Steven C. Miller 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. ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

. His feature film debut, ''

Automaton Transfusion ''Automaton Transfusion'' is a 2006 American independent horror film written and directed by Steven C. Miller. Plot In the early 1970s, while the majority of Americans were focused on events in Vietnam, the United States Army was secretly develo ...

'', became an instant cult classic and catapulted his career into Hollywood. He directed the remake of ''

Silent Night, Deadly Night ''Silent Night, Deadly Night'' is a 1984 American slasher film directed by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter. The story concerns a ...

'' in 2012 and then shifted from horror to action. He has directed films starring notable actors such as

Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...

John Cusack John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...

Aaron Eckhart Aaron Edward Eckhart (born March 12, 1968) is an American actor. Born in Cupertino, California, Eckhart moved to the United Kingdom at an early age. He began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Australia for his hi ...

Giancarlo Esposito Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'', from 2009 to 2011, and in its prequel series ''Better Ca ...

, and

Dave Bautista David Michael Bautista Jr. (born January 18, 1969) is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. He had several stints in WWE between 2002 and 2019. In his acting career, he is most widely known for his portrayal of Drax the Destro ...

Education

Miller attended

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center ...

where he majored in film and television production.

Career

His feature film debut, ''

'' (2006), was made for under $15,000; it was purchased and released worldwide by

Dimension Films Dimension Films is an American film production company owned by Lantern Entertainment. It was formerly used as Harvey and Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993, to produce and relea ...

after premiering at the 2007

Screamfest Horror Film Festival Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...

. After signing with Aperture Entertainment and

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. U ...

, Miller was attached to direct several studio films, including a cancelled

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

remake of ''

Motel Hell ''Motel Hell'' is a 1980 American comedy horror film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Rory Calhoun, Nancy Parsons, and Nina Axelrod. The plot follows farmer, butcher, motel manager, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith, who traps travele ...

'' (1980). In 2011, Miller embarked on directing three more independent features. The first was the thriller '' The Aggression Scale'' (2012), described by

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

as "''

Home Alone ''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Hear ...

'' with more death". After premiering at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

, the film was purchased by

Anchor Bay Entertainment Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television ser ...

for worldwide distribution. His second project was '' Under the Bed'' (2012), referred to by

JoBlo.com The JoBlo Movie Network includes a website, JoBlo.com, which focuses on news, film reviews, and movie trailers; and YouTube channels that focus on trailers, movie clips, celebrity interviews, original content, and as film distribution. Early da ...

as "a blood-soaked horror extravaganza"; the film premiered at

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

and was acquired for release by

XLrator Media XLrator Media is an American film distributor headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The CEO is Barry Gordon, who founded the company in April 2010. In 2014, they began offering film production services in partnership with other companies. ...

. Miller's next film was the Christmas

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

'' (2012), a remake of ''

'' (1984).

Fearnet Fearnet was an American digital cable television network, website and video on demand service owned by Comcast. The network specialized in horror entertainment programming through a mix of acquired and original series, and feature films. Backgr ...

stated "this straightforward and scrappy little remake is somehow more entertaining than half of what passes for 'wide release' horror movies these days." ''Silent Night'', like ''The Aggression Scale'', was released by Anchor Bay. Miller made a shift to mainstream filmmaking with four films produced by Emmett/Furla/Oasis and released by

Lionsgate Premiere Lionsgate Premiere is the speciality film division of entertainment company Lionsgate Films that specializes in direct-to-video and direct-to-video on demand. Background On April 1, 2015, Lionsgate confirmed they had launched speciality division ...

: ''

Extraction Extraction may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * Comedo extraction, a method of acne treatment * Dental extraction, the surgical removal of a tooth from the mouth Computing and information science * Data extraction, the pro ...

'' (2015), '' Marauders'' (2016), ''

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

'' (2017) and '' First Kill'' (2017). Miller had his fifth collaboration with EFO and Lionsgate through the sequel '' Escape Plan 2: Hades'' (2018). ''Escape Plan 2'' star Slyvester Stallone stated that this film was the "most horribly produced film I have ever had the misfortune to be in" of his career.Through these titles, Miller has collaborated several times with (in addition to Willis)

Adrian Grenier Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, producer, director and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series ''Entourage (American TV series), Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appe ...

and

Johnathan Schaech Johnathon Schaech ( ; born September 10, 1969) is an American actor and screenwriter. He has been working as an actor since the early '90s. Early life Johnathon Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland, in 1969 to Joe, a Baltimore City law enfo ...

. Miller's latest project, action-thriller ''Live'', began production in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

in May 2018. The film will star

as a disgraced police officer seeking an escaped kidnapee after killing her abductor.

Courtney Eaton Courtney Eaton (born 6 January 1996) is an Australian actress. She is known for her supporting roles as Ava in the 2019 film ''Line of Duty'', Cheedo the Fragile in the 2015 film '' Mad Max: Fury Road'', and as Zaya in the 2016 film ''Gods of ...

will co-star as an online reporter filming the chase in real time.

Filmography

Other credits * '' H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds'' (2005) – art department: second unit; direct-to-video * ''

Penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of Repentance (theology), repentance for Christian views on sin, sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic Church, Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox s ...

'' (2009) – special thanks * ''

Pernicious ''Pernicious'' is a Thai-American supernatural horror film directed by James Cullen Bressack, who also wrote the story along with co-writer Taryn Hillin. The film stars Ciara Hanna, Emily O'Brien, and Jackie Moore. Cast * Ciara Hanna as Al ...

'' (2014) – thanks

Music videos

Miller has directed music videos for the bands

Blinded Black Blinded Black is a five-piece post-hardcore band from St. Louis, Missouri. After forming in 1999 as a six-piece, the group self-released their debut album and began touring both locally and around the Midwest. The group signed with SideCho Record ...

and

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

.Interview at MovieThunder.com

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Steven C. 1981 births Action film directors American film directors American film editors American male screenwriters Full Sail University alumni Horror film directors Living people