John Flynn (director)

John Flynn (March 14, 1932 – April 4, 2007) was an American film director and screenwriter known for films such as The Outfit and Rolling Thunder.^[1]

Biography

Flynn was born in Chicago and raised in Hermosa Beach, California. He served in the Coast Guard, and studied journalism with Roots author Alex Haley. Flynn received a degree in journalism from UCLA.^[1]

Assistant

Flynn entered the film industry when Robert Wise hired him to do some research for a biopic of Robert Capa. The film was never made but he got along with Wise who hired Flynn to work as his assistant on Odds Against Tomorrow.^[2]

Flynn subsequently worked as the script supervisor on West Side Story and as a second assistant director on Kid Galahad and Two for the Seesaw. He then worked as first assistant director on The Great Escape and second unit director on Kings of the Sun ("a bullshit script, a popcorn script," according to Flynn^[2]). This was directed by J. Lee Thompson who used Flynn again as an assistant director on What a Way to Go! and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!.

Film Director

In 1966, Wise set up a company to produce low-budget films that others would direct. He optioned Dennis Murphy’s novel The Sergeant and hired Flynn to direct. The movie starred Rod Steiger.^[2]

His next movie, The Jerusalem File was shot in Israel. It did not perform particularly well at the box office but The Outfit did. This was an adaptation of the novel by Donald Westlake starring Robert Duvall.

The filmmaker achieved a dedicated cult following with the gritty revenge thriller, Rolling Thunder starring William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones. In a 1994 interview with Jon Stewart, Film maker Quentin Tarantino cited Rolling Thunder as an influence and Flynn among his favorite directors. The film was highly controversial because of its violence.^[2]

The movie was not a success at the box office, and Flynn found himself working on various television movies as well as lower budgeted projects. He made a number of higher profile films in the late 80s including Best Seller, the Sylvester Stallone prison drama Lock Up, and the Steven Seagal action film, Out for Justice.

In the early 1990s, Flynn directed two made-for-cable-TV films, the Dennis Hopper cop film, Nails, and the crime drama Scam.

In 1994, he directed the cult classic Brainscan, a thriller about the dangers of virtual reality starring Edward Furlong and Frank Langella.

Flynn's last film was the direct-to-video film Protection. He spent the last few years of his life mostly in France.^[2]

Flynn died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home. He was survived by his son Tara.^[1]

Filmography

Unfilmed Project

• On the Day of His Death, from a short novel by Polish writer Marek Hlasko about immigrants in Israel - Flynn had wanted to make it since the 1960s^[2]
• a police procedural drama set in Paris "in the spirit of Le samouraï^[2]

References

External links

• John Flynn at the Internet Movie Database
• John Flynn at AllMovie
• Ain't-It-Cool-News tribute
• Vancouver Voice profile
• Foco - Revista de Cinema, special edition devoted to John Flynn