CJ Jones | |
---|---|
Born | 1949or1950(age 73–74) |
Education | Missouri School for the Deaf |
Occupation | Actor |
CJ Jones (born 1949/1950) [1] is an American actor. He is one of the subjects of See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary (2009). [2] [3] [4] [5] Jones made his feature film debut with Edgar Wright's Baby Driver (2017), in which he portrays Joseph, the deaf foster father of Ansel Elgort's protagonist. [6]
He has developed three one-man shows that have toured the United States, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, and Canada. He co-wrote and directed six classic fairy tales for children's television for the series Once Upon a Sign. CJ produced the International Sign Language Theater Festival, which hosted theater artists from all over the world. He has also appeared in various episodes of American TV series.
Jones created a Na'vi sign language for Avatar: The Way of Water, in which he plays a Na'vi. [1]
CJ Jones is the son of deaf parents who communicated in American Sign Language. One of seven hearing children born to the couple, he lost his hearing at the age of 7 when he fell ill with spinal meningitis. He attended Missouri School for the Deaf. Active in sports, he was voted class valedictorian. He remains active in deaf awareness causes and charities.
† | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2009 | See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary | Himself | Documentary |
2017 | Baby Driver | Joe | |
2019 | Door in the Woods | Uriah | |
2022 | True Value | Himself | Documentary |
2022 | Avatar: The Way of Water | Metkayina Interpreter | uncredited |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | A Different World | CJ | Episode: "A Word in Edgewise" |
2003 | Cold Case | Junkie | Episode: "The Runner" |
2003 | Frasier | Customer #1 | Episode: "I'm Listening" |
2007 | Lincoln Heights | Luther | Episode: "House Arrest" |
2018 | Castle Rock | Odin Branch | 3 episodes |
2019 | This Close | Craig | 2 episodes |
2021 | Everything's Gonna Be Okay | Eric | 2 episodes |
2023 | The Last of Us | — | Episode: "Endure and Survive" (ASL consultant) |
Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He first made independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Avatar is a 2009 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, written, and directed by James Cameron. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is the first installment in the Avatar film series. It is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium, the room-temperature superconductor mineral. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi, a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Deaf cinema is a movement that includes all works produced and directed by deaf people or members of the deaf community and is led by deaf actors. All these works have a tendency to nurture and develop the culture's self image and to reflect correctly the core of the Deaf culture and language.
Bob Hiltermann is a German-born deaf actor and drummer for Beethoven's Nightmare. He appeared in the film Children of a Lesser God and portrays Walter Novak on the television drama All My Children. Hiltermann is one of the subjects of See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary.
The Naʼvi language is a fictional constructed language originally made for the 2009 film Avatar. In the film franchise, the language is spoken by the Naʼvi, a race of sapient humanoids indigenous to the extraterrestrial moon Pandora. The language was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit moviemaker James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film. It had to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film and pronounceable by the actors, but also not closely resemble any single human language.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, and directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver from a story the trio wrote with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment in the Avatar film series. It features Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao and Matt Gerald reprising their roles from the first film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role and Kate Winslet joining the cast. It follows a blue-skinned humanoid Na'vi named Jake Sully (Worthington) as he and his family, under renewed human threat, seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan of Pandora, a habitable exomoon on which they live.
This Ain't Avatar is a 2010 3D science fiction sex comedy parody film that parodies James Cameron's Avatar, to which it serves as a spiritual sequel. The film was shot, edited, and directed by Axel Braun and stars an ensemble cast headed by Chris Johnson as Jake, the main human character. It was produced by Hustler Video. Industry reviewers noted that the release used old-style rather than modern 3D technology and faulted it for its poor production quality.
TL Forsberg is a Canadian hard of hearing singer, songwriter and actress. She is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School, Forsberg performed as the singer/front person for the band KRIYA which opened for Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in 1999. Forsberg, is perhaps most known for her candidacy as the hard of hearing singer as one of four subjects, along with CJ Jones, Bob Hilterman, Robert De Mayo profiled in the 2010 award-winning documentary See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary.
Robert DeMayo is a deaf American actor, educator, and ASL translator. He is one of the subjects of See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary (2009) who the New York Times called "staggeringly talented." He has also acted in the films Universal Signs (2008) and No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (2013).
Hilari Scarl is an American filmmaker who directed and produced the documentary See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary (2009), starring Bob Hiltermann, TL Forsberg, CJ Jones and Robert DeMayo. She also produced No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (2013).
See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary is a 2010 feature documentary produced and directed by Hilari Scarl. It focuses on the lives of deaf entertainers Bob Hiltermann, TL Forsberg, CJ Jones, and Robert DeMayo and their attempts to cross over to mainstream audiences. These talented entertainers overcome great challenges on their way to personal triumphs and professional success.
Baby Driver is a 2017 action film written and directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Elgort as a getaway driver seeking freedom from a life of crime with his girlfriend Debora. Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, and Kevin Spacey appear in supporting roles. Eric Fellner and his Working Title Films partner Tim Bevan produced Baby Driver in association with Big Talk Productions' Nira Park. Sony and TriStar Pictures handled commercial distribution of the film. Baby Driver was financed through tax subsidies from the Georgia state government and a co-production pact between TriStar and MRC.
Na Laga'at is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Adina Tal and Eran Gur around the first of its kind in the world ensemble whose actors are all deafblind. The organization established a unique cultural center at the Levantbondet House in the Port of Jaffa in Tel Aviv. The center is a platform for creative arts, which promote equal and open dialogue and lead to social change built on the belief in the human spirit and its ability to reach out and make a change.
Na'vi River Journey is a dark ride attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom's Pandora – The World of Avatar. The ride takes guests through the Kasvapan River of Pandora from the 2009 film Avatar, showcasing native animals and bioluminescent flora, with inclusion of complex Audio-Animatronics.
A Quiet Place is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror film directed by John Krasinski. The screenplay was written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods from a story they conceived, with contributions by Krasinski after he joined the project. The plot revolves around a mother and father (Krasinski) who struggle to survive and raise their children in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing.
The following is a list of unproduced Edgar Wright projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, British film director Edgar Wright has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, or would see life under a different production team.
CODA is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Sian Heder. An English-language remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film La Famille Bélier, it stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the child of deaf adults (CODA) and only hearing member of her family, who attempts to help her family's struggling fishing business while pursuing her aspirations to become a singer.
Dalan Musson is an American screenwriter best known for his work on Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).