Jonathan Liebesman

Jonathan Liebesman (born 15 September 1976) is a South African film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films Darkness Falls (2003), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Battle: Los Angeles (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014).

Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He studied filmmaking at the AFDA, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance and at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is Jewish. His cousin is director Dean Israelite.

At Tisch, he co-wrote and directed an 8-minute short film, Genesis and Catastrophe, adapted from a Roald Dahl short story. The film was screened at numerous festivals around the world, and in 2000 won an award in the category of 'best short' at the Austin Film Festival. This earned Liebesman the "Hollywood Young Filmmaker Award" at the Hollywood Film Festival in 2000.

In 2002, he directed his debut feature Darkness Falls at the age of 26. Although the film suffered from generally weak reviews, it opened at no. 1 at the US box office. The film grossed over $32.5 million at the US box office, and a further $15 million worldwide. The film was nominated for Best Horror/Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards in 2003, while the film's star, Emma Caulfield, won Face of the Future from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films that year.

Liebesman's next project, Rings (2005) (which he co-wrote with Ehren Kruger), was a 17-minute short that chronologically follows the events of the full-length feature, The Ring, and serves as a prequel to The Ring Two (2005). It provided an insightful transition between the two films and garnered high praise from fans of both feature-length films.^{[citation needed]}

The film's success brought him to the attention of Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, who hired him to direct The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning opened in US theaters on 6 October 2006, and proved another box office hit for Liebesman. The $16 million movie opened at No 2 at the US box office with $18.5 million. As of 31 December 2006, the film had grossed around $50 million worldwide, including over $39.5 million in the US.

In 2007, it was initially announced that Liebesman would be the director of the Friday the 13th reboot but as of November 2007, Marcus Nispel, director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake of 2003, replaced Liebesman.