Tim McCanlies (born 1953) is a
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 ...
and
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.
...
. He is best known for writing and directing ''
Secondhand Lions
''Secondhand Lions'' is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who is sent to live with his eccentric great uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael Cai ...
'', and for writing the screenplay for ''
The Iron Giant
''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was publish ...
''.
Biography
Tim McCanlies is a fifth-generation
Texan, but rarely called one place home for long. McCanlies’ father was in the Air Force and
the family traveled extensively.
In his early years he was interested in both
acting and the technical processes that took place behind the scenes, along
with the process of filming scenes.
By second grade
he was writing his own novels. While he was in high school he did not
participate in the school's theatre program, but instead went to the local
movie theatre and learned how to run the projector.
McCanlies attended high school in
Bryan, Texas
Bryan is a city and the county seat of Brazos County, Texas, United States. It is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley (East and Central Texas). As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 83,980. Bryan borders the city of College ...
and took some college-level courses at nearby
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
. In 1971, he moved to
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and enrolled at the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
majoring in
Radio-Television-Film. After a couple of years, McCanlies transferred back to
Texas A & M
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...
. In 1975, he moved to
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
where he worked as a police officer and took graduate film classes at
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
.
[Alison Macor. ''Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids 30 Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas'' University of Texas Press: Austin, 2010.]
Career
Once McCanlies started taking graduate classes at Southern Methodist, he learned proper screenplay techniques
and made several short films that were well accepted in national film
competitions.
After the making of these films he was offered the opportunity to
direct commercials near the Dallas area, but he decided against this and moved
to Los Angeles to attempt movie screenplays in 1978.
After moving to Los Angeles he
planned on attending the American Film Institute.
While he was in L.A. he found
his first paying job for writing was a low budget film called ''Crazies''.
While these low budget
screenplays did give him experience in the business, it did not pay a great
deal, so he needed another income. He supported himself during this time by writing
computer programs.
With money being low during this time, McCanlies decided against
enrolling in the Film Institute as he had planned.
McCanlies worked for
Walt Disney Studios in the 1980s (''
The Fox and the Hound
''The Fox and the Hound'' is a 1981 American animated buddy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. The 24th Disney animated feature film, the film tells the st ...
'') as a story artist and wrote for all the major motion picture studios at one time or another. After signing a two-year contract
with Disney Studios as his first job in the Hollywood system, he pitched his
own screenplay to the studio, but was turned down.
After McCanlies' contract with Disney was finished, and after marrying his wife Suzanne
in 1988, they moved back to Texas.
At this time he started to work
with most of the major studios as a script doctor and writer for hire.
He worked on films such as Touchstone's ''
Shoot to Kill'' (1988), Warner Bros’ ''
Little Giants
''Little Giants'' is a 1994 American family film, family sports film, sports comedy film directed by Duwayne Dunham. The film stars Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill as Danny and Kevin O'Shea, two brothers living in a small Ohio town who coach rival ...
'' (1994) and ''
My Fellow Americans
''My Fellow Americans'' is a 1996 American political comedy film directed by Peter Segal. It stars Jack Lemmon and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents, with Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitfo ...
'' (1996).
Around this
time he was also invited to speak at the first Heart of Austin Heart of Texas
Film Festival and Screenwriters conference in 1994.
More recently he adapted a novel written by Turk Pipkin into a film called ''When Angels Sing.''
Selected filmography
''Dancer, Texas Pop. 81''
He started production on his directional debut, ''
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81
''Dancer, Texas Pop. 81'' is a 1998 comedy-drama film starring Breckin Meyer, Peter Facinelli, Eddie Mills, and Ethan Embry.
Plot
The film is set in the small, fictional American town of Dancer (Brewster County, Texas). Only 81 people live in this ...
'', in 1997, thanks to the support from Ignite
Entertainment.
The film grossed just
under $700,000 in the United States.
It was met with mixed reviews, with the
film staying in theatres longer in McCanlies’ home state of Texas, while being
removed from New York theatres after only a week.
The film began to be played
in other rural areas after its initial release. The film then made its way to
the
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
, as well as playing in Australia.
''The Iron Giant''
He wrote the screenplay for ''The Iron Giant''
in 1999. The film received universal acclaim and it ranked seventh in Premiere's list
of the 100 best movies of 1999, which was a summary of the critics’ picks for
the year.
He won multiple awards for his work, including an
Annie Award
The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally desi ...
(accomplishments in animation) and an award from the British Academy of Film
and Television Arts.
''Secondhand Lions''
His second directing project, ''Secondhand Lions'' had more success than his first. This film had much more of a draw due to bigger-name actors. It starred Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, and
Haley Joel Osment
Haley Joel Osment (born April 10, 1988) is an American actor and voice actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film '' Forrest Gump'' (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psyc ...
in a story about a young boy staying with his strange uncles for the summer. It was released in 2003 and was met with mostly good reviews, including Roger Ebert giving it three out of four stars.
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCanlies, Tim
1953 births
Annie Award winners
Film directors from Texas
Screenwriters from Texas
Living people
Southern Methodist University alumni
Texas A&M University alumni
Moody College of Communication alumni