J. J. Abrams

Early career

Abrams's first job in the movie business was at age 16 when he wrote the music for Don Dohler's 1982 horror movie Nightbeast. During his senior year at college, he teamed with Jill Mazursky, the daughter of award-winning writer/director Paul Mazursky, to write a feature film treatment.^[6][7] Purchased by Touchstone Pictures, the treatment was the basis for Taking Care of Business, Abrams's first produced film, which starred Charles Grodin and James Belushi and was directed by Academy Award winner Arthur Hiller. He followed with Regarding Henry, starring Harrison Ford, and Forever Young, starring Mel Gibson. He also co-wrote with Mazursky the script for the comedy Gone Fishin' starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover.

In 1994, he was part of the "Propellerheads" with Rob Letterman, Loren Soman, and Andy Waisler. The Propellerheads were a group of Sarah Lawrence alums experimenting with computer animation technology. They were contracted by Jeffrey Katzenberg to develop animation for the film Shrek.^[8] Abrams worked on the screenplay for the 1998 film Armageddon with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay. That same year, he made his first foray into television with Felicity, which ran for four seasons on The WB Network, serving as the series' co-creator (with Matt Reeves) and executive producer. He also composed its opening theme music.

2000s

Under his production company, Bad Robot, which he founded with Bryan Burk in 2001,^[9] Abrams created and executive-produced ABC's Alias and is co-creator (along with Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber) and was executive producer of Lost. As with Felicity, Abrams also composed the opening theme music for Alias and Lost. Abrams directed and wrote the two-part pilot for Lost and remained active producer for the first half of the season. Also in 2001, Abrams co-wrote and produced the horror-thriller Joy Ride.^[10] In 2006, he served as executive producer of What About Brian and Six Degrees, also on ABC. He also co-wrote the teleplay for Lost's third-season premiere "A Tale of Two Cities" and the same year, he made his feature directorial debut with Mission: Impossible III, starring Tom Cruise. Abrams spoke at the TED conference in 2007.^{[11][importance?]}

In 2008, Abrams produced the monster movie Cloverfield, which Matt Reeves directed.^[12] In 2009, he directed the science fiction film Star Trek,^[13] which he produced with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. While it was speculated that they would be writing and producing an adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels, they publicly stated in November 2009 that they were no longer looking to take on that project.^[14] In 2008, Abrams co-created, executive produced, and co-wrote (along with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) the FOX science fiction series Fringe, for which he also composed the theme music. He was featured in the 2009 MTV Movie Awards 1980s-style digital short "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions", with Andy Samberg and Will Ferrell, in which he plays a keyboard solo. NBC picked up Abrams's Undercovers as its first new drama series for the 2010–11 season.^[15]

2010s

Abrams wrote and directed the Paramount science fiction thriller Super 8, starring Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning, while co-producing with Steven Spielberg and Bryan Burk; it was released on June 10, 2011.^[16]

Abrams directed the sequel to Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, released in May 2013.^[17] The film was interpreted as a loose remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.^[18] Critics generally reacted positively to the film, while Nicholas Meyer, the director of The Wrath of Khan, called it a "gimmick".^[19] Abrams was criticized for the film's treatment of classic villain Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch). Many felt that much of the character, originally played by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán, had been lost, especially his ethnic identity.^[a] Two years after the film's release, Abrams said of the film, "there were certain things I was unsure of. ... Any movie ... has a fundamental conversation happening during it. And [for Into Darkness,] I didn't have it... [The weakness of the plot] was not anyone's fault but mine. ... [The script] was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends ... And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible. ... I would never say that I don't think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn't work as well as it could have, had I made some better decisions before we started shooting."^[21]

On January 25, 2013, Disney and Lucasfilm introduced Abrams as director and producer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh entry in the Star Wars film saga,^[22] with Bryan Burk and Bad Robot producing the film.^[23] Following this news, speculation arose as to Abrams's future with Paramount Pictures, under which he had released all of his previous feature work as a director, and which had a first-look deal with his company, Bad Robot. Paramount vice-chairman Rob Moore stated that Abrams would continue to have a hand in the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises going forward.^[24] On October 29, 2013, S., a novel written by Doug Dorst based on a concept by Abrams, was released.^[25]

