Leutwyler studied film at The
San Francisco Art Institute. His first feature film was the
dark comedy/road picture
Road Kill starring
Jennifer Rubin,
Erik Palladino,
Brian Vander Ark,
Anthony Denison,
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and
Jon Polito. Made on a budget of $180,000, the film premiered at the 1999
Santa Barbara International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Leutwyler wrote and directed the comedy/horror/musical
Dead & Breakfast (
South by Southwest Film Festival 2004), starring
Jeremy Sisto,
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and
David Carradine. The film went on to win over a dozen audience and best feature film awards around the world and was nominated for a
Saturn Award. Since then he has produced or exec produced
The Oh in Ohio starring
Parker Posey and
Paul Rudd;
Lower Learning with
Eva Longoria,
Jason Biggs, and
Rob Corddry;
Against the Current with
Joseph Fiennes,
Mary Tyler Moore and
Justin Kirk (
Sundance Film Festival 2009); the
Matthew Broderick and
Sanaa Lathan drama
Wonderful World (Tribeca 2010); and
Every Day, starring
Helen Hunt and
Liev Schreiber (
Tribeca Film Festival 2011). May 6, 2011 Deadline Hollywood announced that he will be producing the
Catherine Hardwicke (
Twilight)-directed drama
The Bitch Posse. He will be producing alongside his Ambush Entertainment partner Miranda Bailey and Title IX partners
Virginia Madsen and Karly Meola. Leutwyler directed the adaptation of the novel
The River Why (
Mill Valley Film Festival 2010) starring
William Hurt,
Zach Gilford, and
Amber Heard. He also exec produced
James Gunn's
Super (
Toronto International Film Festival 2012) starring
Rainn Wilson and
Elliot Page; the 3D horror comedy
Hellbenders and the comedy-drama
The Girl Most Likely, starring
Kristen Wiig and
Annette Bening (
Toronto International Film Festival 2011). He wrote and directed the ensemble drama
Answers to Nothing starring
Dane Cook,
Barbara Hershey, and
Julie Benz. He produced the award-winning food documentary
Spinning Plates (2014). Leutwyler co-founded the theatrical distributor
The Film Arcade in 2012. For two years, he worked on the marketing of
Jill Soloway's Sundance winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee
Afternoon Delight starring
Kathryn Hahn and
Jane Lynch, as well as other Sundance entries
The Other Dream Team, and
A.C.O.D. with
Amy Poehler,
Adam Scott, and
Jessica Alba. He left the company in 2014. On January 31, 2015, Leutwyler premiered
Uncanny at the
Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Uncanny is a science fiction film about the world's first "perfect" Artificial Intelligence who begins to exhibit startling and unnerving emergent behavior when a reporter begins a relationship with the scientist who created it. ==Filmography==