Phil Lord and Christopher Miller


Philip Anderson Lord and Christopher Robert Miller are an American filmmaking duo. Having met at Dartmouth College, they are known for directing and writing the animated films Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie, as well as directing the live-action comedy film 21 Jump Street and its sequel, 22 Jump Street. Lord and Miller also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as producers of , which was co-written by Lord, and co-produced the television series The Last Man on Earth for Fox and Unikitty! for Cartoon Network.

Early life

According to The New York Times, Lord is from Miami; his mother is a Cuban-born psychologist, and his father retired from the aviation business and before that directed a dance company, Fusion, for 10 years. Miller is from the Seattle area, where his father runs a lumber mill.
Lord and Miller both grew up making short films with an affinity for animation. On campus, the two had separate columns in the school newspaper, The Dartmouth. Lord was a member of Amarna, a co-ed undergraduate society while Miller was a brother at Alpha Chi Alpha. During his time in college, Christopher met his girlfriend, now wife.
During their time at Dartmouth, the school paper published a profile on Miller, which caught the attention of then chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner. According to Lord, Eisner brought the profile to the attention of his fellow Disney executives who then offered to set up a meeting with Miller. Miller agreed to the meeting as long as he could bring Lord. After three months, the two moved to Los Angeles and after one meeting were offered a two-year development deal at Walt Disney Television Animation.

Career

Though nothing they pitched made it to air, they produced the pilot to Clone High, which was subsequently dropped by Fox. After they wrote and produced on a series of sitcoms, MTV informed the duo that they were interested in purchasing a 13-episode season of Clone High. Although the show was met with acclaim, MTV canceled the series after hunger strike protests occurred in India over the show's portrayal of Gandhi as a motor-mouthed partier.
In 2003, the two were tapped to write a screenplay for what would become their first feature film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. After a year working on the script, they were fired for story issues and replaced with new writers, who after a year were also fired. Lord and Miller were then re-hired in 2006. The two completely redid the script, this time with the creative input of their crew. The new draft had the protagonist as a failed inventor who wanted to prove himself to his town. The two were almost fired again after Amy Pascal, the head of Sony Pictures at the time, criticized the film for a lack of story. Although the film succeeded on the comedic front in the animatic stage, Pascal cited the lack of an anchoring relationship in the film as a failure in the story telling. Unable to create new characters and environments to suit the new story demands, the two elevated the character of the tackle shop extra to be the protagonist's father, thereby creating the relationship Pascal had requested. The pair's experience on Cloudy taught them two valuable lessons: the power of creative collaboration and the importance of emotion in a story.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was released in 2009 to positive reviews. After the film was released, the two sought to try to make something different from Cloudy and pitched themselves as possible directors for the 21 Jump Street script that Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill had written. The studio agreed and the two directed their first live-action R-rated film, released to critical and popular acclaim, which led to the production of a sequel titled 22 Jump Street.
In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book The Best Film You've Never Seen, Lord stated that "in an animated feature, you remake the movie three or four times, and it's really easy to get bummed out that the way you did it before didn't get greenlit, didn't get paid, and you're making a totally different version of that movie."
During the production of 21 Jump Street, they pitched a take on a possible Lego film to Dan Lin. Lin and Warner Bros. loved the take, so Lord and Miller wrote and eventually directed their third feature film together, The Lego Movie. The duo were picked by Warner Bros. to write the script for the upcoming superhero film The Flash. The duo were also picked by Sony Pictures Animation in 2015 to create an animated Spider-Man film, with the option to direct. The film was eventually made as ', which the duo produced and which Lord co-wrote.
The duo have recently developed a live-action/animated series, Son of Zorn, for Fox, with Jason Sudeikis voicing the lead role of animated character Zorn, and Johnny Pemberton and Cheryl Hines playing the live-action roles. They are also producing a cable-TV drama based on the popular NPR/This American Life spinoff podcast Serial.
Also, they will produce an R-rated animated Netflix original film called America: The Motion Picture alongside Will Allegra, Matt Thompson, Adam Reed, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan from a screenplay by David Callaham and directed by Thompson.
In January 2017, Lord and Miller began directing the then-untitled film ', a standalone Star Wars movie based on the Han Solo character. On June 20, 2017 it was reported that they had been fired from the project by Lucasfilm, after over four-and-a-half months of filming, about three-quarters through principal photography. Lucasfilm announced that "creative differences" were the reason, with Entertainment Weekly reporting that Lord and Miller were going off-script and trying to make the film into more of a comedy. They were unwilling to compromise with Lucasfilm and writer Lawrence Kasdan on the direction of the film, preferring their vision. Two days later, Ron Howard was announced as the replacement, to complete the film and reshoots. Lord and Miller received executive-producer credits on Solo: A Star Wars Story.
In November 2017, Lord and Miller commented on their departure from Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lord stated "The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful. We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. We're really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best." Miller added "As Phil said, we had such a great relationship with cast and crew, we were really rooting for them. After we took a much-needed vacation, we got back into it and now we're writing and producing a to The Lego Movie and producing a Miles Morales."
Lord and Miller are now set to direct two projects following their departure from Solo: Artemis, an adaptation of Andy Weir's novel of the same name for 20th Century Fox, and The Last Human for Sony's TriStar Pictures. They also made a five-year deal with Sony Pictures Television to develop animated Marvel series, including a possible Into the Spider-Verse series, as well as a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. Lord co-wrote the comic Spider-Man Annual #1, marking his first involvement on a comic book; he and Miller also co-wrote a Marvel comic celebrating the company's 80th anniversary, marking Miller's first time writing a comic book. Lord and Miller are also set to produce Connected for Sony Pictures Animation. On November 1, 2019, it was announced that Lord and Miller would be returning as producers for the , which is set to be released on October 7, 2022. On May 15, 2020, Variety reported that Lord and Miller are attached to direct a film adaptation of Andy Weir's next novel Project Hail Marry for MGM, with Ryan Gosling attached to star in the leading role and Amy Pascal producing. In June 2020, it was reported that Lord and Miller would be developing an eight episode television series titled The Afterparty for Apple TV+. The series is a murder mystery comedy set at a high school reunion where each episode features a retelling of the same night told through a different character's POV. On July 2, 2020, it was announced that MTV Studios was developing a reboot of Clone High, and that original series creators, Lord, Miller, and Bill Lawrence would be involved with the project.

Filmography

Films

Television

Acting credits

Recurring (acting) collaborators

The following contains a list of recurring actors in films and TV shows directed, produced, and/or wrote by Lord and Miller.
Clone HighCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs21 Jump StreetCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2The Lego Movie22 Jump StreetThe Last Man on EarthSon of Zorn''
Will Forte
Bill Hader
Anna Faris
Jake Johnson
Jonah Hill
Nick Offerman
Channing Tatum
Jason Sudekis
Kristen Schaal
Johnny Pemberton
Jorma Taccone
Rob Riggle

Accolades