances -- critics noted Jonze's skill at managing a wide swath of performance styles, from the two mannered Cages to a contemplative Meryl Streep to a chameleon-like Chris Cooper. Not surprisingly, Kaufman's script and all of the three leads in Adaptation were remembered for Academy Award nods -- with Cooper taking home the statue over Catch Me If You Can's shoo-in, Christopher Walken -- but Jonze found himself shut of the crowded Best Director category.
Still, Jonze could take consolation in his considerable box-office returns from 2002: not for Adaptation, which, despite a more aggressive marketing push, failed to top Being John Malkovich's modest 22-million-dollar total. Instead, producers Jonze and Knoxville saw their no-budget, big-screen installment of Jackass power past 60 million dollars, grossing more than a dozen times its cost and sparking many a debate over the death of cinema, the limits of "reality" entertainment, and the merits of inserting sundry implements into one's bodily orifices.
Although he and Sofia Coppola ended their marriage after just a short time, Jonze kept busy with a variety of projects including creating a television show and overseeing a DVD collection of many of his best music videos. He produced another feature length Jackass movie, and he took on the responsibility of bringing the beloved children's book Where the Wild Things Are to the big screen. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
When he was in junior high and high school, Jonze worked at the Rockville BMX Store, where his coworkers gave him his nickname "Spike Jonze".[7] Jonze was a photographer for "Freestylin'".[8] Jonze fronted Club Homeboy, an international BMX club, with Mark "Lew" Lewman and Andy Jenkins, both co-editors of Freestylin' Magazine in the mid- to late 1980s. The three also created the youth culture magazines Homeboy and Dirt (the latter of which was described as "Sassy Magazine for boys," being published by the same company and distributed in cellophane bags with the landmark magazine for young women).[7] Jonze was interviewed in Joe Kid on a Stingray, the 2006 documentary on the history of BMX.[9]
Career
In 2006, he was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for "Outstanding Achievement in Commercials in 2005." He was nominated for a body of work that included "Hello Tomorrow" for Adidas, "Penguin" for Miller Beer, and "Pardon Our Dust" for The Gap.[10] He was a producer and co-creator of MTVtelevision seriesJackass and Jackass: The Movie, also directing some of the segments.[1] Jonze has acted in some videos and films; his most prominent role was in Three Kings as the sweet, dimwitted, casually racist Conrad, in which he was directed by friend David O. Russell.[1]
Jonze has many alter egos, including Richard Koufey (alternately spelled Coufey or Couffe), the leader of the Torrance Community Dance Group, an urban troupe that performs in public spaces. The Koufey persona appeared when Jonze, in character, filmed himself dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Rockafeller Skank" as it played on a boom box in a public area.[7] Spike showed the video to Slim, who loved it.[citation needed] Jonze then assembled a group of dancers to perform to Slim's "Praise You" outside a Westwood, California movie theater and taped the performance.[citation needed] The resulting clip was a huge success, and "Koufey" and his troupe were invited to New York City to perform the song for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.[citation needed] The video received awards for Best Direction, Breakthrough, and Best Choreography, which Jonze accepted, still in character. Jonze made a mockumentary about the experience called Torrance Rises.[1]
He also has a speaking part along with Dave Eggers in the Beck song "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" from his 2006 album, The Information. He appears in the "Exoskeleton" part.[12]
Since 2007, he has been the creative director at VBS.tv, an online television network supplied by Vice and funded by MTV.[2]
Spike Jonze was part of the Detour-Moleskine project in New York in 2007.[12] The project invites authors to compile and illustrate Moleskine notebooks with experienced knowledge, to provide an intimate insight into the artists' creative process.
Most recently, Jonze directed Where the Wild Things Are,[13] which opened in the United States on October 16, 2009. It is arguably his most anticipated film to date, the product of an almost decade long collaboration with author Maurice Sendak.[14]
In July 2009, Jonze acquired the rights to make a film adaptation of the Shane Jones novel, Light Boxes. It is expected that Jonze will act as producer on this project with Ray Tintori attached to direct.[15]
Personal life
On June 26, 1999, Jonze married director Sofia Coppola, whom he had known for nearly ten years.[16] On December 5, 2003, the couple filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences."[17] The character of John, a career-driven photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) in Coppola's Lost In Translation (2003), was rumored to be based on Jonze, though Coppola has vehemently denied this.[18]
He also dated Michelle Williams. Jonze and Williams publicly came out as a couple in July 2008. Williams confirmed their split in September 2009.[citation needed]
