1970s After a stint as a film reviewer, Dante began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 when producer
Roger Corman offered him a job in the trailer-cutting department at
New World Pictures, where he edited the trailers for such films as
Cover Girl Models and
Amarcord. Other established directors such as
Francis Ford Coppola,
Martin Scorsese and
Peter Bogdanovich had already emerged from
Corman's de-facto film school.. Although producer Jon Davison reported the budget was approximately $50,000, it was the cheapest made by New World Pictures. The filmmakers achieved this by coming up with a story about a
B movie studio which could incorporate footage from other movies that Corman owned. The film won the attention of
Steven Spielberg who, unbeknownst to Dante, prevented
Universal from blocking the film's release, convincing them that
Piranha was a
parody and that it wasn't in competition with
Jaws 2.
1980s Dante again collaborated with
John Sayles when he enlisted him to rewrite the previously adapted draft of
Gary Brandner's werewolf tale
The Howling. Sayles rewrote the script with the same self-aware, satirical tone that he gave
Piranha, and his finished script bears only a slight resemblance to Brandner's novel. Dante said that at the time he made
The Howling,
werewolves were considered by many to be "corny and old hat". His approach was to disguise it as long as possible and make it look like a
slasher film — which was a lot more popular at the time — "and then bring in the supernatural elements slowly so that the audience could get acclimated and not immediately reject it as something old-fashioned." The film's special effects, which at the time were considered state-of-the-art, were completed by
Rob Bottin after
Rick Baker left to work on
An American Werewolf in London. Dante had been previously offered the chance to direct
Airplane! by
Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. Although he turned it down, Dante agreed to direct two episodes of their
police procedural spoof Police Squad!, which was his first experience shooting something on a studio lot. Due to their work on
The Howling, Dante and producer
Michael Finnell received the opportunity to make the film
Gremlins by
Steven Spielberg. Spielberg also brought Dante on as one of the directors on
John Landis'
Twilight Zone: The Movie. features
cartoon-style special effects, revolving around a woman played by
Kathleen Quinlan who is 'adopted' by an
omnipotent boy. Dante also took over editing duties on
George Miller's segment of the film, after he left the project feeling repulsed by the news of the fatal
helicopter accident.
Chris Columbus' original draft of
Gremlins went through several rewrites before a shooting script was finalized. According to Dante, it was a gruelling shoot ("The whole thing was so exhausting") and once the design of the gremlins were finalized, the studio's reaction was divisive. "I'd never seen a reaction like that," Dante said of the film's first preview. "They thought it was the greatest thing ever and
Warner Brothers was I think shocked, frankly, by how popular the picture became." After the success of
Gremlins, Dante took on the offer to direct
Explorers, about a group of friends who build a working spacecraft and encounter
extraterrestrial life. Dante liked the script, but felt the film needed a better
third act. After being denied extra time by
Paramount executives, Dante and the film's writer,
Eric Luke, then improvised the story whilst filming commenced. In the spring of 1985, Paramount changed the film's initial release date from late August to early July, telling Dante and the editors to stop editing and deliver a shorter rough cut. As a result, about an hour and a half worth of footage was left on the editing room floor.
Explorers marked the film debuts of both
Ethan Hawke and
River Phoenix, and has only grown in its reputation over time, developing a
cult following. Dante reflected on the film by saying that he is appreciative of the warm reception it has earned over the years, but continued by saying "the problem is for me is that the movie you'll see is not the movie I wanted to make. It's the movie I got to make up to a certain point and then had to stop. It's hard for me to look at it, cause it's not the film I quite had in mind." The missing and cut scenes are presumably lost, as Dante tried searching for them in recent years. In the mid-1980s, Dante was offered the script of
Innerspace written by Chip Proser, who called it "a rip off of
Fantastic Voyage". Dante initially turned the film down until the script was later rewritten as a comedy by
Jeffrey Boam. Dante said he had a "wonderful experience" making
Innerspace, mainly because of the cast which included actors
Dennis Quaid,
Martin Short, and
Meg Ryan among others. However, after one particular day of filming, Dante recalled that studio executives from Warner Brothers had invited him out to lunch and told him that what he was doing was not funny and described Short as being "not very attractive", wanting to recast the role. While this conversation left him with a lot of anxiety, Dante decided to "plow on" and just make the movie he always intended to make. Despite successful test screenings, the film ended up flopping at the box office in the summer of 1987. Dante said this was because the studio did not know how to promote it and that the original poster failed to include the movie's actors on it. In 1988, Dante agreed to direct the black comedy ''
The 'Burbs, intrigued by its premise and the blending of real-life situations with elements of the supernatural. Dante and producers Larry Brezner and Michael Finnell agreed that Tom Hanks would be the most suitable actor to portray the married Ray Peterson, a suburban homeowner who tries to introduce excitement into his life by investigating the activities of his mysterious neighbors. Dante referred to Hanks as "the reigning everyman, a guy that everybody can identify with", comparing him to James Stewart. Production on The 'Burbs'' was filmed in chronological order (due to the
1988 writer's strike 1990s Dante was asked many times to helm a sequel to
Gremlins, due to its financial success. Dante declined, because he saw that story as having a proper ending, and thus a sequel would only be meant to be profitable. The studio decided to proceed without him, approaching various directors and writers. Storylines considered included sending the gremlins to
Las Vegas or even into
