Matthew Leutwyler
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Matthew Steven Leutwyler (born July 23, 1969 in San Francisco, CA USA) is an American writer, director, producer. He studied film at The San Francisco Art Institute. His first feature film was the dark comedy / road picture Road Kill (film) starring Jennifer Rubin, Erik Palladino, Brian Vander Ark, Anthony Denison, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jon Polito. Made on a shoestring budget of $180,000, the film premiered at the 1999 Santa Barbara International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Leutwyler followed up with a romantic comedy / drama This Space Between Uswhich introduced him to a stable of actors he would find himself working with again in the future. Starring Jeremy Sisto, Poppy Montgomery, Alex Kingston, Vanessa Marcil, Garry Marshall, and Erik Palladino, the film premiered at The Seattle International Film Festival and later went on to win the Moxie Award for best Comedy at the Santa Monica Film Festival.
In 2002 Leutwyler partnered with Miranda Bailey, Francey Grace, and Jun Tan to form the Los Angeles based production company Ambush Entertainment. Ambush has produced the films The Oh in Ohio (starring Parker Posey, Mischa Barton, Paul Rudd, and Danny DeVito), The Academy Award Nominated, The Squid and the Whale (starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney), and Dead & Breakfast (directed by Leutwyler).
Dead & Breakfast (2005) marked Leutwyler's foray into the Horror genre. A splatter-comedy in the vein of The Evil Dead series and the early Peter Jackson films Dead Alive and Bad Taste. The film reteamed Leutwyler with Jeremy Sisto, Erik Palladino, Vincent Ventresca, Jeffrrey Dean Morgan, and Brian Vander Ark. The ensemble cast was rounded out by Ever Carradine, Gina Philips, Portia de Rossi, Diedrich Bader, and David Carradine. The film became a cult favorite on the festival circuit after premiering at the South By Southwest Film Festival; earning Best Feature and Audience Awards at The Rhode Island International Horror Festival, Shriekfest L.A., San Francisco Horror Fest, Weekend Of Fear (Nuremberg, Germany). The film was also nominated for a Saturn Award by the prestigious Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Leutwyler's latest project is another horror film, though this time it appears to be more traditional. The film is titled Unearthed and stars Emmanuelle Vaugier, Luke Goss, M.C. Gainey, Beau Garrett and Charlie Murphy. A Sci-Fi Horror film in the vein of The Thing and Alien.
