Matt Reeves

Reeves was born on April 27, 1966,[1] in Rockville Centre, New York,[2] on Long Island. He moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was five.

There he became fascinated by movies, making them from the age of eight, directing friends and using a wind-up camera.[2] Reeves met and befriended J. J. Abrams, who also became a filmmaker, when both were 13 years old.[3] A Los Angeles public-access television cable channel, Z Channel, was airing their short films.[4] When Reeves and Abrams were 15 or 16 years old, Steven Spielberg hired them to transfer some of his own Super 8 films to videotape.[3]

Reeves attended the University of Southern California, where he was a screenwriting student for writer Jeph Loeb.[5] Between 1991 and 1992, he produced a student film, Mr. Petrified Forest, which won an award[6] and helped him acquire an agent. He also co-wrote a script that eventually was developed as Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. After graduating, he co-wrote Cloverfield, which he later directed.

Reeves made his directorial film debut with the horror anthology film Future Shock (1994). He also directed the romantic comedy film The Pallbearer (1996), which co-starred Gwyneth Paltrow and David Schwimmer. The film was screened in Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.[7]

Reeves was recognized for co-creating and showrunning the WB drama series Felicity, alongside J. J. Abrams.[8] The series ran for 84 episodes, from 1998 to 2002. Reeves directed several episodes of the series, including the pilot. He also directed episodes of various other television series, including Relativity, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Gideon's Crossing, among others.

Reeves gained further success and international recognition for his direction of the science fiction monster film Cloverfield (2008), which Abrams produced.[9] Reeves later served as an executive producer on 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and The Cloverfield Paradox (2018).[10]

In September 2008, Reeves was hired to write and direct the vampire film Let Me In, an English-language adaptation of the 2004 novel Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and a remake of the 2008 Swedish film of the same name.[11][12] The film, a co-production with Hammer Films, was released in the United States on October 1, 2010, by Overture Films.[13]

In April 2011, Reeves signed on to write and direct an adaptation of the Ray Nelson short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" for Universal Pictures; the story was previously adapted as the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live.[14] That October, Reeves signed on to direct a film based on the classic television series The Twilight Zone,[15] but he left the project in September 2012.[16]

Reeves was brought on by 20th Century Fox to direct the science-fiction film 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes.[17] The film became a commercial and critical success and resulted in Reeves signing a three-year production deal with 20th Century Fox.[18] He then returned to write and direct the third film in the series, War for the Planet of the Apes, which was released on July 14, 2017.[19][20]

In January 2018, Reeves moved his production deal to Netflix, signing an exclusive first-look film deal with the company under his 6th & Idaho production banner.[21]

Reeves was set to produce a film adaptation of Mouse Guard, with Wes Ball signed on to direct the film.[22] However, the project was cancelled two weeks before production was set to begin in April 2019, due to Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.[23]

Reeves served as executive producer on the Fox science fiction thriller series The Passage, which aired for one season.[24] He also executive produced the Amazon Prime Video science fiction drama series Tales from the Loop. The series, based on artwork by Simon Stålenhag, premiered to positive reviews in April 2020.[25][26]

In July 2020, Reeves signed an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with Warner Bros. Television to develop new television programming for all of the company's platforms under his production company, 6th & Idaho.[27] Reeves served as executive producer on the Netflix science-fiction drama series Away (2020), starring Hilary Swank.[28] In August 2022, Reeves signed a multi-year first-look film and television deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.[29]

Reeves is married to Melinda Wang, a former animator. They have one son together.[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matt Reeves.

• Matt Reeves at IMDb 
• LAist.com Interview with Matt Reeves