Joe Johnston is an American director, who has directed many feature films including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, Captain America: First Avenger...

 

He studied at the University of CAL, and the first job he took (because the closest to his home) is in the George Lucas' special effects company Industrial Light & Magic. He starts on Star Wars, on which he storyboards the whole film and designs vehicles like the Millennium Falcon and the famous Star Wars logo. Still under the direction of John Dykstra, he then worked on the design of the Battlestar Galactica TV series. He will continue on the two sequels of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and will work on Raiders of the Lost Ark for which he will win an Oscar.

 

The closest collaborator of George Lucas, he will become Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom art director, and the Production Designer of the two TV movies Caravan of Courage : An Ewoks Adventure and The Battle of Endor. Lucas will also ask him to write an episode of Droids The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO, entitled "Coby and the Starhunters", a cartoon for which he will also sign the art direction. He then directed the aerial sequences of Howard the Duck, and supervised the Captain EO music video as well as the aerial sequences of Steven Spielberg's Always. 

 

After serving as second unit director on *batteries not included and Associate Producer on his Heroic Fantasy film Willow, Johnston wants to take a year off to travel around the world. But Lucas knew Johnston wanted to be a director, so he invited him to go back to school and enroll at USC for a year.

 

In 1988, Jeffery Katzenberg, in charge of Disney's film division, and Thomas G. Smith, former head of ILM and producer of the new film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, call him to the rescue and he replaces the director of the film at the last minute. His first film was a great success and confirmed his taste for fantasy and adventure as well as for the most daring technical feats.

 

Two years later, Joe Johnston directed the action film Rocketeer, and in 1993, he reunited again with George Lucas, when the latter asked him to direct the "Princeton" episode of his TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. and then went on to direct the "Live Action" sequences of the film The Pagemaster. 

 

But it is in 1995 that the public will plebiscite Joe Johnston for his Jumanji starring Robin Williams and whose ILM's digital visual effects are revolutionary for the time.

 

In 1999, he directed his most personal film, the drama October Skyand designed the robot for Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. But it is Steven Spielberg who will call on him again for his knowledge in terms of visual effects and will entrust him with the direction of the third opus of his franchise: Jurassic Park III. 

 

In 2004, he tried his hand at the epic western by directing Hidalgo, which allowed him to direct the legendary actor Omar Sharif. Recognized in the business as a good director for hire, he is again called to the rescue on the film The Wolfman, which revisits the great classic of Universal Studios. 

 

Kevin Feige, Marvel Studio's President and a bigStar Wars and Indiana Jones fan, hired Joe Johnston to direct Captain America: First Avenger, a film full of visual effects taking place during the Second World War. In 2017, Disney Studios called on him again to take over the reins of director Lasse Hallström's Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and handle the visual effects-heavy sequences.