P.J. Pesce

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P.J. Pesce is an American film director/writer. He is also the co-creator of the MTV animated cartoon The Adventures of Chico and Guapo, as well as the voice of Guapo and Mr. Angelo.

Pesce was born and raised in Miami, Florida c. 1966. After completing an undergraduate degree majoring in both English Literature and Architecture at Columbia University, he entered the Graduate Film School and studied directing under Martin Scorsese (from whom he received honors) and Brian DePalma (from whom he received an "F"). Pesce has worked as a musician, a film editor, a studio recording engineer, a film instructor at Columbia, UCLA, and USC, a groom at Calder Racetrack. He studied editing with Ralph Rosenblum (Annie Hall, The Pawnbroker), and acting with Brad Dourif (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest).

Pesce was named Best Independent Director of the Year at the Hamptons International Film Festival for his critically acclaimed film The Desperate Trail, which he wrote and directed. Entertainment Weekly called it “The best Western on any size screen since Unforgiven,” and Tom Shales of The Washington Post described it as “A new high point in the cable movie.” It was the second highest rated cable movie of ’95, and in addition sold over 60,000 home video units.

After a long search, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez tapped Pesce to direct the prequel of their surprise cult hit From Dusk Til Dawn. The Hangman’s Daughter went on to become the best Direct to Video sale in the history of Dimension with over 140,000 units sold. Pesce received a Special Grand Jury Award for his short film The Afterlife of Grandpa at the Houston International Film Festival (past winners of this award have included Steven Speilberg and David Lynch), and Young Filmmaker of the Year from the Edinburgh Film Festival. He is the recipient of Grey Advertising's Student Filmmaker Award and a Presidential Fellowship from Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Amongst the films he's directed are From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter, produced by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, which is a prequel to From Dusk Till Dawn and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. He also directed Sniper 3, starring Tom Berenger who starred in Sniper and Sniper 2.

He is also a screenwriter of note, having sold Untitled Firestein-Pesce Action Project (unproduced) for a record setting $2 million dollars.

Pesce is currently completing a sequel to The Lost Boys 1987 entitled Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. The movie is planned as a direct-to-DVD release sometime in Summer 2008.