Joe Dante

His favorite films are The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), To Be or Not to Be (1942), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Touch of Evil (1958) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). He often cites The Innocents (1961) as his favorite horror film, and one of the scariest he has ever seen.

Is a major fan of 1950s science fiction films, and often contains references to them in his movies. Since he is considered an authority on the subject, he is also frequently interviewed about them for documentaries, television specials, and DVD special features.

Joe Dante is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures.

He was scheduled to direct a Jaws (1975) parody (under the National Lampoon banner) in the early 1980s called "Jaws 3 People 0". Universal Pictures dropped this concept in favor of a straight film (which became the critical and financial flop Jaws 3 (1983)).

He made his directorial debut in 1976 with Hollywood Boulevard (1976) (co-directed with Allan Arkush), a thinly disguised spoof of New World exploitation pictures, shot in ten days for $60,000.

In 1977 Dante made his solo debut as a film director with Piranha (1978), which went on to become one of the company's biggest hits and was distributed throughout the rest of the world by United Artists.

During his tenure at New World, Dante edited Ron Howard's directorial debut Grand Theft Auto (1977) and co-wrote the original story for Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979).

He directed Belinda Balaski in ten films: Piranha (1978), The Howling (1981), Gremlins (1984), Explorers (1985), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Matinee (1993), The Second Civil War (1997), Small Soldiers (1998), and The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998). He also directed Balaski in three television episodes: Eerie, Indiana: Foreverware (1991), Eerie, Indiana: The Hole in the Head Gang (1992) and Rebel Highway: Runaway Daughters (1994).

For Avco-Embassy Dante next directed the highly praised werewolf thriller The Howling (1981), followed by the It's a Good Life segment of the episodic Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Having worked with Steven Spielberg on Twilight Zone, Dante was chosen to helm one of the first Amblin Productions for Warner Bros.

He was John Carpenter's choice to direct Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).

He directed William Schallert in five films: Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Gremlins (1984), Innerspace (1987), Matinee (1993), The Second Civil War (1997).

Gremlins (1984) became a runaway hit and grossed more than $200 million worldwide.

Dante followed up with Explorers (1985) for Paramount, a sci-fi fantasy about three kids who build their own spaceship, and then Innerspace (1987) for Guber/Peters, Amblin and Warner Bros. , an action comedy in which miniaturized test pilot Dennis Quaid is injected into the body of supermarket clerk Martin Short.

Along the way Dante contributed several comedy segments to the multi-part Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) spoof produced by John Landis, and directed various episodes of the tv series Amazing Stories (1985), The Twilight Zone (1985), Police Squad! (1982), Night Visions (2001) and Picture Windows (1994).

He was considered to direct Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) with a script by Dennis Etchison. This version had a much more supernaturally powered Michael Myers killing on the tenth anniversary of the events of the original movie. Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace, the children who were being babysat in the first film, were to return as teens and main characters.

Tom Hanks starred in Dante's next film for Imagine/Universal, The 'Burbs (1989), which was followed by Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) for Warner Bros.

in 1990.

Matinee (1993) featuring John Goodman as a huckster showman premiering his new horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was a production of Dante and partner Michael Finnell's Renfield Productions for Universal in 1993.

He was considered to direct Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). He does make a cameo in the film.

He tried creating a bio-film about Chuck Jones entitled "Termite Terrace", but the executives at Warner Bros weren't interested in a drama about animators and were pushing to relaunch the characters in a more modern fashion with Space Jam (1996).

Dreamworks/Universal's Small Soldiers was released in 1998, followed in 2003 by Warner Bros.

He also directed the network pilots for The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998) and the NBC series Eerie, Indiana (1991), on which he was creative consultant throughout its run.

He was considered to direct The Mummy (1999) with a script co-written by John Sayles. His version would have cast Daniel Day-Lewis as the mummy and was set in contemporary times and focused on reincarnation with elements of a love story. It came close to being made with some elements, like the flesh-eating scarabs, making it to the final product. However, at that point, the studio wanted a film with a budget of $15 million and rejected Dante's version.

After the unexpected success of the American release of Godzilla 2000 (1999), he and the writer for the dub tried putting together a script for an American sequel set in Hawaii featuring Christopher Lee, Bruce Campbell and Leonard Nimoy, with the special effects being done by Toho. However, the studio's head was changed during the script writing process, and he wasn't interested in movies that cost the required budget for the film ($20 Million). The plot of the film would have had Godzilla rampaging his way through the Hawaiian Islands during a scientific conference in Honolulu, gradually making his way to Mauna Loa. However, the military manages to knock Godzilla out during this rampage (originally he was supposed to die, but Toho requested that be changed), only to discover Godzilla's target: a lava bat kaiju dubbed Miba resting in the volcano. Godzilla is then revived to do battle with him.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) featuring one of Dante's favorite actors, Bugs Bunny.

Dante's Masters of Horror: Homecoming (2005), debuted in December 2005 to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was named to numerous "Top 10" critics lists.

The Sitges and Brussels International Film Festivals both honored Homecoming with Special Jury Recognition Awards, and the New Yorker called it the best political film of 2005.

More recent work includes Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution (2006), and CSI: NY: Boo (2007).

His new 3D thriller, The Hole (2009), for Bold Films recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it garnered the first-ever award for Best 3D Feature. Dante also produces the critically-acclaimed webisode/mobile phone series, Trailers from Hell.

As of 2015, he is a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Horror Museum.