Joe Dante

At 77 years old, Joe Dante physical status not available right now. We will update Joe Dante's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Dante began his film career working for legendary, low-budget producer Roger Corman, who provided similar opportunities to future directors Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron. In 1968, he made The Movie Orgy, a 7-hour compilation of film clips, commercials and film trailers assembled by Dante.

He then worked as an editor on Grand Theft Auto after co-directing Hollywood Boulevard with Allan Arkush. His next feature film, the Roger Corman-produced Piranha, was released in 1978 inspired by Steven Spielberg's Jaws. In 1979, Dante helped direct Rock 'n' Roll High School when Allan Arkush fell ill due to exhaustion, but remains uncredited as a director.

Dante enlisted John Sayles to rewrite the script for the werewolf tale The Howling, loosely based on the novel by Gary Brandner. Dante directed episodes of television series Police Squad!, before Steven Spielberg invited him to join the directing team on anthology movie Twilight Zone: The Movie. Dante's segment, "It's a Good Life", featured cartoon-style special effects, and revolved around a woman played by Kathleen Quinlan who is 'adopted' by an omnipotent boy. His next film, Gremlins proved to be one of Dante's biggest hits to date, being the third-highest-grossing film of 1984. Combining horror and comedy elements, the film revolves around Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan), who is given a strange creature he calls Gizmo as a pet. After Billy fails to follow the rules for looking after Gizmo, the creature spawns other creatures, which transform into destructive monsters who then begin rampaging through the local town. Dante next directed Explorers, about a group of friends who build a working spacecraft and encounter extraterrestrial life. The film marked the debuts of both River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke. In 1987, Dante made the comedy adventure Innerspace, in which Dennis Quaid's character is miniaturised and injected inside a human body. In 1989, Dante directed Tom Hanks in The 'Burbs, a black comedy in which Hanks' character deals with nightmarish neighbors.

In 1990, Dante directed a sequel to his film Gremlins, this time set in a New York high rise. In 1993, he directed Matinee, which received positive reviews. Set during the 1960s, the film pays homage to B movies and the showmen who made and promoted them. In his review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "At the same time that Dante has a field day brutally satirizing our desire to scare ourselves and others, he also re-creates early-60s clichés with a relish and a feeling for detail that come very close to love". USA Today reviewer Mike Clark wrote "Part spoof, part nostalgia trip and part primer in exploitation-pic ballyhoo, Matinee is a sweetly resonant little movie-lovers' movie". Dante was creative consultant on short-lived fantasy series Eerie, Indiana (1991–1992), and directed five episodes. He played himself in the series finale. In the mid-90s, he worked on The Phantom. When he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit as executive producer rather than pay. In 1998, he directed Small Soldiers which received mixed reviews and was a moderate box office success.

Dante directed the 2003 live-action/animation hybrid, Looney Tunes: Back in Action. A box office bomb, the film received mixed reviews. In 2007, Dante launched the web series Trailers from Hell, which provides commentary by directors, producers and screenwriters on trailers for classic and cult movies. He is also a contributor to the website. Dante's 2009 film The Hole received positive reviews, and was awarded the Premio Persol at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. The new award was for the "3-D feature deemed the most creative among those produced globally between September 2008 and August 2009." With Roger Corman producing, Dante also directed the interactive web series Splatter for Netflix. The series stars Corey Feldman as a rock star seeking revenge on those he thinks have wronged him.

In 2014, Dante made Burying the Ex, a horror comedy about a young man whose controlling girlfriend suddenly dies in a freak accident but when he tries to move on with his life along with his new partner he discovers that his now undead Ex has come back. The film stars Anton Yelchin and Ashley Greene. It was selected to be screened out of competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, and was released in 2015. Dante served as executive producer on the independent feature length thriller Dark, starring Whitney Able and Alexandra Breckenridge, directed by Nick Basile. The film is set in New York City during the 2003 blackout. The film was released by Screen Media Films on June 7, 2016. In 2018, Dante directed a segment of Nightmare Cinema, a horror anthology film starring Mickey Rourke and featuring shorts also directed by Alejandro Brugués, Mick Garris, Ryūhei Kitamura, and David Slade.

In 2020, it was announced that Dante would be returning to the world of Gremlins serving as a consultant on the HBO Max prequel series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.

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