Abrams directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay for The Force Awakens,^[26] which opened in theaters on December 18, 2015.^[27][28] Despite its strong box office performance and positive reviews, the film was considered by some, including Star Wars creator George Lucas, to be too similar to the original 1977 film.^[29][30] In 2016, Abrams responded towards these complaints, stating: "What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards".^[31][b]

Abrams returned as producer for Star Trek Beyond, released in 2016. In 2016, he also produced The Cloverfield Paradox, a sequel to 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was released on Netflix in February 2018.^[33][34] Also in 2018, Abrams produced Overlord, a horror film set behind German enemy lines in World War II and directed by Julius Avery.^[35] Abrams also produced the fourth, fifth, and sixth Mission: Impossible films.^[36]

In September 2017, Abrams returned to direct and co-write Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Chris Terrio.^[37] The film was released in December 2019 and received mixed reviews from critics and fans,^[38][39] while audience reactions were also mixed.^[40][41]

In September 2019, Abrams and his Bad Robot company signed a $250 million five-year deal with WarnerMedia, including HBO and Warner Bros. Pictures.^[42] In 2019, Abrams made his debut as a writer for Marvel Comics, co-authoring the company's title Spider-Man from September of that year with his son Henry.^[43] The first issue of the comic includes the death of Mary Jane Watson, and a twelve-year time shift, with the series' protagonist being Ben Parker, son of Peter Parker and Mary Jane.^[44]

2020s

In April 2020, it was announced that Abrams would be developing three new shows for HBO Max: Duster, Overlook, and Justice League Dark.^[45] By July 2025, Duster had been canceled after one season.

Abrams was one of the producers of an animated short film of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, shown on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at Christmas 2022.^[46]

Abrams served as executive producer and co-creator of a new Batman animated series titled Batman: Caped Crusader alongside Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm.^[47] The production team created eleven episodes which premiered August 1, 2024.^{[citation needed]}

On May 8, 2024, it was announced that Abrams would write and direct an untitled new film, with Glen Powell in early talks to star in the project with Bad Robot signing on as the production company.^[48][49] The film, eventually titled The Great Beyond, is set to be released in theatres on November 13, 2026, by Warner Bros.^[50] Bad Robot's five-year deal with Warner Bros. was also extended in August 2024, although it was expected to be less expensive than the previous agreement with future projects having significant budget cuts.^[51]

Future projects include The End of Oak Street, a Hot Wheels film adaptation, and an animated film based on Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go!.^{[citation needed]}

Unrealized projects

J. J. Abrams has developed many film and television projects over his career that never made it past the development or pre-production stages.

Bad Robot

In 2001, Abrams founded his own production company, Bad Robot, in association with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. Initially a television production company under Touchstone Television, Bad Robot would branch out into film production, with the first movie to be produced under the Bad Robot name being Joy Ride (2001). Bad Robot is well known for Lost, the Star Trek Kelvin timeline films, three Mission: Impossible films, the Cloverfield franchise, and the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Film

Acting credits

Other roles

Television

Executive producer only

• What About Brian (2006–07)
• Six Degrees (2006–07)
• Believe (2014)
• 11.22.63 (2016) (Miniseries)^[64]
• Roadies (2016)
• Westworld (2016–2022)
• Castle Rock (2018–19)
• Little Voice (2020)
• Lovecraft Country (2020)
• Challenger: The Final Flight (2020)
• Lisey's Story (2021) (Miniseries)
• UFO (2021)
• Presumed Innocent (2024)
• Batman: Caped Crusader (2024–present)

Acting credits

Theatre

Producer

• The Play That Goes Wrong (2017) (Broadway version)
• Derren Brown: Secret (2019) (Broadway version)