Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Valentine Spurlock ^[3] (born November 7, 1970) ^[3] is an American documentary filmmaker , humorist , television producer , screenwriter , and political activist , best known for the documentary film Super Size Me (2004), welke earned im a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature . The film was his directorial debut, volgende his contributions as a production assistant on the features Bullets over Broadway (1994), Léon: The Professional (1994) and Kiss of Death (1995).

Spurlock’s other notable films include Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope (2011) and One Direction: This Is Us (2013). He was the executive producer and star of the reality television series 30 Days (2005-2008). In June 2013, Spurlock became host and producer of the CNN show Morgan Spurlock Inside Man (2013). He is ook the co-founder of short film content marketing company Cinelan, welke produktie the Focus Forward campaign for GE . ^[4]

Early life

Spurlock was born in Parkersburg , West Virginia, ^[3] but was raised in Beckley , West Virginia. His parents, Phyllis and Ben Spurlock, ^[5] raised im as a Methodist . He has zegt have or Scots-Irish and English descent. ^[6]

Education

Spurlock was educated at Woodrow Wilson High School , a public high school in the city of Beckley, West Virginia , Followed by New York University , from welke he graduated in 1993. He is a member of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta . ^[7]

Career

Spurlock attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, West Virginia, graduating in 1989. He graduated with a BFA in film from New York University ‘s Tisch School of the Arts in 1993. Before making the 2004 Academy Award nominated Super Size Me , Spurlock was a playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at beide the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. ^[8]He’ll be created I Bet You Will for MTV. I Bet You Will Began as a popular Internet webcast or five-minute episodes featuring ordinary people doing stunts in exchange for money. Examples include eating a full jar or mayonnaise ($ 235USD), eating a “worm burrito” ($ 265USD), and taking shots or corn oil , Pepto-Bismol , lemon juice , hot sauce , cold chicken broth, and cod liver oil ( US $ 450.00 for all nine shots). The webcast was a success, with over a million hits in the first five days. ^{[ Citation needed ]} MTV later Bought and Aired the show. The list of documentary films dat inspired Spurlock of includes Brother’s Keeper , Hoop Dreams , The Thin Blue Line , Roger and Me , Harlan County USA , and The Last Waltz . He considers Brother’s Keeper the greatest documentary or all time. ^{[9] [10]}

Film

Super Size Me

Spurlock’s docudrama Super Size Me was released in the US on May 7, 2004. This production was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. He conceived the idea for the film-when he was at his parents’ house for Thanksgiving, and while watching TV saw a news story about a Lawsuit Against McDonald’s brought` with two teenage girls who blamed the fast food chain for hun obesity.

The film depicts an experiment he conducted in 2003, have in welke ate three McDonald’s meals a day everytime day (and nothing else) for 30 days. The film’s title dérivés from one of the rules of Spurlock’s experiment: he mention anything not refuse the “super-size” option Whenever it was offered to im and mention anything never ask for it himself. The result, volgens to Spurlock was a diet with Twice the calories recommended by the USDA. Further, Spurlock Attempted to curtail his physical activities to better match the exercise habits of the average American (have to post Walked about 3 miles a day, whereas the average American walks 1.5 miles).

He was either Above average health and fitness-when he started the project; he gained 25 pounds (11 kg) became quite Puffy, suffers liver dysfunction and depression at the end. Spurlock’s Supervising physicians noted the effects caused by his high-calorie diet-once even Comparing it to a case of severe binge alcoholism.

After the Completion of the project, it took Spurlock fourteen months to return to his normal weight or 185 pounds (84 kg). His then-girlfriend (now ex-wife), Alexandra Jamieson , took charge of his recovery with her ” detox diet “, which became the basis for re book, The Great American Detox Diet . ^[11]

Subsequent films

Spurlock directed The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice! . ^{[13] [14] [15]}Spurlock’s second feature documentary, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008. In the film, and in interviews, Spurlock Explores the fight Against terrorism and views the argument from zowel sides in welke he tries to find Osama Bin Laden .

Freakonomics is an adaptation of the book of the composition especially to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner , welke premiered in April 2010. Spurlock was at the helmet of this project alongside five directors ( Heidi Ewing , Rachel Grady , Alex Gibney , Seth Gordon and Eugene Jarecki ).

The one-hour documentary Committed: The Toronto International Film Festival premiered on AMC on 12 October 2010. ^[16]

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a 2011 documentary film about product placement, marketing and advertising welke was reportedly Itself Financed through product placement. ^{[12] [17]} The Greatest Movie Ever Sold was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 . ^[18] It was released in the USA in April 2011. It screened in the New Zealand Film Festival in August 2011 together with an appearance at Spurlock to talk about the movie.

