Joe Dante

Just like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron,
Dante started his career as a protege of cult filmmaker Roger
Corman. Dante's first big break came when he was just 30, he
directed the Corman-produced low-budget Jaws inspiredPiranha (1978),
a film that should have been awful but somehow Dante made work. It
was a cult hit and even spawned a James Cameron directed sequel.

His next movie was horror/thriller The Howling (1981) which
established Dante as one of the brightest young directors young
directors working at that time. Such was his reputation that he
joined Steven Spielberg, George Miller and John Landis each directing
one of the four segments which made up Twilight Zone - The Movie
(1983).

The Oscar winning Spielberg in particular must have been impressEd Because
Dante's next directorial effort was produced by Spielberg and it ultimately turned
out to be his most famous movie, Gremlins (1984).

Dante's next movie Explorers (1985) starring youngsters River Phoenix
& Ethan Hawke was expected to be as big as Gremlins but unfortunately
the studio decided to rush the production to an early release date
and Dante never fully finished the movie. Explorers did respectably
at the box-office but has since earned a cult reputation.

Sci-fi comedy Innerspace (1987) starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan and
Martin Short was another big box-office hit for Dante but dark comedy
The Burbs (1989) starring Tom Hanks misfired despite being regarded
as under-rated by many.

At the end of the 1980's Dante was one of Hollywood's top directors
and his next movie Gremlins---The-New-Batch.html">Gremlins 2 - The New Batch (1990) proved to be the biggest
grossing movie of his career. Unfortunately in the sixteen years since
then Dante's career has proved a massive disappointment.

Dante directed five episodes of TV show Eerie Indiana (1991) but it
was cancelled after one season. His next movie Matinee (1993) was a
box-office flop despite once again slowly building up a cult
reputation. Dante then for some reason decided to direct three TV
movies.

His next theatrical movie was Small Soldiers (1998) which proved
popular at the box-office and seemed to stop the rot in Dante's
career but he went back to directing TV shows and something called
Haunted Lighthouse which appears to be a 3-D children's movie for
Busch Gardens.

Warner Bros then chose Dante to relaunch one of their most popular
franchises when they appointed him director of Looney Tunes Back In Action
(2003). Unfortunately the movie flopped and neither the franchise or Dante's
career has recovered since.



What members say | Filmography

Joe Dante - what members say

Joe Dante - filmography

5 most recent films

American Grindhouse - 3.5 stars
The Hole - 3.5 stars
The Hole - Blu-ray - 3.0 stars
The Hole - 3D Blu-ray - 3.0 stars
Fantastic Flesh - The Art of Make-Up EFX - 3.0 stars

5 highest-rated films

Gremlins - Blu-ray - 4.0 stars
Eerie Indiana - The Complete Series - 3.5 stars
Gremlins - 3.5 stars
Explorers - 3.5 stars
Innerspace - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Fantastic Flesh - The Art of Make-Up EFX - 3.0 stars
American Grindhouse - 3.5 stars
Amazon Women On The Moon - 3.0 stars
Piranha - 3.0 stars
The Howling - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

John Carradine - 10 times - show films
Peter Coyote - 7 times - show films
Elliott Gould - 7 times - show films
Robert Klein - 7 times - show films
Victor Garber - 7 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Paul L - 7 times - show films
William Friedkin - 7 times - show films
Wes Craven - 7 times - show films
Bob Balaban - 4 times - show films
Sean S. Cunningham - 2 times - show films