George Donald Mancini (born January 25, 1963) is an American

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, most notable for the ''Child's Play'' franchise.

Career

Having been a horror fan since his childhood, Mancini's inspiration for '' Child's Play'' were films like ''

Trilogy of Terror ''Trilogy of Terror'' is a 1975 American made-for-television anthology horror film directed by Dan Curtis and starring Karen Black. It features three segments, each based on unrelated short stories by Richard Matheson. The first follows a coll ...

'' and the " Talky Tina" episode of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

'', stating that he knew the killer doll trope, but realized it had never been done as a feature-length film in the age of animatronics. As a film student at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the mid-1980s, Mancini was amused by the hysteria surrounding the

Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage ...

, and that the ubiquitous dolls were disappearing from toy shelves and prompting physical fights between parents. Mancini's father had worked in the advertising industry all his life, and he knew how effective marketing could result in consumer bedlam. Based on this, Mancini wanted to write a dark satire about how marketing affected children, with his first effort being as the co-writer of '' Child's Play'' (1988). Mancini wrote all seven films in the original ''Child's Play'' film series, and was the executive producer of ''

Bride of Chucky ''Bride of Chucky'' is a 1998 American black comedy slasher film written by Don Mancini and directed by Ronny Yu. The fourth installment in the ''Child's Play'' franchise, it stars Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Ritter, Katherine Heigl, and Ni ...

'' and ''

Cult of Chucky In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual Religion, religious, spirituality, spiritual, or Philosophy, philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its Followership, common interest in ...

''. He began directing ''Child's Play'' franchise entries with ''

Seed of Chucky ''Seed of Chucky'' is a 2004 black comedy slasher film, the fifth installment of the ''Child's Play'' series, and sequel to 1998's ''Bride of Chucky'' as well as the first film to be distributed by another company since the original '' Child's ...

'' (2004), followed by '' Curse of Chucky'' (2013) and ''Cult'' (2017), and was the creator, writer, and director of the ''

Chucky Chucky may refer to: *Chucky (name) *Chucky (character), a fictional character in the ''Child's Play'' franchise **'' Chucky: Slash & Dash'', a 2013 video game ** ''Chucky'' (TV series), a 2021 TV series *Chucky madtom (''Noturus crypticus''), en ...

'' TV series. He was not involved with the 2019 reboot. In 2007, he won the EyeGore award for career contributions to the horror genre. He sometimes goes by the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Kit Dubois. Mancini attended St. Christopher's School in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(

Brad Dourif Bradford Claude Dourif (; born March 18, 1950) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Oscar, and won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his film debut role as Billy Bibbit in '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975). He is also kn ...

was among his teachers) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards

References

External links

*
Campblood.org Interview with Don Mancini
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mancini, Don 1963 births American film directors of Italian descent American film producers American male screenwriters American writers of Italian descent Columbia University alumni English-language film directors Film directors from Virginia American gay writers Horror film directors LGBT film directors LGBT people from Virginia Living people Screenwriters from Virginia St. Christopher's School (Richmond, Virginia) alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Writers from Richmond, Virginia LGBT screenwriters 21st-century LGBT people