Joe Ballarini

Last updated
Joe Ballarini
Born
Joseph Ballarini
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Southern California (BA)
Occupation(s) film director, screenwriter, author
Notable work Ice Age: Continental Drift , Epic , Turbo , My Little Pony: The Movie
Website JoeBallarini.com

Joe Ballarini is an American film director, screenwriter and author. He graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts Television Director's Program with a degree in film production in 1999. [1]

Contents

Career

At USC film school, Ballarini wrote and directed the award-winning "pre-apocalyptic" film Nuclear Family produced by Michael Huffington. [1] [2]

In 2002, Ballarini sold an original action comedy screenplay The Spy Next Door to Dimension Films for US $600,000. [3] The following year he sold the script for a family adventure film titled The Legendary McClouds to Paramount Pictures with Nickelodeon producing. [4] [5] He wrote a paranormal kids film Spooks for Miramax as well as The Blob for Warner Bros. with Jon Peters producing. [6] In 2003, Ballarini directed a series of nationally broadcast Honda Element commercials produced by Daniel Dubiecki. [1]

Ballarini sold the script to his feature comedy F+ to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2004, which he was also attached to direct. [6] 20th Century Fox also hired Ballarini to direct Adam Sztykiel's screenplay Ditch Day with State Street producing. [7]

In 2007, New Regency commissioned Ballarini to write a script for a biblical epic film, The Nativity. [1]

Ballarini made his feature length screenwriting debut with Dance of the Dead , an independent zombie comedy, directed by Gregg Bishop. [8] The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2008 and received positive reviews from critics. [9] [10] [11] [12] Film critic Todd Brown said of Ballarini's work on Dance, "[It has] marked him as a talent to watch, someone with an unusual ability to balance tones and character and comedy to create something really quite special." [8] Ballarini also served as Second Unit Director on Dance of the Dead. [13] [1]

In 2009, Jerry Bruckheimer purchased Ballarini's script for The Residence, a film about a paranormalist hired to investigate a haunting in the White House. [14]

In 2010, Warner Bros. began developing the comic book series Maintenance as a live-action feature film directed by McG, for which Ballarini wrote the script. [15] That same year, Ballarini co-wrote and directed the independent film Father vs. Son, a screwball comedy in which a father and his son fall in love with the same woman, which was produced by Michael Huffington. [8] It starred Paul Wolff, Eric Stonestreet, and Cameron Goodman, and debuted at the 2nd annual Beverly Hills Film Festival. [16] [17] The film was also screened at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, where it won best feature film debut. [18] Later that year, One Race Films hired Ballarini to write and direct episodes of The Ropes, a television drama series about bouncers in New York City produced by Vin Diesel. [19]

Ballarini again teamed up with Gregg Bishop to write the script for Lockdown at Franklin High on spec, which sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment in March 2012 with Michael Bay attached as a producer. [20] [21] Lockdown is about two siblings who are trapped in their high school during a lockdown while a monster wanders the campus. [22] [23] He was also an uncredited writer for Ice Age: Continental Drift , which was released in July 2012. [24]

In 2012, Joe Ballarini directed a short horror film about a clown visiting a man on his 35th birthday entitled Buckles. [25]

In 2013, Ballarini directed Caitlin Carmichael, Andrea Guttag, and Justin Welborn in another short horror film about a girl befriending the monster under her bed entitled Bedbug. [26] New Line Cinema commissioned Ballarini to write a script for Merlin, a then-untitled high concept action fantasy film set in medieval times. [27]

20th Century Fox Animation began developing an animated version of the graphic novel Cardboard in 2014 about a young boy and his father who must battle cardboard monsters that magically come to life, for which Ballarini wrote the adapted screenplay. [28]

In 2015, Hasbro Studios announced its plans to release a theatrical My Little Pony movie based on the television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by 2017, and Ballarini was brought on to write the script. [29] [30] [31] Although Ballarini wasn’t involved in the film’s final writing stages, his comedic influence and style was able to make it into the film.

Ballarini has been commissioned to write numerous other film and television scripts including Turbo, The Robot, and Witchhunters. [32] [33] [1]

Books

HarperCollins imprint Katherine Tegen Books acquired publication rights to Ballarini's three-book series A Babysitter's Guide to Monsters in April 2015 and plans to publish the books in late 2016 or early 2017. [34] The story follows a teen girl searching for the child she was babysitting after the child is kidnapped by monsters. [35] Walden Media and The Montecito Picture Company have bought movie rights to A Babysitter's Guide to Monsters. [20] The film was released in 2020, with Ballarini writing the screenplay.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Koepp</span> American screenwriter (born 1963)

David Koepp is an American screenwriter and director. He is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial success in a wide variety of genres: thriller, science fiction, comedy, action, drama, crime, superhero, horror, adventure, and fantasy.

