Douglas Eric Liman (; born July 24, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing the films ''
Swingers'' (1996), ''
Go'' (1999), ''
The Bourne Identity'' (2002), ''
Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (2005), ''
Jumper
Jumper or Jumpers may refer to:
Clothing
*Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater
**A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United State ...
'' (2008), ''
Edge of Tomorrow
''Edge of Tomorrow'' (also known as ''Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow'') is a 2014 American science fiction action film starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt with Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson in supporting roles. Directed by Doug Liman wi ...
'' (2014), and ''
American Made'' (2017).
Most of his career has been associated with the production company Hypnotic. He is co-owner with
Dave Bartis
David Bartis (born in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American film and television producer best known for Suits, ''The O.C.'', and Edge of Tomorrow.
Early life
He is a graduate of McLean High School, located in McLean, Virginia. Bartis earned ...
, whom he met as an undergraduate at
Brown University where they co-founded Brown Television (BTV) and the
National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB).
Liman is on the advisory board of the Legal Action Center and the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
.
Early life and education
Liman was born in New York City, the son of Ellen (''née'' Fogelson), a painter and writer, and
Arthur L. Liman
Arthur Lawrence LimanHaberman, Clyde ''The New York Times'', July 18, 1997. Accessed April 2, 2009. (November 5, 1932 – July 17, 1997) was a partner at the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and was well known for his ...
, a lawyer well known for his public service, which included serving as chief counsel for the Senate
Iran-Contra hearings. Liman is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, from a prominent New York family.
Liman began making
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
s while still in
junior high school and studied at
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
in New York City. While attending Brown University, he helped to co-found the student-run
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
station BTV and served as its first station manager. He also co-founded the NACB, the first trade association geared to student-staffed radio and television stations, in 1988.
Liman attended the graduate program at
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
, where he was tapped to helm his first project in 1993, the comedy film ''
Getting In
''Getting In'', also known as ''Student Body'', is a 1994 American black comedy, black comedy film directed by Doug Liman starring Andrew McCarthy and Stephen Mailer.
Plot
When Rupert Grim learns that there are several students ahead of him in l ...
''.
Career
Liman's first major success was ''
Swingers'', released in 1996. The film, written by
Jon Favreau and based on Favreau's life, is a comedy about struggling actors amid the
L.A.
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 ...
club milieu. Liman raised the funding and the film was made on the cheap, starring Favreau and his friends (
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor.
Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...
,
Ron Livingston
Ronald Joseph Livingston (born June 5, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for playing Peter Gibbons in the 1999 film ''Office Space'' and Captain Lewis Nixon III in the 2001 miniseries '' Band of Brothers.''
Livingston's other roles include ...
, and
Patrick Van Horn
Patrick Van Horn (born March 17, 1969) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Sue in the 1996 film '' Swingers'', starring alongside real-life friends Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn and Ron Livingston.
He had previously appeared in t ...
), ultimately cost $250,000. The film was a critical success, and jump-started the careers of Liman and the featured actors. Liman sold the film to
Miramax for $5.5 million.
Liman next directed ''
Go'' (1999), which tracks the events of a drug deal gone wrong through three different points of view as plot lines diverge and reconverge; Liman was also the film's
cinematographer. The film was an indie hit and made a profit at the box office grossing $28.4 million worldwide against a $20 million budget.
In 1999, Liman shot a commercial for Nike featuring
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.
*
*
* Woods is widely regarded as ...
.
Liman next directed the 2002 action thriller ''
The Bourne Identity'' starring
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Ameri ...
, an adaptation of the 1980
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...
novel. The film was a box office success, earning over $200 million, and began a
''Bourne'' film franchise that has since included four additional films. Liman only directed the first ''Bourne'' film, but served as an
executive producer for three of the four sequels (2004's ''
The Bourne Supremacy
''The Bourne Supremacy'' is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1986. It is the sequel to Ludlum's bestseller '' The Bourne Identity'' (1980) and precedes Ludlum's final Bourne novel, '' The Bourne Ultima ...
'', 2007's ''
The Bourne Ultimatum'' and 2016's ''
Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne () is the title character and the protagonist in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. The character was created by novelist Robert Ludlum. He first appeared in the novel '' The Bourne Identity'' (1980), which was ...
'').
Liman executive-produced and directed the first two episodes ("
Premiere" and "
The Model Home
The first season of ''The O.C.'' commenced airing in the United States on August 5, 2003, concluded on May 5, 2004, and consisted of 27 episodes. It tells the story of "the Cohen and Cooper families, and Ryan twood a troubled teen from the wro ...
") of the successful Fox prime time drama ''
The O.C.
''The O.C. '' is an American teen drama television series created by Josh Schwartz that originally aired on the Fox network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 22, 2007, running a total of four seasons. "O.C." is an initiali ...
'' (2003–2007). Liman produced and directed a series of comedy shorts for the
Chrysler Film Project and
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
entitled ''Indie Is Great''.
