Jim Lemley (born March 9, 1965) is an American film and television producer based in Paris best known for his work on the action-thriller film ''
Wanted''.
Early life
Born March 9, 1965, Jim is the son of the engineer
Jack Lemley
Jack Kenneth Lemley CBE (January 2, 1935 – November 29, 2021) was an American architect and engineering manager who led delivery of large infrastructure projects across the globe. His projects included the Channel Tunnel between England and F ...
. Jack Lemley was the Chief Executive of
TransManche Link
TransManche Link (Cross Channel Link) or TML was a British-French construction consortium responsible for building the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel between Cheriton in England, and Coquelles in France.
History
In April 1985 the Briti ...
, the consortium that built the Channel Tunnel, which is the largest privately financed construction project in history. Jack Lemley was awarded the
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
by
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
for his work on the
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...
.
Career
Early career
Lemley started his career in New York City working for record label
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
. It was during his stint with Island that he became interested in film while working on U2's documentary
Rattle and Hum
''Rattle and Hum'' is a hybrid live/studio album by Irish Rock music, rock band U2, and a companion rockumentary film directed by Phil Joanou. The album was produced by Jimmy Iovine and was released on 10 October 1988, while the film was distri ...
. "I got to know the guys and be involved in the shooting, I realized that my interest in music was a portion of the movie-making process," he said of his inspirational experience. Not long after joining Island Records, Lemley moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, working in production and music videos before joining Mel Gibson's
Icon Entertainment
Icon Productions is a production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey, which, unlike most other independent production companies, funds most of its development and production cos ...
in 1992.
Icon Productions
At Icon, he worked on various films including ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Bureau ...
'', ''
Immortal Beloved
The Immortal Beloved (German "Unsterbliche Geliebte") is the addressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz. The unsent letter is written in pencil on 10 small pages. It was found in the compo ...
'', ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writte ...
'', ''
Payback
Payback may refer to:
* Revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance
Payback may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Payback, a member of the fictional comics superhero team Shadow ...
'', ''
187
Year 187 ( CLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Quintius and Aelianus (or, less frequently, year 940 ''Ab urbe c ...
'', and served as executive producer on the Vietnam War drama ''
We Were Soldiers
''We Were Soldiers'' is a 2002 war film written and directed by Randall Wallace and starring Mel Gibson. Based on the book ''We Were Soldiers Once… and Young'' (1992) by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, it ...
''. He also produced several television projects, including ''
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
'' for ABC and ''
Invincible
Invincible may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Invincible'' (2001 drama film), a drama by Werner Herzog about Jewish cabaret during the rise of Nazism
* ''Invincible'' (2001 TV film), a fantasy / martial arts TV movie starring Billy Zane
...
'' for TBS. In 2001 at the age of 36, Lemley was promoted to the position of CEO at Icon Entertainment International, based in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Independent producing career
After eleven years with Icon Productions, Lemley realized he wanted to work on projects on his own and left the company to start an independent producing career. "I’d met a lot of people, so I started working on projects that were close to me," he said of his decision to move on.
For his first independent production, in 2002, Jim teamed up with
Ridley and
Tony Scott
Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as ''Top Gun'' (1986), ''Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''Day ...
to executive produce the medieval romance ''
Tristan & Isolde'', which starred
James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
and was directed by
Kevin Reynolds. It was released in 2006 to mediocre reviews and had lackluster box office performance. In 2004, he partnered with successful horror producer
Bonnie Curtis
Bonnie Kathleen Curtis (born March 26, 1966) is an American film producer whose credits include ''Saving Private Ryan'', ''A.I.'', ''Minority Report'', and '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park'', directed by Steven Spielberg. Her first solo project ...
to executive produce the
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...
thriller ''
Red Eye'' which was released in 2005 and starred
Rachael McAdams and
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short and ...
best known for playing the villain ''Scarecrow'' in
Batman Begins
''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam ...
. The film was a modest success and would be a precursor ''Wanted.''
Success with 'Wanted' to present
In 2005, Lemley partnered with acclaimed Russian director
Timur Bekmambetov
Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov (, ; ; born June 25, 1961) is a Russian-Kazakhstan, Kazakh film Film director, director, Film producer, producer, screenwriter, and tech entrepreneur. He is best known for the fantasy epic ''Night Watch (2004 fi ...
to produce the hit action thriller ''
Wanted'' (starring
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 ...
and
James McAvoy
James McAvoy (; born 21 April 1979) is a Scottish actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in '' The Near Room'' (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his feature film career began. His notable television work includes ...
). The film was released in 2008 to solid reviews and would go on to gross $341 million worldwide. Angelina Jolie declined to return for a sequel, which has been in development since 2008. On the subject of ''Wanted 2'' Jim gave an interview with
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
in 2011, exclaiming he would like to see the film move forward with or without Angelina's participation. Most recently in November 2014, co-producer
Marc E. Platt
Marc E. Platt (born April 14, 1957) is an American producer who has worked in film, theatre, and television. He has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as nominations for three Academy Award ...
told ''Comingsoon.net'' that a script is coming along well, but gave no indications as to when production might move forward.
Apart from producing Blockbusters, Lemley also executive produced the critically acclaimed French language drama ''
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' based on the life of
Elle Magazine
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the wo ...
editor
Jean-Dominique Bauby
Jean-Dominique Bauby (; 23 April 1952 – 9 March 1997) was a French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ''Elle''.
