Thor Freudenthal | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Freudenthal in 2013 | |
| Born | 20 October 1972 Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, animator, special effect artist[citation needed] |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Notable work | Hotel for Dogs Diary of a Wimpy Kid Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters |
Thor Freudenthal (/ˈtɔːr/; born 20 October 1972) is a German film director, screenwriter, animator and special effects artist best known for his work on Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
Freudenthal was raised in Berlin, Germany.[1] His parents were born in Israel.[2] He credits his early interest in cinema to Steven Spielberg, saying "When my mother told me he's Jewish, and he goes to synagogue, it was like, 'My God, we're of the same tribe, and he's a huge hero of mine.' And then seeing the Schindler movie actually made me feel more secure in who I was myself."[3] His family's connection to Spielberg became real when his Polish-Jewish grandparents, survivors of the Holocaust who had known Schindler personally, were asked to appear in the final scene of the movie.[3]
Freudenthal attended the Hochschule der Künste Berlin,[4] and later moved to Southern California as an exchange student at CalArts.[1] He started out as an animation director, and found success as a director in his first live-action film, Motel, which played at Sundance Film Festival[5] in 2005. He also worked on conceptal/visual art work at Sony Pictures Imageworks on films like Stuart Little, The ChubbChubbs! and Stuart Little 2.[6] He later worked as second unit director on Disney's The Haunted Mansion. In 2009, he directed Hotel for Dogs[7] for DreamWorks Pictures.[8] He directed the live-action/animated feature film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid,[9] based on the book by Jeff Kinney[10] and in 2013 he directed Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.[11]
In 2019, he was reported to have signed on to direct upcoming Gotham Group series Skywatchers.[12][13] In 2020, he directed Words on Bathroom Walls, a drama film starring Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell, about a teenager struggling with schizophrenia; the film was well-reviewed.[14][15]
Freudenthal has also directed multiple episodes of Arrow and one episode of The Flash.[16]
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Hotel for Dogs[8] | |
| 2010 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid[17] | Also storyboard artist[18] |
| 2013 | Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters | |
| 2020 | Words on Bathroom Walls | Also producer |
| Year | Title | Episode(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Aim High | "Pilot" Episodes #1.2 – #1.6 |
| 2014 | Arrow | "The Climb" "Al Sah-Him" "Green Arrow" "Legends of Yesterday" |
| 2015 | The Flash | "Out of Time" |
| 2015 | Supergirl | "How Does She Do It?" |
| 2015 | Quantico | "Inside" |
| 2016 | Legends of Tomorrow | "The Magnificent Eight" |
| 2016 | The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez | |
| 2017 | The Expanse | "Caliban's War" "Assured Destruction" "Reload" |
| 2018 | The Tick | "Tale From the Crypt" "The End of the Beginning (Or the Start of the Dawn of the Age of Superhero)" |
| 2019 | Carnival Row | "Some Dark God Wakes" "Aisling" "The Joining of Unlike Things" "Fight and Flight" "New Dawn" |
| 2021 | La Brea | "Pilot" "The New Arrival" "The Storm" "Father and Son" |
| 2022 | Quantum Leap | "July 13th, 1985" |
| Year | Film | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Monkey Business | Yes | Yes |
| 1997 | Tattoos | Yes | Yes |
| 1998 | The Tenor | Yes | Yes |
| 1998 | Mind the Gap | Yes | Yes |
| 2005 | Motel | Yes | Yes |
| 2007 | Zéro Deux | Yes | Yes |
| 2015 | Another Day | No | Yes |
| 2016 | Starman | Yes | No |
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Stuart Little | Creative and visual effects development |
| 2002 | The ChubbChubbs! | Character designer, storyboard artist |
| 2002 | Stuart Little 2 | Conceptual artist |
| 2003 | The Haunted Mansion | Second unit director |
| 2009 | The Movie Loft | Self (8 June 2009 and 12 May 2009) |
| 2009 | A Home for Everyone: The Making of 'Hotel for Dogs' | Self (video documentary short) |
| 2009 | Hotel for Dogs: K-9 Casting | Self (video documentary short) |
| 2009 | Hotel for Dogs: That's the Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen! | Self (video documentary short) |
| 2010 | Feed the Fish | Book illustrator |
| 2013 | Made in Hollywood | Self (episode #8.38) |
