McG

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McG : biography

August 9, 1968 –

On October 30, 2007, Fox approved a pilot for an American remake of the British cult show Spaced, which McG served as an executive producer, even though Simon Pegg and fans were outraged at the prospect of having a remake without the original creators’ involvement. Nonetheless, the pilot, written by Adam Barr, was heavily panned before its airing, resulting in Fox scrapping the series. McG then executive produced Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (2008). The Pussycat Dolls Present: series was canceled afterward. He was the executive producer for the WB Television Network’s online series, Sorority Forever (2008) and Exposed (2010), as well.

McG’s next film project was Terminator Salvation (2009), a quasi-reboot of the franchise that introduces the future war fought between humanity and Skynet. After the Halcyon Company purchased the rights, they signed McG onto the project, for which he was paid $6 million. Although he promised fans that he would bring back credibility to the franchise, with the casting of Christian Bale and the personal talk with James Cameron, the film, released on May 21, 2009 in the United States and Canada, received the most negative reception out of all the films in the series. It grossed over $370 million worldwide, a moderate success given its budget, but well below industry expectations.

Following Terminator Salvation, he was expected to direct a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Disney, for which he was interested in casting Sam Worthington for Captain Nemo. However, after spending nearly $10 million on pre-production work, Walt Disney Studios’ movie chief Rich Ross put the project on hold indefinitely due to creative concerns, and McG is no longer attached. Subsequently, he went into negotiations with 20th Century Fox to direct This Means War, a spy comedy project about two best friends who go to war against each other after falling for the same girl. Though initially troubled with numerous casting dropouts, including Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen, and Sam Worthington, the film was finally filmed in Vancouver and was released in 2012. Since then, he has been in negotiations for the directing duties for Universal Pictures’ Ouija (a canceled film based on the Hasbro board game of the same name,) and has been attached to Lorene Scafaria’s pitch based on a Rolling Stone article about the true life events of Esther Reed named "The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League," along with Amanda Seyfried, and a high-profile untitled space adventure project written by David Callaham for 20th Century Fox. McG was also in discussions to supervise development and direct the fifth installment of the Terminator film series, having made a $10 million right-of-first-refusal deal with the Halcyon Company, but with the rights of the series transferred to hedge fund Pacificor, his further involvement is unlikely. The film adaptation of Peter M. Lenkov’s graphic novel series R.I.P.D. was another project he was circling, but because of his commitment to This Means War, he was replaced by Robert Schwentke. McG has also delved into comics with Wonderland set to publish the original Haunted City, written by Chap Taylor, that will expand into a feature film, which he plans to direct, a television show, and a video game.

He has been actively developing a film adaptation of the rock musical Spring Awakening, planning to independently produce and film it in six weeks for $25 million, with additional producing duties for: a film adaptation of Jon Stock’s Dead Spy Running novel that is meant to reinvent the spy genre; I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President, a film adaptation of the book of the same name by Josh Lieb; Medieval, a film he was previously set to direct but is now being helmed by Rob Cohen; Elysium, a modern retelling of a classic Greek myth written by Matt Cirulnick for New Regency; Medallion, an action thriller starring Nicolas Cage about a former master thief on the search for his kidnapped daughter; a film adaptation of The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend); Tink, a live action romantic comedy based on Disney’s Tinkerbell; and CBS Films’ Face It. Other projects he has expressed interest in include a World War II film and an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was previously filmed by Ridley Scott as 1982’s Blade Runner.