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Josh Becker | |
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 Josh Becker, during the filming of Alien Apocalypse | |
| Born | Joshua Matthew Becker August 17, 1958 (age 65) |
| Occupation(s) | Motion Picture and Television director and writer |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Website | http://www.beckerfilms.com/ |
Joshua Matthew Becker (born August 17, 1958) is an American film and television writer and director and author whose credits include episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess as well as collaborations with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi.
Josh Becker was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1958. He became fascinated with cinema after seeing How the West Was Won at age six. As a teenager, he made several Super-8 short films with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. He dropped out of high-school at age 16 and completed his GED, then attended several colleges (including Michigan State University), but did not complete his studies. At the age of 17, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked several mid-to-low level jobs while trying to enter the film industry. He also hitchhiked to Alaska during his period (inspired by the writer Jack London), and recounted his adventures in Alaska Journal, and his later memoir, Going Hollywood.
Josh Becker worked as a production assistant and sound recordist on The Evil Dead (1981), which he later referred to as the most grueling film shoot he'd ever been on. He later made his first feature film, Stryker's War (later retitled Thou Shall Not Kill...Except), at age 25, which co-starred Sam Raimi, after spending several years trying to raise funds for it. Bruce Campbell was originally set to star in the film, and starred in the 45-minute Super-8 demo version of the film, but had to bow out due to Screen Actors Guild union regulations. His second film, Lunatics: A Love Story , was produced and released in 1991, and starred Ted Raimi and Deborah Foreman. He also worked as a production assistant during this period, including on one of Mariah Carey's first music videos.
Becker later directed episodes of several TV shows, including Real Stories of the Highway Patrol . He directed the TV film Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur , which led to a directing gig on Xena: Warrior Princess that he had for several years. He also directed the black-and-white film Running Time with Bruce Campbell, which was edited to look as if it was filmed in a single continuous shot.
In 1999, Becker wrote, produced, and directed the independent film If I Had A Hammer , about the 1960s folk rock scene. The film has never been released in any format (though it has been screened theatrically several times), and only briefly appeared on YouTube. Becker later directed the two Sci-Fi Channel films Alien Apocalypse (based on his screenplay) and Stan Lee's Harpies .
In 2013 Becker produced the YouTube web series Spine Chillers, directing several episodes. [1] In 2018 Becker returned to feature filmmaking with Morning, Noon, and Night which he also wrote, and which reunites him with editor Kaye Davis, who also edited Running Time and Evil Dead II . [2] [3] In 2020 he followed with another feature, western Warpath starring Thom Matthews and Ted Raimi. [4]
| This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(July 2016) |
Becker is an avid film buff and keeps an extensive list of the films he watches, which is available on his website. He currently resides in Michigan.
Becker has authored The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking detailing the ins and outs of independent filmmaking from his own experience. Bruce Campbell penned the introduction.
His second book, Rushes, a collection of essays previously available on his website, was published in 2008.
His third book, Going Hollywood, which details his time in Hollywood upon first arriving in 1976, and his adventures in Alaska, was Released in 2010. [5]
In 2014 Becker attempted crowdfunding publishing his series of historical fiction novels. One of them, Mann's Revenge, was published as an e-book on Amazon. [6]
Becker has published a number of essays on his website about the film business and film history, as well as a number of film reviews, which are notable for their acidity and brutal honesty. He has frequently bemoaned the current state of cinema and Hollywood, which he sees as purely being motivated by money (instead of artistic and creative intentions) and geared towards the lowest common denominator. He is also an avid fan of classic cinema and the Golden Age of Hollywood, and has written that he considers The Bridge on the River Kwai to be the best film ever made.
He has also reviewed old western films for True West Magazine.
| Year | Film | Director | Producer | Writer | Other | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | The Evil Dead | Lighting and effects | ||||
| Torro! Torro! Torro! | Yes | Short film | ||||
| 1982 | Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter | Yes | Yes | Cinematographer and editor | ||
| 1985 | Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except | Yes | Yes | |||
| 1991 | Lunatics: A Love Story | Yes | Yes | |||
| 1993 | Real Stories of the Highway Patrol | Yes | Television series | |||
| 1994 | Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur | Yes | Television film | |||
| 1995 | Mosquito | Actor | ||||
| 1996-2001 | Xena: Warrior Princess | Yes | Yes | Television series Directed 9 episodes Wrote 2 episodes | ||
| 1997 | Running Time | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1999 | If I Had a Hammer | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2000 | Jack of All Trades | Yes | Television series 2 episodes | |||
| 2005 | Alien Apocalypse | Yes | Yes | Television film | ||
| 2007 | Stan Lee's Harpies | Yes | ||||
| 2008 | Intent | Yes | Unreleased | |||
| 2013-2014 | Spine Chillers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Web series Directed 3 episodes Wrote 3 episodes Actor (1 episode) | |
| 2018 | Morning, Noon, and Night | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2020 | Warpath | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Army of Darkness is a 1992 American dark fantasy comedy film directed, co-written, and co-edited by Sam Raimi. The film is the third installment in the Evil Dead film series and the sequel to Evil Dead II (1987). Starring Bruce Campbell and Embeth Davidtz, it follows Ash Williams (Campbell) as he is trapped in the Middle Ages and battles the undead in his quest to return to the present.
