- Born
- Birth nameRian Craig Johnson
- Height1.66 m
- Rian Johnson was born in Maryland and at a young age his family moved to San Clemente, California, where he was raised. After graduating from high school, he went on to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His first feature film, Brick (2005), was released in 2005 and was the metaphorical building block that launched his career. He is a director, writer, and musician, among other areas of expertise.
His second feature, Une arnaque presque parfaite (2008), proved his ability to tell an exciting story with A-list actors, and the visionary Looper (2012) cemented him as a modern science-fiction icon. Among his highest-rated work are three episodes of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad (2008). His filmography made him a strong candidate to write and direct Star Wars : Épisode VIII - Les Derniers Jedi (2017), the penultimate episode of the 'Star Wars' series. Lucasfilm was pleased with his work and announced that we would write and direct a 'Star Wars' trilogy separate from the main Skywalker story.- IMDb mini biography by: Antonio F. Marquez & Travis Brainerd
- SpouseKarina Longworth(2018 - present)
- ChildrenNo Children
- RelativesAaron Johnson(Sibling)Nathan Johnson(Cousin)
- Often casts Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Noah Segan.
- Shoots in 35mm film.
- Often uses a Mafia or crime syndicate theme.
- Often works with cinematographer Steve Yedlin.
- In his movies there is usually an orphan character.
- Wrote the screenplay for Brick (2005) in 1997. He waited for financing for six years and then in 2003 his parents paid to have Brick (2005) produced.
- Graduated from USC's School of Cinema-Television in 1996.
- Annie Hall (1977) was the movie that inspired him to become a filmmaker.
- Cousin of film composer Nathan Johnson.
- Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2013.
- Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life.
- I bristle a little when the argument for film gets put into the nostalgia ghetto. Film is still the highest quality and best-looking image capture medium available. I don't think it always will be. The digital image will get better, and it will eventually surpass the quality of the film image, but it isn't there yet.
- [on the central question posed by Looper (2012)] For me, that's essentially the wrong question [re: "If you could travel back in time and kill someone like Hitler, would you do it? Could you do it?"]. Which is weird, because you could say that, in some way, it's the question that "Looper" eventually puts its chips down on. But for me, the real question isn't 'Would you kill Hitler?' It's 'Does solving a problem by finding the right person and killing them ever work? Or does it create a self-perpetuating loop of violence?' And that to me is not a theoretical, time-travel question. That's a real-world question.
- [on if the idea of the "loop" in Looper (2012) is at all influenced by Eastern religion or the notion of karma] - I guess so, yeah. We'd have to talk for another hour about what exactly that means. It's about the notion of breaking that loop because the loop is at the an unhealthy cycle of self-interest motivating violence, which motivates the self interest of someone else, which motivates violence, which motivates -- blah, blah, blah.
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