Jason Howden is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

visual effects artist Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

Early life

Howden was born and raised in

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori language, Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast List of regions in New Zealand, region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The populat ...

. He left high school at age 17 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

Career

Aged 17, Howden began working as a television cameraman and editor at a local television station in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. He began his directing career with his short film ''Automaton'' in 2005. Howden wrote and directed his debut feature '' Deathgasm'' in 2014. The film won several awards at

Toronto After Dark Film Festival Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF) is a showcase of horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival premieres a diverse selection of feature-length and short-films from around the world incl ...

and other international film festivals. Between 2017 and 2018, Howden wrote the feature film ''

Guns Akimbo ''Guns Akimbo'' is a 2019 action comedy film written and directed by Jason Lei Howden. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Grant Bowler, Edwin Wright, Rhys Darby, Milo Cawthorne, Richard Knowles, an ...

'', and an adaptation of video game ''

Dead Island ''Dead Island'' is a 2011 action role-playing game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. Released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the game is centered on the challenge of surviving a zombie-in ...

''. In 2019, he directed ''Guns Akimbo'', starring

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...

and

Samara Weaving Samara Weaving (born 23 February 1992) is an Australian actress and model. She gained attention for her work in Australian television, appearing on the series '' Out of the Blue'' (2008) and receiving an AACTA Award nomination for playing Ind ...

, which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on 9 September 2019. The film was released in New Zealand on 5 March 2020 by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...

. In September 2022, Howden was set to direct an adaptation of Monsters of Metal, based on the comics he had written with Llexi Leon. The director was also attached as a co-writer along with Leon. Since 2001, Howden has been working as a visual effects artist on films. He has worked on visual effects in several Hollywood movies, including '' The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies'', '' The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'', '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'', '' Man of Steel'', '' Gods of Egypt'', and ''

War for the Planet of the Apes ''War for the Planet of the Apes'' is a 2017 American science fiction action film directed by Matt Reeves, who co-wrote it with Mark Bomback. The sequel to '' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'' (2014), it is the third installment in the ''Plan ...

'', among others.

Selected filmography

Director

* 2003 ''Parabiosis'' * 2005 ''Automaton'' * 2008 ''Veil'' * 2010 ''Melodies of the Heart'' * 2014 ''The Light Harvester'' * 2015 '' Deathgasm'' * 2019 ''

Visual effects

* 2021 '' Spiderhead'' * 2021 '' The Beatles: Get Back'' * 2021 ''

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' is a 2021 American superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Shang-Chi. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is List of Marvel ...

'' * 2021 '' Night Raiders'' * 2017 ''

'' * 2017 ''

Pork Pie A pork pie is a traditional English meat pie, usually served either at room temperature or cold (although often served hot in Yorkshire). It consists of a filling of roughly chopped pork and pork fat, surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock ...

'' * 2016 '' Gods of Egypt'' * 2014 '' The Light Harvester'' * 2014 '' The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies'' * 2013 '' The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'' * 2013 '' Romeo and Juliet: A Love Song'' * 2013 '' The Wolverine'' * 2013 '' Man of Steel'' * 2012 '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' * 2005 ''Automaton''

References

External links

* * New Zealand film directors New Zealand visual effects artists Mass media people from Wellington City Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{NewZealand-film-director-stub