Information AboutRon Underwood |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT RON UNDERWOOD | |
| american film directors | |
| underwood, ron | |
| university of southern california alumni | |
| people from the greater los angeles area | |
| 1953 births | |
| living people | |
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Ronald Brian Underwood, (born November 6 1953 ), is an American Film Director . Despite early Cult success with '' Tremors '' and commercial success with '' City Slickers '', perhaps his best known films, '' Mighty Joe Young '' and '' The Adventures Of Pluto Nash '', were both box-office disasters. Underwood was born in Glendale, California but spent most of his teenage years living in Sri Lanka . After graduating from High School he briefly attended Medical School , but dropped out after finding the course too dull. After this he decided to follow a career in the film industry; film having been a passion of his since childhood. He enrolled on a film course at the University Of Southern California before working as a staff director and cameraman for Barr Films , a company specialising in producing educational films. The first motion picture that Underwood worked on was '' Tourist Trap '', a low-budget horror film, on which he served as an Assistant to first-time director David Schmoeller . However, after this he continued to produce educational films for the next seven years. In 1986 Underwood established himself as a director when he won a Peabody Award for his animated special '' The Mouse And The Motorcycle '', which was followed two years later by the sequel '' Runaway Ralph ''. Following his critically acclaimed venture into television, Underwood decided to have a go at directing a feature film. His first effort was '' Tremors '', released in 1990 , which was well received by the critics and later established itself as a Cult Classic . He received his first taste of commercial success with 1991 's '' City Slickers '', which starred Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern . The film made $179m worldwide from a budget of only $27m, it was the tenth most successful film released in 1991 (the fifth most successful in the US). ''City Slickers'' was to prove the pinnacle of Underwood's commercial and critical career as a director. His next film, '' Heart And Souls '' (1993), was again well-received by the critics but struggled at the box office (making a total of $16m). He followed this with '' Speechless '' (1994), which made just over $20m over the Christmas period. Underwood was given his first opportunity to direct a big-budget film by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998 when he was asked to direct a remake of '' Mighty Joe Young ''. The film, which was nominated for the Academy Award For Visual Effects , featured some of the most sophisticated, and expensive, Special Effects seen in film up to that point. This drove the production costs to around $100m, only half of which were recouped by the global box-office takings. Following the poor performance of ''Mighty Joe Young'', Underwood did not direct another film for four years. His comeback feature was the ''. Underwood has recently returned to producing low-budget films. Since the release of ''The Adventures of Pluto Nash'' he has directed '' Stealing Sinatra '' (2004), which went straight to cable, and '' In The Mix '' (2005), which was the first film to star the R&B singer Usher . EXTERNAL LINK |
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