Guys, I love the story of Jeff Wadlow. That’s why I’m dedicating this Where Are They Now? installment to him. He is a prime example that education, hard work and creating movies independently can lead to bigger and better things. Keep the dream alive.
Jeff Wadlow, a Virginia native, was born in 1976. After becoming a graduate of Dartmouth College and USC, he started writing and directing his own short films – The Tower of Babble (2002), Manual Labor (2002) and Catching Kringle (2004). It was during this time that he won the 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Competition with the winning prize being $1,000,000 to go towards his next production budget. With a sizable budget firmly in place, Wadlow put Cry_Wolf into production. A guilty pleasure of mine, distributed by Rogue Pictures and co-starring singer Bon Jovi, Cry_Wolf took the #5 spot at the box office during its opening week and grossed over $10,000,000 during its theatrical run.
Following the success of Cry_Wolf, Jeff wrote another horror feature, Prey (2007), and booked a small acting role in I’m Through With White Girls in the same year. His other acting gigs previously included cameos in an episode of “Roswell” and in Pearl Harbor in 2001. His next big film he directed was 2008’s Never Back Down, an action-drama starring Sean Faris. Never Back Down was distributed to theaters by Summit Entertainment and came out just about even with $25,000,000 made at the box office, following a #3 debut during its opening week.
In the early 2010’s he started producing and served as executive producer on crime drama’s The Odds (2010) and Hail Mary (2011), two projects he also wrote.
So, where is Jeff Wadlow now?
In 2013 Jeff was brought on board the popular A&E series “Bates Motel” during the show’s first season. This job saw him as a consulting producer on six different episodes and as a writer on two. Also in 2013 he wrote and directed the controversial, unneeded semi-flop Kick-Ass 2, that never recouped its production budget and made just barely $29,000,000 for Universal Studios. The following year, Wadlow served as executive producer on the Liam Neeson movie Non-Stop. Non-Stop was a smash hit; securing the #1 spot at the box office and making $92,000,000 during its theatrical run. In 2014, Wadlow also directed an episode of “Agent X.”
Rumored to write the next X-Men Sequel in 2017, Jeff Wadlow continues to be a driving force in this industry. And better yet, he’s been able to give back to other aspiring filmmakers. He opened The Adrenaline Film Workshop, a class that helps new filmmakers create an entire short film to screen at the Virginia Film Festival, with the catch being it must be completed in 72 hours! He has since been able to open a west coast branch of his workshop in Oregon.
