Rian Johnson

Filmmakers

Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss, Matt O’Leary, Noah Segan, Meagan Good, Emilie de Ravin, Richard Roundtree, Lukas Haas – which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. He flooded that up with the caper comedy-drama The Brothers Bloom (2008), with Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Maximilian Schell, and Robbie Coltrane – which wasn’t as financially successful but had mostly positive reception.

Transitioning to higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012), with Bruce Willis, Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Segan, Piper Perabo, and Jeff Daniels. He landed his largest project writing abs directing the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro, and Frank Oz.

Johnson returned to the mystery genre Knives Out (2019), with Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer; and the sequel Glass Onion (2022), with Craig, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista – both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.

Johnson is also known for directing three highly acclaimed episodes for the television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013); for which he received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series in 2013. He also created a murder mystery series Poker Face (2023), with Natasha Lyonne.

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(**seen rereleased in theaters)