About
Max Landis is an American screenwriter, director, and comic book writer known for 2012’s Chronicle and 2015’s American Ultra, among others. He has also created viral short films “Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling” and “The Death and Return of Superman.” His personality in interviews as well as criticism of some of his films have made him divisive among film fans.
History
Max Landis was born August 3rd, 1985 to John Landis, himself a famous director, and Deborah Nadoolman Landis. He has written 75 screenplays since the age of 16, selling his first at age 18: an episode of Masters of Horror called “Deer Woman.” In 2011, he was named to Forbes Magazine’s “30 under 30” list recognizing promising talent under 30 years. His film Chronicle was released on February 3rd, 2012 to positive reviews.
The day Chronicle was released, Landis released a comedic short film called “The Death and Return of Superman” to YouTube. The film, which features several high profile actors including Elijah Wood and Simon Pegg, gained over 3.3 million views (shown below, left). Three years later, Landis released another free comedic short film to YouTube called “Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling,” in which he talks about the appeal of Professional Wrestling by telling the story of WWE star Triple H. That video also features several high-profile cameos and has gained over 2.9 million views (shown below, right).
Landis is the writer and executive producer of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency , a television adaptation of the novels by Douglas Adams. He is also an executive producer on the television series Channel Zero. He is the writer and director of the Netflix exclusive film Bright, which stars Will Smith.
Reputation
Landis has been a divisive figure among critics for his personality. In a since-deleted interview with blog Shelby Sells, Landis gave controversial statements about his relationship with women. Excerpts from the interview include:
the one thing that’s changed is certain chicks, which only started happening very recently, when they find out i’m a director, will open up a lot quicker.
you mean their legs?
everything – their legs, their personality. they’ll start crying to you in an instant.
oh god, why?
because they’re trying to leave an impression.
When talking about a girl he confessed to giving “a crippling social anxiety, self-loathing, body dismorphia, (and) eating disorder to,” Landis said:
i mean you can’t really give someone any of these things, but the seeds of these things were there inside of her. we were in such a sort of unfair, fucked up relationship – not the kind where there’s a lot of yelling and screaming – the actual relationship was very nice and loving, but i was so fickle about her body. i’m not shy, i would just blurt out shit all the time. she ended up completely changing how she dressed and how she looked for me. that chick will never talk to me again.
The interview caused a slew of reactions online who claimed the interview painted Landis as misogynist. Landis responded by writing several social media posts defending himself, including a Facebook post which read:
Holy fucking shit. The response to that sex interview is insane. People fucking DESPISE me it’s incredible. Granted, people who “get” the interview isn’t about “CHEATING IS FUNHAHA I GETLAID” seem to absolutely love it, but the ones who hate it are like calling me a misogynist sociopath rapist and fun stuff like that. It’s terrifying. Like, hundreds of people tweeting me in both directions.
The interview and the reactions were covered by Jezebel, who called Landis a “screenwriter bro” and “maybe Hollywood’s biggest fuckwit.”
In 2015, Landis was accused of sexism for tweeting that The Force Awakens was a film of fan fiction with a Mary Sue as the main character (shown below).
![]()
Landis would revisit the criticisms in 2017 in a series of interviews. After a positive profile of him was posted in Vulture, feminist critics voiced opinions that Landis’ success was due to white male privilege and his privileged background. In an interview with Newsweek, he said he was tired of the criticisms, stating “I’m not a sexist guy.” In December of 2017, ahead of the release of Bright, Landis wrote in an essay for Hollywood Reporter insisting that his father was not instrumental to his success.
Bright was released on December 22nd, 2017 to scathing reviews. The Daily Beast called the film “A $90 Million Steaming Pile of Orc Sh*t”. The film scored a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.USA Today compiled some of the most damning lines of criticism leveled at Bright by film critics. This caused Twitter users who were previously critical of Landis to revel in the film’s failure. A since-deleted tweet of Landis’ from 2015 in which he said Bright could be his Star Wars began circulating online in mockery of Landis (shown below).
![]()
On December 23rd, 2017, The Daily Beast reported that several women had accused Landis of sexual assault on Twitter. One of the women was actress Anna Akana, who appeared in “Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling.” The other was Zoe Quinn, who brought up that several of her female friends had “Max Landis stories” involving him sexually assaulting them. She also called Landis’ history of sexual assault an “open secret.”
Search Interest
External References
During a twitch stream titled “Super Mario 64 SLOWruns” by user “loohhoo” on 25 
