James Gray

The film won the Silver Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival.

James Gray (born April 14, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter.

Set in 1988, it stars Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg as two brothers, one a nightclub manager with ties to the mob, and the former a police detective who wages an all-out war on drugs.

Since his feature debut Little Odessa in 1994, he has made seven other features including We Own the Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008), The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City of Z (2016), Ad Astra (2019), and Armageddon Time (2022).

Five of his films have competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Gray was born in New York City and grew up in the neighborhood of Flushing.

He is of Russian Jewish descent, with grandparents from Ostropol, Western Ukraine, which at that time was a part of the USSR.

The original family name was "Grayevsky" or "Greyzerstein."

His father was once an electronics contractor.

Gray attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where his student film, Cowboys and Angels, helped him get an agent and the attention of producer Paul Webster, who encouraged him to write a script which he could produce.

In 1994, at age 25, Gray made his first feature film Little Odessa, starring Tim Roth as a hit man confronted by his younger brother upon returning to his hometown, "Little Odessa," a section of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

In 1997, Gray was in negotiations with producer Art Linson to direct the biopic Killer Spy, about CIA agent Aldrich Ames, based on the novel Betrayal.

Kevin Spacey was being talked about for the starring role of Ames.

In 1998, Gray began shooting his second film, The Yards, a crime drama set in the commuter rail yards in New York City.

In 1999, Gray was in talks to direct Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston in Waking Up in Reno for Miramax.

The film was made three years later but without the involvement of Gray, Pitt or Aniston.

The film was released theatrically by Miramax two years later on October 12, 2000.

It was reported in 2000 that Gray would direct and co-write Edgardo Mortara, a film based on the infamous 1858 kidnapping of the 6-year-old Jewish boy by the Papal police.

In March 2006, Gray began production on his third film, We Own the Night, which he had been wanting to shoot since the early 2000s.

The film screened in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May, receiving widely divergent reviews from international critics, and was released theatrically in the U.S. in October.

After that film's success, Gray was given creative freedom for Two Lovers which was loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "White Nights".

The film made its premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Gray co-wrote the screenplay for Guillaume Canet's film Blood Ties, a remake of the French thriller Rivals.

This collaboration with Canet led Gray to meeting his partner Marion Cotillard, whom he would cast in his next film The Immigrant.

It tells the story of a Polish nurse who is separated from her sister at Ellis Island and forced into prostitution by a theater manager, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

The film, which was previously titled Lowlife and The Nightingale, marked Gray's fourth collaboration with Phoenix.

It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2015, Gray directed a television commercial for Chanel men's fragrance, Bleu de Chanel, starring Gaspard Ulliel.

It was filmed in Los Angeles and released on February 5, 2015.

In October 2016, Gray's film The Lost City of Z premiered at the New York Film Festival.

The film, based on the book by David Grann, depicts the life of explorer Percy Fawcett, played by Charlie Hunnam.

At the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it was reported that Gray would next direct his long-gestated sci-fi space epic Ad Astra.

Brad Pitt signed on to star in April 2017 and the rest of the cast joined later that year.

Ad Astra premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on September 20, 2019 by 20th Century Fox.

Gray later stated that the film that was released to theaters was not his cut.

On June 17, 2020, it was officially confirmed that his next film, titled Armageddon Time, would be a coming-of-age drama loosely based on Gray's childhood memories, with Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong cast in the film.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2022 and was released in the United States on October 28, 2022 by Focus Features.

After Little Odessa, Gray was offered the script for The Devil's Own by Brad Pitt, a friend of his.

Gray turned it down and the film was ultimately directed by Alan J. Pakula.

He also passed up the opportunity to direct Good Will Hunting.