Rian Johnson

Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker.

Johnson was born on December 17, 1973, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

He grew up in Denver, Colorado, until sixth grade, when he moved to San Clemente, California.

Johnson has said he was inspired to become a film director after seeing Woody Allen's 1977 film, Annie Hall.

"It moved me in a way that very few other films have moved me. That's something that, I pray to God, if I am able to keep making movies, I can only hope, twenty years down the line maybe, I'll be able to approach."

He attended San Clemente High School (graduating in 1992), where Brick was predominantly filmed.

He attended the University of Southern California and graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1996.

Johnson's second short film, Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!!, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", was included as an easter egg on the Looper Blu-ray.

In 2002, he directed a short film titled The Psychology of Dream Analysis, which is available to view on his Vimeo account.

Johnson directed the episode "Manifest Destiny" of the TV series Terriers.

He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget.

Johnson's debut film, Brick, is a crime drama released in 2005 and made for just under $500,000.

Johnson has often said that he looked to the novels of Dashiell Hammett as inspiration for the film's unique use of language.

While the film is classified as a film noir, Johnson claims that no references were made to film noir during production, so as to focus the production away from reproducing a genre piece.

Brick was released on DVD by Focus Features.

Johnson directed the video for the Mountain Goats' song "Woke Up New" in 2006.

He is a professed fan of the band and was asked to direct the video when bandleader John Darnielle noticed a reference to them in the credits for Brick.

A song is credited to "The Hospital Bombers Experience", which is a reference to the Mountain Goats song titled "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton".

Additionally, Johnson is also known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013), namely "Ozymandias", "Fly", and "Fifty-One"; for the latter, he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series in 2013.

He also created a murder mystery series titled Poker Face for Peacock with Natasha Lyonne.

Johnson was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

Johnson also directed a live performance film of the Mountain Goats' 2009 album The Life of the World to Come.

The film consists of a single shot, depicting Darnielle performing the entire album on guitar and piano with minimal accompaniment.

Johnson's second film, The Brothers Bloom, is a con-man story released in theaters in May 2009 to moderately positive critical reviews.

On Metacritic, the film was assigned a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 26 reviews from mainstream critics.

This film was screened in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon upon its completion, and was released as a limited edition DVD on Record Store Day (April 17, 2010).

In March 2010, Johnson announced that he was directing an episode of the TV series Breaking Bad for its third season.

The episode, "Fly", aired on May 23, 2010.

Johnson's third film, Looper, began shooting in Louisiana on January 24, 2011 and was released on September 28, 2012, by TriStar Pictures and FilmDistrict.

Set in the near future, it has been described as dark science fiction, and involves hitmen whose victims are sent from the future.

Transitioning to higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success.

Johnson directed a second episode of the show, "Fifty-One", which aired on August 5, 2012, and earned him a Directors Guild of America Award.

He directed a third episode, "Ozymandias", which received high praise from critics, frequently cited as being 'one of the best television episodes' to air.

Johnson has made a number of short films, some of which are available on his website.

His short film from high school titled Ninja Ko is available as an easter egg on the Brick DVD.

The Brothers Bloom DVD features a short, Buster Keaton-esque silent film he made in college.

After working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Brick, the two shot a short film in Paris, France titled Escargots.

The film opened the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2012 Palo Alto International Film Festival.

Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion.

He returned to the mystery genre with Knives Out (2019) and its sequel Glass Onion (2022), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.