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American actor and moviemaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead horror series, beginning with the short movie Within the Woods (1978). He has also featured in many low-budget cult movies such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
The Evil Dead is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi. The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly. The story focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audio tape that, when played, releases a legion of demons and spirits, four members of the group suffer from demonic possession, forcing the fifth member, Ash Williams (Campbell), to survive an onslaught of increasingly gory mayhem.
Evil Dead II is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi, who co-wrote it with Scott Spiegel. The second installment in the Evil Dead film series, it is considered both a remake and sequel to The Evil Dead (1981). It stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, who vacations with his girlfriend to a remote cabin in the woods. He discovers an audio tape of recitations from a book of ancient texts, and when the recording is played, it unleashes a number of demons which possess and torment him.
Samuel M. Raimi is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing the first three films in the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present) and the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the superhero Darkman (1990), the revisionist western The Quick and the Dead (1995), the neo-noir crime-thriller A Simple Plan (1998), the supernatural thriller The Gift (2000), the supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell (2009), the Disney fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Theodore Raimi is an American character actor, director and writer. He is known for his roles in the works of his brother Sam Raimi, including a fake Shemp in The Evil Dead, possessed Henrietta in Evil Dead II, and Ted Hoffman in the Spider-Man trilogy. He later reprised his role as Henrietta in the television series Ash vs. Evil Dead, in which he also played the character Chet Kaminski. He is also known for his roles as Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill in seaQuest DSV his recurring role as the merchant in Legend of the Seeker and Joxer the Mighty in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is an American television series filmed in New Zealand, based on the tales of the classical Greco-Roman culture hero Heracles. Starring Kevin Sorbo as Hercules and Michael Hurst as Iolaus, it was produced from January 16, 1995, to November 22, 1999. It ran for six seasons, producing action figures and other memorabilia as it became one of the highest-rated syndicated television shows in the world at that time. It has aired on Once Channel, Sky1, five/5, Heroes & Icons, and Horror.
Lucille Frances Lawless is a New Zealand actress. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder.
Within the Woods is an 1978 horror short film written, directed and produced by Sam Raimi. Raimi drew inspiration from his earlier short film Clockwork, deciding to produce a proof of concept horror film to help build the interest of potential investors. Raimi cast his friends Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss as the two protagonists and produced the film for $1,600. Shot on location in a remote cabin in the woods, production was a difficult process because of the low budget. Several of the special effects presented in the film were done in a severely low budget manner, some of which were improvised on set. The film centers around demonic possession and mysterious forces originating from the woods.
Joseph LoDuca is an American television and film score composer best known for his work writing television scores for the series Spartacus, Leverage, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Young Hercules, The Librarians TV series, American Gothic and Jack of All Trades. Originally an accomplished jazz guitarist in the Detroit area, LoDuca frequently provides music for producer/director Robert Tapert, producer/director Sam Raimi, producer/director Dean Devlin and actor Bruce Campbell's films and series. Prior to his work on The Evil Dead, his first film, he released a jazz LP titled Glisten.
A fake Shemp is a type of body double who appears in a film to replace another actor or person, usually when the original actor has died, or is unable or unwilling to reprise their role. Their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy make-up, filming from the back, dubbing in audio and splicing in past footage from the original actor's previous work, using a sound-alike voice actor, or using partial shots of the actor.
Crimewave is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, from a screenplay he co-wrote with the Coen brothers. It stars Reed Birney, Sheree J. Wilson, Paul L. Smith, Brion James, Louise Lasser and Bruce Campbell, with the latter also serving as a co-producer. An unusual slapstick mix of film noir, black comedy, Hitchcockian suspense, and B-movie conventions, Crimewave portrays bizarre situations involving a nebbish everyman (Birney) entangled in a murderous plot while pursuing his love interest (Wilson).
Robert Gerard Tapert is an American film and television producer, writer and director, best known for co-creating the television series Xena: Warrior Princess.
My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy horror film directed, co-produced by, and starring B-movie cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was written by Mark Verheiden. It had a theatrical release in October 2008, followed by DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 10, 2009.
Evil Dead is an American comedy horror franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of five feature films and a television series. The series originally revolves around the grimoire the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, an ancient Sumerian text that wreaks havoc upon a group of cabin inhabitants in a wooded area in Tennessee.
Thou Shalt Not Kill ... Except, also known as Stryker's War, is a 1985 American action horror film directed by Josh Becker and starring Robert Rickman, John Manfredi, Tim Quill, Cheryl Hausen, Perry Mallette and Sam Raimi. It was written by Becker and Scott Spiegel from a story by Becker, actor Bruce Campbell, and Sheldon Lettich.
It's Murder! is a 1977 feature-length movie shot on Super 8 film directed by Sam Raimi while he was still in college. It was co-written and produced by Raimi and Scott Spiegel, and stars both Raimi and Spiegel. Raimi's first directorial work, it co-stars his frequent collaborator Bruce Campbell.
The following is a list of unproduced Sam Raimi projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director and producer Sam Raimi has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, are officially cancelled and scrapped or fell in development hell.
Evil Dead Rise is a 2023 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Lee Cronin. It is a standalone entry and the fifth installment in the Evil Dead film series. The film stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as two estranged sisters trying to survive and save their family from deadites. Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher appear in supporting roles.
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