John Harrison (director)

John Harrison
Born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Alma mater Emerson College
Occupation Director, writer, composer, producer

John Harrison is an American filmmaker, musician, and composer,[1] best known for his collaborations with director George A. Romero and for writing-directing the miniseries adaptation of Dune.

Early Life & Career

Harrison was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BS in Theater Arts. For several years after that, he performed on the road with his band Homebrew before moving back to Pittsburgh to take a master's degree in film and television from Carnegie Mellon University. At the same time, he joined blues guitarist Roy Buchanan, with whom he toured across the US and internationally for four years. He was also featured on several of Buchanan's albums, including That's What I'm Here For (1974), Live Stock (1975), and A Street Called Straight (1976).

In 1973, Harrison and his friends, Dusty Nelson and Pasquale Buba formed a film production company eventually named The Image Works to produce commercials and industrials in the Pittsburgh area. This partnership eventually led to the production of the film Effects (1980) which Harrison produced and performed in as the character Lacey Bickle. In 1974, Harrison began a long collaboration and friendship with filmmaker George A. Romero. Harrison performed as Sir Pelinore in Romero's Knightriders, then became his 1st Assistant Director for both Romero films Creepshow (1982) and Day of the Dead (1985).

Harrison also composed the scores for the Creepshow (1982), Day of the Dead (1985). He also played the "Screwdriver Zombie" in Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead (1978). The music that was composed for the score of Creepshow was also featured in the fake trailer for Thanksgiving in the film Grindhouse (2007).

After Creepshow, Harrison moved to Los Angeles to continue his writing and directing career. He wrote, directed and composed the music for multiple episodes of the Tales from the Darkside TV show. He was then tapped by producer Richard P. Rubinstein to direct Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) for Paramount, which won the Gran Prix du Festival at Avoriaz, France (1991). Harrison's collaboration with Rubinstein culminated in the Emmy winning TV miniseries, Frank Herbert's Dune (2000) which Harrison wrote and directed,[1] and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003) which Harrison wrote and Co-Executive Produced.

In 2006, Harrison reunited with mentor Romero to co-produce Romero's film Diary of the Dead (2007). His action suspense thriller, Blank Slate, for producer Dean Devlin, which Harrison wrote and directed, aired as a twenty episode mini-series on TNT in the Fall of '08. In 2009, Harrison completed his adaptation of acclaimed horror novelist Clive Barker's Book of Blood which Harrison co-wrote and directed.

His paranormal thriller miniseries Residue (2015), which he created and wrote, dropped on Netflix in April 2015.[2]

Selected filmography

Soundtracks

Books

References

  1. 1 2 Wertheimer, Ron (December 2, 2000). "TELEVISION REVIEW; For the Spice of Life, Literally". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Miller, Liz Shannon (April 1, 2015) "How to Sell a TV Show to Netflix". Indiewire.
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