Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Philip Anderson Lord (born July 12, 1975) and Christopher Robert Miller (born September 23, 1975) are an American filmmaking and acting duo. Their films are known for subversion of genre and detailed visual sensation, spanning various styles of live-action and animation. They are the co-creators, co-stars, and co-heads of the adult animated sitcom ''Clone High'' (2002–2003, 2023–2024), and the writers and directors of the animated films ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' (2009) and ''The Lego Movie'' (2014), as well as the directors of the live-action comedy film ''21 Jump Street'' (2012) and its sequel, ''22 Jump Street'' (2014).

Lord and Miller are best known for working on the film series for ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', ''The Lego Movie'' and ''Spider-Verse'', which won them the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' (2018) and a nomination for the aforementioned award for producing the sequel, '' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' (2023). They have also worked on the television series '' The Last Man on Earth'' (2015–2018) for Fox, ''Unikitty!'' (2017–2020) for Cartoon Network, and most recently '' The Afterparty'' (2022–2023) for Apple TV+.

Early life

Lord is from Miami; his mother is a Cuban-born psychologist, and his father retired from the aviation business and before that directed a dance company, Fusion, for 10 years. Miller is from Seattle, where his father runs a lumber mill.

Lord and Miller both grew up making short films with an affinity for animation. They both attended Dartmouth College, where they first met, and had separate comics in the school newspaper, ''The Dartmouth''. Lord was a member of Amarna, a co-ed undergraduate society while Miller was a brother at Alpha Chi Alpha. During his time in college, Miller met his girlfriend, now wife.

During their time at Dartmouth, the school paper published a profile on Miller, which caught the attention of Michael Eisner, then chairman of Disney. According to Lord, Eisner brought the profile to the attention of his fellow Disney executives who offered to set up a meeting with Miller. Miller agreed to the meeting as long as he could bring Lord. After three months, the two moved to Los Angeles and after one meeting were offered a two-year development deal at Walt Disney Television Animation.

Career

2000s

Though nothing they pitched made it to air, they produced the pilot to ''Clone High'', which was subsequently dropped by Fox. After they wrote and produced on a series of sitcoms, MTV informed the duo that they were interested in purchasing a 13-episode season of ''Clone High''. Although the show was met with acclaim, MTV canceled the series after hunger strike protests occurred in India over the show's portrayal of Gandhi as a motor-mouthed partier.

In 2003, the two were tapped to write a screenplay for ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', their first feature film. After a year working on the script, they were fired for story issues and replaced with new writers, who after a year were fired themselves. Lord and Miller were re-hired in 2006. The two completely redid the script, this time with the creative input of their crew. The new draft had the protagonist as a failed inventor who wanted to prove himself to his town. The two were almost fired again after Amy Pascal, the head of Sony Pictures at the time, criticized the film for a lack of story. Although the film succeeded on the comedic front in the animatic stage, Pascal cited the lack of an anchoring relationship in the film as a failure in the story telling. Unable to create new characters and environments to suit the new story demands, the two elevated the character of the tackle shop extra to be the protagonist's father, thereby creating the relationship Pascal had requested.

''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' was released in 2009 to positive reviews.

2010s

After ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' was released, the two sought to try to make something different and pitched themselves as possible directors for the ''21 Jump Street'' script that Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill had written. The studio agreed and the two directed their first live-action R-rated film, released to critical acclaim, which led to the production of the sequel ''22 Jump Street''.

In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book '' The Best Film You've Never Seen'', Lord stated that "in an animated feature, you remake the movie three or four times, and it's really easy to get bummed out that the way you did it before didn't get greenlit, didn't get paid, and you're making a totally different version of that movie."

During the production of ''21 Jump Street'', they pitched a take on a possible Lego film to Dan Lin. Lin and Warner Bros. loved the take, so Lord and Miller wrote and eventually directed their third feature film together, ''The Lego Movie''. The duo were picked by Warner Bros. to write the story treatment for the then-upcoming superhero film ''The Flash'', but dropped out of the project in favor of directing the then-untitled '' Solo: A Star Wars Story''. The duo were picked by Sony Pictures Animation in 2015 to create an animated Spider-Man film, with the option to direct. The film was eventually made as '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' (2018), which the duo produced and which Lord co-wrote.

The duo have developed a live-action/animated series, ''Son of Zorn'', for Fox, with Jason Sudeikis voicing the lead role of animated character Zorn, and Johnny Pemberton and Cheryl Hines playing the live-action roles. They are producing a cable-TV drama based on the popular NPR/''This American Life'' spinoff podcast '' Serial''.

In January 2017, Lord and Miller began directing the then-untitled film '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'', a standalone ''Star Wars'' movie based on the Han Solo character. On June 20, 2017, it was reported that they had been fired from the project by Lucasfilm, after over four-and-a-half months of filming, about three-quarters through principal photography. Lucasfilm announced that "creative differences" were the reason, with ''Entertainment Weekly'' reporting that Lord and Miller were going off-script and trying to make the film into more of a comedy. They were unwilling to compromise with Lucasfilm and writer Lawrence Kasdan on the direction of the film, preferring their vision. Two days later, Ron Howard was announced as the replacement, to complete the film and reshoots. Lord and Miller received executive-producer credits on ''Solo: A Star Wars Story''.