outer space. After those ideas fell through, the studio returned to Dante, who agreed to make
the sequel after receiving the rare promise of having complete creative control over the movie as well as a budget tripling that of the original film. Since
Chris Columbus was not available to write the sequel's script at the time, Dante brought on screenwriter
Charles S. Haas to help plot the film. Dante later claimed it was the film into which he had put the most of his personal influence. He referred to it as "one of the more unconventional studio pictures ever," imagining it as a satire of
Gremlins and sequels in general, resulting in a film with several
meta-references and
self-referential humor. Both
Zach Galligan and
Phoebe Cates returned to star in the film. It also features several guest stars, including
Christopher Lee as a
mad scientist. The film was released to theaters in the Summer of 1990 but did not perform as well at the box office as the original. Charles S. Haas wrote two more films for Dante; one an unproduced script about
Chuck Jones' early years at
Termite Terrace and the other,
Matinee about the
Cuban Missile Crisis. In it,
John Goodman stars as
William Castle-type filmmaker Lawrence Woolsey, who specializes in horror and sci-fi
B movies. Originally written by Jerico Stone, Dante said his draft was "quite different than the film that eventually emerged." The film opened in early 1993 and received positive reviews, but failed to turn a profit. From 1993 to 1994, Dante was attached as the director of
The Phantom, developing a draft of the script together with
Jeffrey Boam, which was originally
tongue-in-cheek in tone. According to Dante, right when the film was to begin shooting,
Paramount pulled the plug on the film over its budget. Later, it was put back into production, with the script rewritten under a
new director who made it serious, despite the script's humorous tone. Dante also claimed there were 12 uncredited writers who did work on the film over the course of five years. The project was developed several other times before eventually being offered to Dante. He agreed to direct the film to pay tribute to his idol
Chuck Jones, and as somewhat of a placeholder for his unmade biographical comedy
Termite Terrace. He and screenwriter
Larry Doyle reportedly wanted the film to be the "anti-
Space Jam" as Dante disliked how that film represented the
Looney Tunes brand and personalities. While feeling that he and the film's animation director
Eric Goldberg had managed to preserve the original personalities of the characters, the film's opening, middle and ending are different from what Dante initially envisioned. Dante stated that he had no creative freedom on the project, calling the experience "the longest year and a half of my life." Following his experience working on
Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Dante took a brief hiatus from movies, instead returning to television, directing two episodes of the horror
anthology series Masters of Horror. In 2007, Dante launched the
web series Trailers from Hell, which provides commentary by directors, producers and screenwriters on trailers for classic and cult movies. Dante also actively contributes to the website. in 2009 Dante returned to feature films several years later in 2009 with the independent
3D horror comedy
The Hole, which received the Premio Persol award at the
Venice Film Festival. Dante cited
Dial M for Murder,
Kill, Baby, Kill,
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and
Killer Klowns from Outer Space as influences on the film. With
Roger Corman producing, Dante directed the
interactive web series Splatter for
Netflix. The series stars
Corey Feldman as a rock star seeking revenge on those he thinks have wronged him.
2010s From 2011 to 2017, Dante directed ten episodes of
Hawaii Five-0 reboot, which he joked was "to get the rent paid." Subsequently, Dante directed
Anton Yelchin and
Ashley Greene in
Burying the Ex, adapted from Alan Trezza's 2008 short film. Principal photography ran through November–December 2013. The film follows a horror film buff whose controlling girlfriend suddenly dies in a freak accident but when he tries to move on with his life along with his new partner, he discovers that his ex has come back from the dead in the form of a
zombie. It was selected to be screened out of competition at the
71st Venice International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in 2015. Dante served as
executive producer on the independent feature length
thriller Dark, starring
Whitney Able and
Alexandra Breckenridge, directed by
Nick Basile. The film, set in
New York City during the 2003 blackout, was released by
Screen Media Films on June 7, 2016. For years, Dante has tried to make a film about his mentor Corman and the making of his 1967 film
The Trip, but has struggled to gather funding for it. Titled
The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, the film went through several permutations over the years, including one starring
Colin Firth as Corman. The film spent several years stuck in the development stage at
SpectreVision. In October 2016, Dante directed a live
table-reading of the film's script at the
Vista Theatre in
Los Angeles, which starred
Bill Hader as Corman,
Jason Ritter as
Peter Fonda and
Ethan Embry as
Jack Nicholson. Subsequently, a 2017 shoot was planned. A cameo role featuring Corman was reportedly shot in case he died before production began. Despite this, plans for a film were effectively shelved following the passing of Corman. In 2022, the film's script was adapted and published in the form of a graphic novel. Dante directed a segment of the 2018 horror
anthology film Nightmare Cinema starring
Mickey Rourke, which also featured shorts directed by Alejandro Brugués,
Mick Garris,
Ryūhei Kitamura, and
David Slade. The same month of its release, Dante launched his own weekly podcast
The Movies That Made Me, with screenwriter
Josh Olson as his co-host, where filmmakers and entertainers are brought on to discuss the movies that inspired them.
2020s In 2020, Dante served as a consultant on the
HBO Max prequel series
Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. In 2024, it was announced that Dante would direct
Little Shop of Halloween Horrors, a reboot of
Roger Corman's
The Little Shop of Horrors, to be produced by Corman alongside
Brad Krevoy, CEO of the
Motion Picture Corporation of America, and written by
Charles S. Haas. The following year, Dante updated that, like many of his past projects, the film had too been shelved. ==Influences==