Jim Mickle

Jim Mickle was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1979.^[1][2] Mickle was inspired to become a director after he saw Army of Darkness.^[1] He attended New York University and graduated in 2002. He worked as a production assistant and grip on a series of films by first-time directors who had not gone to film school. The experiences were frustrating for him, and he described the films as vanity projects.^[3] Mickle prefers directing and editing to writing, and he is attracted to the flexibility and intensity of horror films.^[4]

Mickle and Nick Damici met while working on a student thesis film in 2001. While there, they came up with the idea for a zombie film. This concept eventually morphed into their first collaboration, Mulberry Street, a horror film about gentrification in New York City.^[3] Mickle's second film, Stake Land, was a New York Times Critics' Pick.^[5] His 2013 film We Are What We Are was screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival^[6] and in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.^[7] He directed the film adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale's novel Cold in July, in which Michael C. Hall starred,^[8][9] and has worked on Esperanza, the story of a fatal wildfire in southern California, adapted by Sean O'Keefe from a book by John N. Maclean.^[10] In 2016 Mickle & Damici developed the TV series Hap and Leonard, based on Joe R. Lansdale's novels, with Mickle directing multiple episodes during the series' three seasons.