Liman also directed ''
Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (2005), a comedic thriller about an increasingly distant married couple, both secretly assassins, who are hired to kill each other. The film was Liman's most commercially successful to date, and is well known for the off-screen romance that developed between stars
Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...
after making the film.
In 2005, Liman signed on to direct the
pilot episode of
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's television series ''
Heist'', which is about a season-long attempt to rob three jewelry stores on
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...
' swanky
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive is a street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles. Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is at its intersection with Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The ...
. Also that same year, the production company Hypnotic has struck a deal with NBC Universal Television Studio. Shortly afterwards, he renamed the production company from Hypnotic to Dutch Oven.
His
film adaptation of
Steven Gould's
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novel ''
Jumper
Jumper or Jumpers may refer to:
Clothing
*Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater
**A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United State ...
'' was released in 2008.
In 2009, he co-founded the website ''30ninjas.com'' which is geared towards fans of action movies and television, gaming, extreme sports and viral videos. He also maintains a blog on the site.
Liman directed 2010's ''
Fair Game'', about the
Plame affair
The Plame affair (also known as the CIA leak scandal and Plamegate) was a political scandal that revolved around journalist Robert Novak's public identification of Valerie Plame as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer in 2003.
In 2002, ...
, which competed for the
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
at the
2010 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2011, Liman directed and produced ''
I Just Want My Pants Back
''I Just Want My Pants Back'' is an American comedy-drama that premiered with a special sneak peek on August 28, 2011 on MTV, with the series airing the new episodes beginning on February 2, 2012. The series is based on David J. Rosen's 2007 nov ...
'', a television series that aired on MTV. He produced ''
Covert Affairs
''Covert Affairs'' is an American action drama television series filmed in Toronto, Canada, starring Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham that premiered on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. On January 6, 2015, USA Network canceled ''Covert Affairs'' afte ...
'' and ''
Suits'', two original series on the
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
. He directed the film adaptation of the
Hiroshi Sakurazaka
is a Japanese author of science fiction and fantasy light novels. He is best known for his novel ''All You Need Is Kill'', which formed the basis of the film ''Edge of Tomorrow'', starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
Life and career
Sakurazaka ...
novel, ''
All You Need is Kill
''All You Need Is Kill'' is a Japanese science fiction light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi Abe. The book was published in Japanese by Shueisha under their Super Dash Bunko imprint in December 2004, and was late ...
'', released as ''
Edge of Tomorrow
''Edge of Tomorrow'' (also known as ''Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow'') is a 2014 American science fiction action film starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt with Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson in supporting roles. Directed by Doug Liman wi ...
'' (2014), starring
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...
. In 2017, he directed
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...
in the military thriller ''
The Wall
''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/ CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...
'', and directed Cruise again, in the crime-action film ''
American Made'', a biopic of pilot
Barry Seal.
In August 2016, Liman signed on to direct ''Dark Universe'', a film set within the
DC Extended Universe
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that ...
and based on superhero team
Justice League Dark
The Justice League Dark, or JLD, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team would make their debut appearance in ''Justice League Dark'' #1 (September 2011). The Justice League Dark team features some ...
after leaving the adaptation of ''
Gambit
A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage.
The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe sim ...
.'' However, Liman has departed from the project due to schedule conflicts with the film ''
Chaos Walking
''Chaos Walking'' is a young adult science fiction series written by American-British novelist Patrick Ness. It is set in a dystopian world where all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds call ...
'' (2021), that Liman was working on that time.
In January 2020, Liman announced that the ''Edge of Tomorrow'' sequel, ''Live Die Repeat and Repeat'', was currently in its early planning stages.
In May 2020, it was reported that Liman would be directing, writing, and producing a fictional movie shot in
outer space
Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
.
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...
is set to star and produce. Both will fly to space and to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
as part of the
SpaceX Axiom Space-2 mission.
In November 2021, it was reported that Liman was in talks to direct a remake of ''
Road House''.
Filmography
Film
Director
Producer
* ''Mail Order Wife'' (2004)
Executive producer
* ''
The Bourne Supremacy
''The Bourne Supremacy'' is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1986. It is the sequel to Ludlum's bestseller '' The Bourne Identity'' (1980) and precedes Ludlum's final Bourne novel, '' The Bourne Ultima ...
'' (2004)
* ''
The Bourne Ultimatum'' (2007)
* ''
The Killing Floor'' (2007)
* ''
Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne () is the title character and the protagonist in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. The character was created by novelist Robert Ludlum. He first appeared in the novel '' The Bourne Identity'' (1980), which was ...
'' (2016)
* ''
The Phantom
''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The char ...
'' (2021)
Television
References
External links
"The Liman Identity" – New York Magazine biography*
www.30ninjas.com – Doug Liman's Action Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liman, Doug
1965 births
Living people
20th-century American Jews
Brown University alumni
Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni
Film directors from New York City
Science fiction film directors
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Space tourists
American television directors
American television producers
21st-century American Jews
American cinematographers