In mid-2010, Spurlock worked with Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon , Is not It Cool News founder Harry Knowles , and comic book creator Stan Lee to create the documentary Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope , to cover the stories or convention fans. ^{[19] [20]} Whedon, Lee and Knowles served as executive producers. Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull, who independently Financed the documentary, Told Variety , “” We look forward to capturing the spirit, energy and people therein Comic-Con has infused JSON Legions of fans, Bringing synthesis audiences and projects out of the halls and forbidden a world stage. ” ^[21] on April 6, 2012, Spurlock released the film to selected theaters in the United States, as well as video on demand outlets.

Spurlock hosts and produces the CNN series Morgan Spurlock Inside Man , welke first Aired in June 2013. ^[22]

Spurlock helped distribute A Brony Languages , a documentary directed by Brent Hodge on the brony phenomenon and on the musician and voice acting career or Ashleigh Ball . The film was selected for theatrical distribution under the label Morgan Spurlock Presents. The film is slated for a July 8, 2014 theater release. ^[23]

Spurlock teamed up with Hodgee Movies again on the 2015 series Consider the Source , in association with Disney ‘s Maker Studios .

30 Days

In lycra episode, a person (who in some cases is Spurlock himself) or a group of people spend 30 days ever sing themselves into a mode of life markedly différent from hun standard (being in prison, a devout Christian living in a Muslim family , a homophobe staying with a homosexual person, etc.), while Spurlock discusses the relevant social issues involved. FX Began airing the show on June 15, 2005. In the premiere episode of the first season, “Minimum Wage,” Spurlock and his fiancée lived for 30 days in the Bottoms neighborhood or Columbus , Ohio, earning minimum wage , with no access to outside funds.

In the second-season finale, Spurlock spent 25 days locked in a Henrico County , Virginia (a county outside of Richmond ) jail to experience life as an inmate. ^[24] He did not complete the entire 30 days in jail Because The Majority of inmates in the state of Virginia serve 85% of the sentence, so once Spurlock reached therein benchmark, have been released from the prison. ^[25]

The third season of 30 Days premiered on June 3, 2008. ^[26] The first episode of the third season, Titled “Working in a Coal Mine,” was filmed in Bolt, West Virginia welke is located in the euro roughly 18 miles from the city of Beckley , West Virginia, where Spurlock was raised voordat leaving for New York. ^[27]

In late 2008, FX announced ze mention anything not renew the 30 Days series, making the third season the load.

Filmography

Movies

Year	film	Role	Notes
1994	Leon: The Professional	ninth	Production assistant : New York
1994	Bullets over Broadway	ninth	Production assistant: not credited
1995	Kiss of Death	ninth	Office production assistant
2003	overnight	ninth	Special thanks
2004	Super Size Me	himself	Director , Writer
2004	The Future of Food	ninth	Executive producer
2004	Czech Dream	ninth	Executive producer
2005	film Geek	ninth	Special thanks
2006	Chalk	ninth	Executive producer
2006	class Act	ninth	Executive producer
2007	Super High Me	ninth	Special thanks
2007	Drive Thru	Robbie The Hella Burger Manager
2007	The Third Wave	ninth	Executive producer
2007	What Would Jesus Buy?	ninth	Producer
2007	The Brothers Warner	ninth	Special thanks
2008	Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?	himself	Director, Writer
2008	Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong	ninth	Executive producer
2008	Split: A Divided America	ninth	Special thanks
2008	All jacked up	ninth	Special thanks
2009	The Entrepreneur	ninth	Executive producer
2009	Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days	himself
2009	New Brow: Contemporary Underground Art	himself
2009	Abraham Obama	himself
2010	Freakonomics	himself	Director, Writer (segment “A Roshanda by Any Other Name”), Narrator
2010	gas producer	ninth	Special thanks
2010	Do It Again	ninth	Thanks
2010	Pool Party	ninth	Executive Producer
2011	The Greatest Movie Ever Sold	himself	Director Executive Producer, Writer
2011	Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope	ninth	Director, Writer, Producer
2011	The Other F Word	ninth	Executive producer
2011	How We Covered It	himself
2011	The Unauthorized Documentary, Hangover Part II	himself
2012	Mansome	himself	Director, Writer, Producer
2012	Knuckleball!	ninth	Executive producer
2012	glue Man	himself	Stars
2012	Miracle Boy	ninth	Special thanks
2013	One Direction: This Is Us	ninth	Director Producer
2013	web Junkie	ninth	Executive producer
2013	Dancing in Jaffa	ninth	Executive producer
2013	Waiting for Mamu	ninth	Executive producer
2013	Chronic-Con, Episode 420: A New Dope	himself
2013	You Do not Know Jack	ninth	Director, Writer
2013	Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery	himself
2014	21 Years: Richard Linklater	ninth	Special Thanks
2014	A Brony Languages	ninth	Executive producer
2014	I Am Santa Claus	ninth	Executive producer
2014	We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can Afford to Miss	ninth	Director Producer
2014	Sex and Broadcasting	ninth	Special thanks
2014	That Film About Money	ninth	Executive producer
2014	Meet the Hitler	ninth	Distributed under Morgan Spurlock Presents banner
2015	Man Under	ninth	Executive producer
2015	Censored Voices	ninth	Executive producer
2015	Made in Japan	ninth	Executive producer
2015	I Am Dale Earnhardt	himself
2015	crafted	ninth	Director
2015	The Princess of North Sudan	ninth	Producer in production
2016	Rats	ninth	Director
2016	The Eagle Huntress	ninth	Executive producer