Early life and career
Bauby was born in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and grew up in the 1st arrond ...
. The film was praised worldwide and maintains a solid 94% Fresh rating out of 142 possible reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. It was also nominated for 4
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
including Best Director for
Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings" — with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been ...
.
Following the success of ''Wanted'', Jim would again work with director Timur Bekmambetov on the post-apocalyptic animated feature ''
9'', directed by Shane Acker. The film was co-produced with Bekmambetov and
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
and garnered the producing team a nomination for 'Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures' for the 2010
Producers Guild Awards
The Producers Guild of America Awards were originally established in 1990 by the Producers Guild of America as the Golden Laurel Awards, created by PGA Treasurer Joel Freeman with the support of Guild President Leonard Stern, in order to honor ...
.
Lemley again re-teamed with
Timur Bekmambetov
Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov (, ; ; born June 25, 1961) is a Russian-Kazakhstan, Kazakh film Film director, director, Film producer, producer, screenwriter, and tech entrepreneur. He is best known for the fantasy epic ''Night Watch (2004 fi ...
and
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
to produce ''
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'', released by
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
on June 22, 2012 and based on the best-seller of the same name. While the film underperformed domestically, the film was a huge hit in countries like Bekmambetov's Russia and went on to be profitable overall. Lemley also has multiple projects in development including ''Wanted 2'', ''Moby Dick'', and a science fiction project called ''Forever'' to be directed by
Gareth Edwards
Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey".
In 2003, in a poll of international ru ...
of ''
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
'' fame.
Personal life
Lemley earned a B.A. in Marketing from the
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...
, College of Business and Economics in 1988. While in attendance at the University of Idaho, he was a member of the secret letter fraternity
Delta Tau Delta
Delta Tau Delta () is a United States-based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapters ...
.
He is a member of the
Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing television producers, film producers and New media, New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 8,000 members of the producing esta ...
,
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...
and the
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
. He remains an active member of his Alma Mater, serving on the Advisory Board for the University of Idaho, College of Business and Economics where he also spoke as commencement speaker in the Spring of 2013. Along with frequent collaborator Timur Bekmambetov, Lemley is a founding member and contributor to The World Building Institute at the
USC School of Cinematic Arts
The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...
.
He met French actress
Sophie Marceau
Sophie Marceau (; born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu, 17 November 1966) is a French actress. As a teenager, she achieved popularity with her debut films ''La Boum'' (1980) and ''La Boum 2'' (1982), receiving a César Award for Most Promising Act ...
while on the set of ''Anna Karenina'' in 1996, where Marceau played the eponymous role. They have a daughter, Juliette, born in June 2002.
They separated in 2006.
Filmography
Films
* ''
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'' (2012) (producer)
* ''
9'' (2009) (producer)
* ''
Wanted'' (2008) (producer)
* ''
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' (2007) (executive producer)
* ''
Tristan & Isolde'' (2006) (executive producer)
* ''
Red Eye'' (2005) (executive producer)
* ''
We Were Soldiers
''We Were Soldiers'' is a 2002 war film written and directed by Randall Wallace and starring Mel Gibson. Based on the book ''We Were Soldiers Once… and Young'' (1992) by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, it ...
'' (2002) (executive producer)
* ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writte ...
'' (1997) (associate producer)
* ''
Payback
Payback may refer to:
* Revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance
Payback may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Payback, a member of the fictional comics superhero team Shadow ...
'' (1999) (unit production manager)
* ''
187
Year 187 ( CLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Quintius and Aelianus (or, less frequently, year 940 ''Ab urbe c ...
'' (1997) (unit production manager)
* ''
Immortal Beloved
The Immortal Beloved (German "Unsterbliche Geliebte") is the addressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6–7 July 1812 in Teplitz. The unsent letter is written in pencil on 10 small pages. It was found in the compo ...
'' (1994) (production manager)
* ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Bureau ...
'' (1994) (production manager: second unit; production supervisor)
* ''
Airborne
Airborne or Airborn may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis
* ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film
* ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...
'' (1993) (production supervisor)
Television
* ''
Invincible
Invincible may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Invincible'' (2001 drama film), a drama by Werner Herzog about Jewish cabaret during the rise of Nazism
* ''Invincible'' (2001 TV film), a fantasy / martial arts TV movie starring Billy Zane
...
'' (2001) (producer)
* ''
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
'' (2000) (producer)
Music videos
* ''Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Music Trailer featuring
"POWERLESS" by
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer ...
'' (2012) (producer)
Actor
* ''
Red Eye'' ... Man on Fishing Boat (2005)
Special thanks
* ''
The Chumscrubber
''The Chumscrubber'' (German: ''Glück in kleinen Dosen'') is a 2005 comedy-drama film, directed by Arie Posin, starring an ensemble cast led by Jamie Bell. The plot, written by Posin and Zac Stanford, focuses on the chain of events that follow t ...
'' (2005)
As himself
* ''
9: The Long and the Short of It'' (2009)
* ''
9: 9: U-Control Picture in Picture'' (2009)
* ''HBO First Look: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'' (2012)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemley, Jim
1965 births
Living people
American television producers
University of Idaho alumni
Businesspeople from Seattle
Mass media people from Paris
American chief executives
Film producers from Washington (state)