<i>My Little Pony: The Movie</i> (1986 film) 1986 film

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 1986 American animated musical fantasy film based on the Hasbro toyline My Little Pony. Theatrically released on June 6, 1986, by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the film features the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Rhea Perlman and Tony Randall.

<i>My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic</i> Animated television series

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated television series based on Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise. The series follows a studious pony named Twilight Sparkle, her dragon assistant Spike and her friends, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash (Ball) and Pinkie Pie (Libman). They go on adventures and help others around Equestria, solving problems with their friendships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allspark (company)</span> American production and distribution company

Allspark, formerly known as Hasbro Studios, LLC, was an American production and distribution company located in Burbank, California. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of the American toy and multimedia company Hasbro. Originally just a TV production division, many of its TV shows were based on Hasbro properties and were broadcast on multiple media platforms, including Discovery Family.

<i>My Little Pony: Equestria Girls</i> Entertainment franchise developed by Hasbro based on My Little Pony

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, simply known as Equestria Girls or EQG, is a product line of fashion dolls and a media franchise launched in 2013 by the American toy company Hasbro as a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the My Little Pony line of pony toys and its Friendship Is Magic television series. Equestria Girls features anthropomorphized versions of My Little Pony characters from that period; as with My Little Pony, which features a colorful body and mane, Equestria Girls characters sport non-human skin and hair colors, while incorporating their pony counterpart's cutie marks in their clothing. The franchise includes various doll lines, media tie-ins, and licensed merchandise.

<i>G.I. Joe</i> (film series) Film series based on the G.I. Joe franchise

G.I. Joe is a series of American military science fiction action films based on the toy line of the same name. Development for the first film began in 2003, but when the United States launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Hasbro suggested adapting the Transformers instead. In 2009, the first film was released, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. A second film, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, was released in 2013. A third film, centered on Snake Eyes titled Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, also serving as a reboot of the series, was released in 2021, and a fourth film, G.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant, is confirmed to be in active development. A crossover film with the Transformers film series is also being developed.

Meghan McCarthy is an American screenwriter, lyricist, film and television producer, and creative executive best known as the showrunner of the animated television show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She is also known for her work on Class of 3000 and Fish Hooks. Since June 2015, she has been the Head of Storytelling for the entire My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop brands, helping to "create expansive worlds and characters".

Amblin Partners American entertainment company

Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC, doing business as Amblin Partners, LLC., is an American independent entertainment production company. It develops and produces films under the Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures banners, as well as television series through Amblin Television. The company's investment partners include Reliance Group's Reliance Entertainment, Lionsgate, Alibaba Group's Alibaba Pictures, and NBCUniversal/Comcast's Universal Pictures. Films produced by Amblin Partners are primarily distributed by Universal in North America and select international territories, and by third-party distributors through Mister Smith Entertainment in other countries.

Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless are American writers best known for writing films together. After box office successes like Dracula Untold (2014) and The Last Witch Hunter (2015), Sazama and Sharpless wrote Gods of Egypt (2016), Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024), all of which became box office bombs and received negative reception from critics. The duo also wrote a reboot of Lost in Space for Netflix.

<i>My Little Pony: The Movie</i> (2017 film) 2017 film by Jayson Thiessen

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 2017 animated musical fantasy film based on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which itself is part of the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and franchise. The film was directed by Jayson Thiessen, written by Meghan McCarthy, Michael Vogel, Joe Ballarini, and Rita Hsiao, and produced by Stephen Davis, Brian Goldner, Marcia Gwendolyn Jones, and Haven Alexander. The film stars the show's regular voice cast of Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Cathy Weseluck, Nicole Oliver, and Britt McKillip reprising their roles and the guest voices of Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Michael Peña, Sia, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba and Zoe Saldaña as new characters. The film follows the alicorn Twilight Sparkle, her five pony friends – collectively known as the "Mane 6" – and her dragon friend/assistant Spike on a quest to save their home of Equestria from an evil conqueror while gaining new friends along the way and testing their friendship and their patience.

The Hasbro Universe refers to several shared fictional universes featuring characters from several franchises owned by toy and entertainment company Hasbro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Little Pony (2010 toyline)</span> Fourth incarnation of My Little Pony toyline and media franchise

American toy company Hasbro launched the fourth incarnation of My Little Pony toyline and media franchise in 2010. This generation is not given any name by Hasbro, but some of later releases of toys are labeled with the subtitle "Friendship Is Magic". It is unofficially referred to the "Fourth Generation", "Generation Four" or "G4" by collectors.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a trilogy of animated television specials based on Hasbro's toyline and media franchise of the same name, which in turn is a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the main My Little Pony toyline. As with prior installments in the Equestria Girls franchise, the specials follow the main characters from the television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, re-envisioned as humanoid teenagers attending high school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bay's unrealized projects</span>

The following is a list of unproduced Michael Bay projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, American film director and producer Michael Bay 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" or are officially canceled.

