Early career Abrams's first job in the movie business was at age 16 when he wrote the music for
Don Dohler's 1982 horror movie
Nightbeast. During his senior year at college, he teamed with Jill Mazursky, the daughter of award-winning writer/director
Paul Mazursky, to write a feature
film treatment. Purchased by
Touchstone Pictures, the treatment was the basis for
Taking Care of Business, Abrams's first produced film, which starred
Charles Grodin and
James Belushi and was directed by
Academy Award winner
Arthur Hiller. He followed with
Regarding Henry, starring
Harrison Ford, and
Forever Young, starring
Mel Gibson. He also co-wrote with Mazursky the script for the comedy ''
Gone Fishin''' starring
Joe Pesci and
Danny Glover. In 1994, he was part of the "Propellerheads" with
Rob Letterman, Loren Soman, and Andy Waisler. The Propellerheads were a group of Sarah Lawrence alums experimenting with
computer animation technology. They were contracted by
Jeffrey Katzenberg to develop animation for the film
Shrek. Abrams worked on the screenplay for the 1998 film
Armageddon with producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and director
Michael Bay. That same year, he made his first foray into television with
Felicity, which ran for four seasons on
The WB Network, serving as the series' co-creator (with
Matt Reeves) and executive producer. He also composed its opening
theme music.
2000s in Manhattan Under his production company,
Bad Robot, which he founded in 2001, Abrams created and executive-produced
ABC's
Alias and is co-creator (along with
Damon Lindelof and
Jeffrey Lieber) and was executive producer of
Lost. As with
Felicity, Abrams also composed the opening
theme music for
Alias and
Lost. Abrams directed and wrote the two-part pilot for
Lost and remained active producer for the first half of the season. Also in 2001, Abrams co-wrote and produced the horror-thriller
Joy Ride. In 2006, he served as executive producer of
What About Brian and
Six Degrees, also on ABC. He also co-wrote the teleplay for
Losts third-season premiere "
A Tale of Two Cities" and the same year, he made his feature directorial debut with
Mission: Impossible III, starring
Tom Cruise. Abrams spoke at the
TED conference in 2007. In 2008, Abrams produced the
monster movie Cloverfield, which Matt Reeves directed. In 2009, he directed the
science fiction film Star Trek, which he produced with
Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. While it was speculated that they would be writing and producing an adaptation of
Stephen King's
The Dark Tower series of novels, they publicly stated in November 2009 that they were no longer looking to take on that project. In 2008, Abrams co-created, executive produced, and co-wrote (along with
Roberto Orci and
Alex Kurtzman) the
FOX science fiction series
Fringe, for which he also composed the theme music. He was featured in the
2009 MTV Movie Awards 1980s-style digital short "
Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions", with
Andy Samberg and
Will Ferrell, in which he plays a keyboard solo.
NBC picked up Abrams's
Undercovers as its first new drama series for the 2010–11 season.
2010s in mid-2010 Abrams wrote and directed the
Paramount science fiction thriller
Super 8, starring
Joel Courtney and
Elle Fanning, while co-producing with
Steven Spielberg and Bryan Burk; it was released on June 10, 2011. Abrams directed the sequel to
Star Trek,
Star Trek Into Darkness, released in May 2013. The film was interpreted as a loose
remake of
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Critics generally reacted positively to the film, while
Nicholas Meyer, the director of
The Wrath of Khan, called it a "gimmick". Abrams was criticized for the film's treatment of classic villain
Khan Noonien Singh (
Benedict Cumberbatch). Many felt that much of the character, originally played by
Mexican actor
Ricardo Montalbán, had been lost, especially his ethnic identity. Two years after the film's release, Abrams said of the film, "there were certain things I was unsure of. ... Any movie ... has a fundamental conversation happening during it. And [for
Into Darkness,] I didn't have it... [The weakness of the plot] was not anyone's fault but mine. ... [The script] was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends ... And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible. ... I would never say that I don't think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn't work as well as it could have, had I made some better decisions before we started shooting." On January 25, 2013,
Disney and
Lucasfilm introduced Abrams as director and producer of
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh entry in the
Star Wars film saga, with Bryan Burk and Bad Robot producing the film. Following this news, speculation arose as to Abrams's future with Paramount Pictures, under which he had released all of his previous feature work as a director, and which had a first-look deal with his company, Bad Robot. Paramount vice-chairman Rob Moore stated that Abrams would continue to have a hand in the
Star Trek and
Mission: Impossible franchises going forward. On October 29, 2013,
S., a novel written by
Doug Dorst based on a concept by Abrams, was released. Abrams directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay for
The Force Awakens, which opened in theaters on December 18, 2015. Despite its strong box office performance and positive reviews, the film was considered by some, including
Star Wars creator
George Lucas, to be too similar to
the original 1977 film. In 2016, Abrams responded towards these complaints, stating: "What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards". Abrams returned as producer for
Star Trek Beyond, released in 2016. In 2016, he also produced
The Cloverfield Paradox, a sequel to
10 Cloverfield Lane, which was released on
Netflix in February 2018. Also in 2018, Abrams produced
Overlord, a horror film set behind German enemy lines in
World War II and directed by
Julius Avery. Abrams also produced the fourth, fifth, and sixth
Mission: Impossible films. In September 2017, Abrams returned to direct and co-write
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with
Chris Terrio. The film was released in December 2019 and received mixed reviews from critics and fans, while audience reactions were also mixed. In September 2019, Abrams and his Bad Robot company signed a $250 million five-year deal with
WarnerMedia, including
HBO and
Warner Bros. Pictures. In 2019, Abrams made his debut as a writer for
Marvel Comics, co-authoring the company's title
Spider-Man from September of that year with his son Henry. The first issue of the comic includes the death of
Mary Jane Watson, and a twelve-year time shift, with the series' protagonist being Ben Parker, son of Peter Parker and Mary Jane.
2020s In April 2020, it was announced that Abrams would be developing three new shows for
HBO Max:
Duster,
Overlook, and
Justice League Dark. By July 2025,
Duster had been canceled after one season. Abrams was one of the producers of an animated short film of
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, shown on
BBC One and
BBC iPlayer at Christmas 2022. Abrams served as executive producer and co-creator of a new
Batman animated series titled
Batman: Caped Crusader alongside
Matt Reeves and
Bruce Timm. The production team created eleven episodes which premiered August 1, 2024. On May 8, 2024, it was announced that Abrams would write and direct an untitled new film, with
Glen Powell in early talks to star in the project with Bad Robot signing on as the production company. The film, eventually titled
The Great Beyond, is set to be released in theatres on November 13, 2026, by Warner Bros. Bad Robot's five-year deal with Warner Bros. was also extended in August 2024, although it was expected to be less expensive than the previous agreement with future projects having significant budget cuts. Future projects include
The End of Oak Street, a
Hot Wheels film adaptation, and an animated film based on
Dr. Seuss' ''
Oh, the Places You'll Go!''.
Unrealized projects J. J. Abrams has developed many film and television projects over his career that never made it past the development or pre-production stages.
Bad Robot In 2001, Abrams founded his own production company,
Bad Robot, in association with
Paramount Pictures and
Warner Bros. Pictures. Initially a television production company under
Touchstone Television, Bad Robot would branch out into film production, with the first movie to be produced under the Bad Robot name being
Joy Ride (2001). Bad Robot is well known for
Lost, the
Star Trek Kelvin timeline films, three
Mission: Impossible films, the
Cloverfield franchise, and the
Star Wars sequel trilogy. ==Personal life==