In November 2017, Lord and Miller commented on their departure from ''Solo: A Star Wars Story''. Lord stated "The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful. We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. ..We're really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best." Miller added "As Phil said, we had such a great relationship with cast and crew, we were really rooting for them. After we took a much-needed vacation, we got back into it and now we're writing and producing a sequel to ''The Lego Movie'' and producing a Miles Morales animated Spider-Man."

In August 2019, Lord and Miller signed a first-look deal with Universal Pictures.

2020s–present

In 2021, Lord and Miller produced two animated films that were distributed through Netflix. The first was '' The Mitchells vs. the Machines'' for Sony Pictures Animation. They also produced an R-rated animated Netflix original film called '' America: The Motion Picture'' alongside Will Allegra, Matt Thompson, Adam Reed, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan from a screenplay by David Callaham and directed by Thompson.

In June 2020, it was reported that Lord and Miller would be developing an eight-episode television series titled '' The Afterparty'' for Apple TV+. The series is a murder mystery comedy set at a high school reunion where each episode features a retelling of the same night told through a different character's point of view. Miller created and directed the series, while serving as an executive producer alongside Lord. The series premiered on January 28, 2022, to critical acclaim.

On November 1, 2019, it was announced that Lord and Miller would be returning as producers and writers for '' Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'', which was released on June 2, 2023. In December 2021, Lord and Miller revealed that ''Across the Spider-Verse'' was being split into two parts after they had written down the story they wanted to tell for the sequel and realized that it was too much for a single film. Work on both parts was taking place simultaneously, or at least believed to be until June 2023 when animators claimed they were overworked to complete Part One, with Part Two since renamed to '' Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse''. A release date has yet to be announced, as the film was removed from the release schedule on July 28, 2023, reportedly due to the then-ongoing 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Its original release date of March 29, 2024, was taken by '' Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire''. Recording of voice lines were set to resume on November 9, 2023, following the resolution of the SAG-AFTRA strike, and production was confirmed by Miller to have resumed the following month. At CinemaCon, Sony announced a release date of June 4, 2027.

On July 2, 2020, it was announced that MTV Entertainment Studios was developing a revival of ''Clone High'', and that original series creators, Lord, Miller, and Bill Lawrence would be involved with the project. In February 2021, HBO Max ordered two seasons of the revival, the first of which premiered on May 23, 2023.

As part of their first-look deal with Universal Pictures, Lord and Miller have produced two R-rated comedy films for the studio; '' Cocaine Bear'', a comedy horror film which was inspired by the true story involving the eponymous bear, and '' Strays'', a comedy about talking dogs.

Future projects

In April 2019, they made a five-year deal with Sony Pictures Television to develop an animated Marvel series, including a possible ''Into the Spider-Verse'' series.

On May 15, 2020, ''Variety'' reported that Lord and Miller are attached to direct a film adaptation of Andy Weir's next novel '' Project Hail Mary'' for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Ryan Gosling attached to star in the leading role and Amy Pascal producing. Filming began in June 2024 in the United Kingdom. The film is scheduled to be released on March 20, 2026.

In October 2023, writer Dennis E. Taylor, author of the '' Bobiverse'' series, announced that a potential adaptation had been optioned to Lord Miller Productions for distribution through Universal Pictures.

Other projects

Lord co-wrote the comic ''Spider-Man Annual #1'', marking his first involvement on a comic book; he and Miller also co-wrote a Marvel comic celebrating the company's 80th anniversary, marking Miller's first time writing a comic book.

In September 2020, it was announced that a live-action television series based on the character Silk was in development, with both Lord and Miller serving as executive producers alongside Amy Pascal. The series, which is part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, would be ordered by MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video under the title ''Silk: Spider Society'', with Angela Kang serving as the showrunner. However, in February 2024, the series was redeveloped for a more "male-skewing" audience with the writers' room paused, and in May the same year, Amazon dropped the series, with Sony shopping it to other potential buyers.

Lord and Miller also produced the Spanish-language drama film, '' Los Frikis''.

Style and influences

Lord and Miller are regarded as auteur filmmakers, although they dislike being associated with that term. Their films are noted for their bold visual sensation, extensive detail, usage of improvisation, and metamodernist approach to narrative and aesthetics. Though they slightly change their process between live-action and animation, Lord & Miller typically favor a formalist aesthetic, with hard cuts, usage of primary colors, and exaggerated mise-en-scene being defining parts of their style.

Thematically, their films explore friendship, creativity, and being an outsider. Much of their process was influenced by their time at ''Clone High'' and ''Cloudy'', where they learned from future collaborator Amy Pascal about collaboration and emotion. They admit to using properties like ''LEGO'', ''Jump Street'', and ''SpiderVerse'' as a springboard for personal expression, with Lord stating: "It comes from trying not to be vain about what you're making on the surface...Like, who cares if [''The Lego Movie'' is] based on a popular toy brand? It's still an opportunity to make something really interesting. I think we've always approached these things as a way to express ourselves personally, which no one does!" Because of this approach, their work gained a following for transforming "cynical" studio concepts into critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. Due to their hands-on filmmaking process and improvisational approach to storytelling, they're seen as perfectionists.

Lord and Miller have cited Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, Stanley Kubrick, Bill Plympton, the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, Akira Kurosawa, Billy Wilder, Chuck Jones, Matt Groening, George Lucas, Ingmar Bergman, and Tim Burton as influences. Their favorite films include ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939), ''Rashomon'' (1950), ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968), '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' (1971), ''Harold and Maude'' (1971), '' The Hot Rock'' (1972), ''Star Wars'' (1977), ''The Muppet Movie'' (1979), ''Popeye

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