Jeff Wadlow

Jeff Wadlow (birthname: Jeffrey Clark Wadlow) is a director, writer, and producer who has worked in a range of genres, beginning with the slasher film, Cry Wolf (2005), on which Wadlow was director and co-writer, and featured Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, and Jon Bon Jovi, and though widely panned, grossed a robust $32.5 million on $1 million costs via distributor Rogue Pictures.

After co-writing the South African-based thriller, Prey (2007), with director and co-writer Darrell Roodt, Wadlow directed the martial arts drama, Never Back Down (2008), co-starring Sean Faris, Cam Gigandet, Amber Heard, and Djimon Hounsou, and earned a global gross of $41.6 million. Wadlow was hired as writer-director by Universal Pictures (along with co-producing companies Marv Film, Plan B Entertainment, Dentsu Inc., and Fuji Television Network) and lead producer Matthew Vaughn for the sequel, Kick-Ass 2 (2013), starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Jim Carrey, and which grossed nearly $61 million worldwide.

Jeff Wadlow was co-writer/director of the Netflix action comedy starring Kevin James, True Memoirs of an International Assassin (2016), and then directed Blumhouse Productions’ slasher horror movie, Truth or Dare (2018), which he co-wrote with Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, and Chris Roach, and which co-starred Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey, garnering poor reviews and outstanding box office for distributor Universal Pictures, with a $95 million gross against $3.5 million costs.

Wadlow went on to co-write (with Eric Heisserer) the Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures superhero movie, Bloodshot (2020), based on the Valiant Comics character, and then Wadlow was director/writer/executive producer of Columbia Pictures’/Blumhouse Productions’ Fantasy Island (2020), a fantasy-horror prequel to the 1977 TV series starring Michael Peña, Maggie Q, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen, Portia Doubleday, and Michael Rooker, and which garnered a strong $49 million box office take against $7 million costs.

Wadlow was the director and executive producer on the Netflix-streamed The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022), starring Marlon Wayans, Rob Riggle, and Nia Vardalos. Jeff Wadlow was director/writer/producer of the $13 million Blumhouse Productions horror movie, Imaginary (2024), starring DeWanda Wise, Pyper Braun, Tom Payne, and Betty Buckley, and released by Lionsgate. Wadlow then directed the big-screen version of the J. Scott Campbell secret agent comic, Danger Girl (date to be announced).