Brian Duffield is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He wrote and directed the 2023 sci-fi horror film No One Will Save You and the 2020 dark comedy coming-of-age film Spontaneous. His previous writing credits include Love and Monsters (2020), Underwater (2020), The Babysitter (2017) and Insurgent (2015). He is known for having multiple spec scripts featured in The Black List, an industry log of highly regarded but unproduced screenplays, including his scripts for Jane Got a Gun (2015) and Your Bridesmaid is a Bitch.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 FATHER vs. SON USC Cinematic Arts. May 28, 2015
  2. CNTV’s First Look Festival Showcases Students’ Short Films USC News. May 29, 2015
  3. Brodesser, Claude Dimension opens door to ‘Spy’ pic Variety. May 29, 2015
  4. McNary, Dave Par’s head in ‘McClouds’ Variety. May 29, 2015
  5. Elston Gunn's WEEKLY RECAP May 29, 2015
  6. 1 2 Fleming, Michael Lion studies school spec Variety. May 29, 2015
  7. LaPorte, Nicole ‘Hunters’ finds its helmer Variety. May 29, 2015
  8. 1 2 3 Brown, Todd Father. Son. Stripper. It's A Trailer For Joe Ballarini's FATHER VS SON Twitch. May 28, 2015
  9. Kilday, Greg Ghost House Underground takes two Hollywood Reporter. May 28, 2015
  10. Whyte, Jason God is flushing the toilet. Film at 11 Archived 2015-04-04 at the Wayback Machine eFilmCritic.com. May 28, 2015
  11. Weinberg, Scott Dance of the Dead (2008) FEARnet . May 28, 2015
  12. Gibson, Brian SXSW Movie Review: Dance of The Dead Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine FilmSchoolRejects. May 28, 2015
  13. Pragasam, Andrew Dance of the Dead Review The Spinning Image. May 29, 2015
  14. Mink, Sammy JOE BALLARINI GETS FOLDED UP IN “CARDBOARD” The Tracking Board. May 29, 2015
  15. Lesnick, Silas Maintenance Moves to DreamWorks Animation SuperHeroHype.com. May 28, 2015
  16. New Release: Father vs. Son DVD Disc Dish. May 28, 2015
  17. Howland, Melissa 2nd Annual BEVERLY HILLS FILM, TV & NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL We Are Movie Geeks. May 28, 2015
  18. Hill, Sally A sampling of WorldFest films Your Houston News. May 29, 2015
  19. Trumbone, Dave Watch a New Trailer for Vin Diesel’s THE ROPES (UPDATE: Series Available for Free on Crackle Starting this Thursday) Collider. May 29, 2015
  20. 1 2 Fleming Jr., Mike Walden, Montecito Scare Up Deal For Joe Ballarini’s ‘A Babysitter’s Guide To Monsters’ Deadline. May 26, 2015
  21. 1 2 Fleming Jr., Mike Sony Pictures Preempts Spec 'Lockdown At Franklin High' Deadline. May 26, 2015
  22. Bracken, Mike One of Marvel's Secret Weapons May Direct the Monster Movie 'Lockdown at Franklin High' Movies.com. May 28, 2015
  23. Fleming Jr., Mike Armory/Benderspinkweiner Shingle Will Finance Low Budget Features Deadline. May 28, 2015
  24. Lewis, Hilary Hasbro Working on 'My Little Pony' Movie Hollywood Reporter. May 26, 2015
  25. Brown, Todd It's Fun Time With BUCKLES Twitch. May 29, 2015
  26. Bedbug on Vimeo May 29, 2015
  27. Fleming Jr., Mike New Line Gets Medieval With Untitled Knights Pitch Deal Deadline. May 26, 2015
  28. Yamato, Jen Joe Ballarini To Script Graphic Novel Adaptation ‘Cardboard’ For Fox Animation Deadline. May 26, 2015
  29. Graser, Marc ‘My Little Pony’ Movie in the Works at Hasbro Studios (EXCLUSIVE) Variety. May 26, 2015
  30. Sneider, Jeff ‘My Little Pony’ Movie in Development at Hasbro The Wrap. May 26, 2015
  31. Graser, Marc How Hasbro Wants to Take the Financial Reins of its Movies Starting with ‘My Little Pony’ Variety. May 26, 2015
  32. Fleming Jr., Mike Walden Media Sets Joe Ballarini To Script 'Atlantis 7' For Dean Parisot Deadline. May 26, 2015
  33. Abrams, Rachel Scribe’s next project? Aye, ‘Robot’ Variety. May 28, 2015
  34. McNary, Dave ‘A Babysitter’s Guide To Monsters’ Movie Coming from ‘My Little Pony’ Writer Variety. May 26, 2015
  35. Lewis, Andy 'My Little Pony' Scripter Joe Ballarini Sells Kids' Book Series 'A Babysitter's Guide to Monsters' (Exclusive) Hollywood Reporter. May 26, 2015