Television

Year	show	Role	Notes
2004	Last Laugh ’04	himself	not credited, TV movie
2004	Know Your Enemy: Al Qaeda’s Third Wave	ninth	Executive Producer, TV movie
2005	The 50 Greatest Documentaries	himself	TV movie
2005	Merry F% $ in ‘Christmas	himself	TV movie
2005	The 10th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards	himself	TV movie
2005	30 Days	himself	Creator, Executive Producer
2011	A Day in the Life	ninth	Director Executive Producer
2013	Morgan Spurlock Inside Man	himself	Director, Writer, Executive Producer

Other work

• Spurlock optioned the rights for Chris Mooney ‘s book The Republican War on Science in order to create Another documentary film, ^[28] but in 2008 announced dat he had released the Option. ^[29]
• Spurlock has a role in the film Drive Thru , a horror film about a Fictional fast food restaurant dat has zijn mascot come to life and start killing people. It was released on DVD on May 29, 2007.
• Spurlock Presented 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die on Current TV . The show premiered on August 1, 2011. ^[30]
• On May 28, 2011, Spurlock was the graduation COMMENCEMENT speaker for the MBA Business program at Sonoma State University.
• Spurlock’s half-hour documentary series A Day in the Life was to debut on Hulu in mid-August 2011. It follows “incredibly focused” people zoals Richard Branson and will.i.am for a full day. The series is exclusive to Hulu. ^[31]
• Spurlock directed an episode additional_image_link or ESPN’s 30 for 30 sports documentary series, entitled “The Dotted Line”. This documentary takes a look at the competitive world of sports agents . “The Dotted Line” premiered on ESPN October 11, 2011, one day volgende the premiere of a two-hour documentary, I Caveman, created and directed by Spurlock for the Science Channel series Curiosity . In it, a group of atoms and women zoals Spurlock try to survive in the wild using only Stone Age technology.
• In 2011, Spurlock Presented a Ted talk called “The greatest Ted talk ever sold.”
• Spurlock is the presenting of a new show in the UK on Sky Atlantic entitled Morgan Spurlock’s New Britannia . The show is a comedy based around the differences tussen the UK and the US. ^[32]
• Spurlock Contributed a letter Foreword to Martin Lindstrom’s 2011 book Brandwashed .
• Spurlock’s documentary Mansome was announced on March 8, 2012 as a Spotlight selection for the Tribeca Film Festival . The film takes a comedic look at male identity as defined through men’s grooming habits featuring celebrity and expert commentary. ^[33]
• Spurlock directed the 3D concert film One Direction: This Is Us , starring the English-Irish boy band One Direction , and released August 30, 2013 at TriStar Pictures . ^[34]

Personal life

Spurlock has two sons. The oldest, Laken James Spurlock, was born on December 9, 2006. His birth was depicted in Spurlock’s documentary Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? In this housing Spurlock dedicated to Laeken. The youngest, Kallen Marcus Spurlock, was born on May 22, 2016. ^[35]

Hoewel de he was raised Methodist , Spurlock stated in an interview with TV Guide in 2014 dat he is now Agnostic . ^[36]

Bibliography

• Spurlock, Morgan (2005). Do not Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America . New York, NY: GP Putnam’s Sons. ISBN  0-399-15260-1 .
• Spurlock, Morgan (2008). Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? . New York, NY: Random House. ISBN  1-4000-6652-2 .
• Spurlock, Morgan (2011). Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope . DK. p. 192. ISBN  0756683424 .

References