Jonathan Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 15, 1976. He would remain in his home country, studying filmmaking at the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, until 1996; that year, he traveled to New York City to visit his cousin who was attending New York University. Soon after the visit, Jonathan enrolled at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. For his student first film, Jonathan turned Roald Dahl's short story Genesis and Catastrophe (2000) into a 8-minute, award-winning short that help him land Hollywood representation; accolades included the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival's Young Filmmaker Award and the Austin Film Festival's Student Short Film Award. Jonathan would make his feature-film debut in 2002 with Darkness Falls (2003), a dark twist on the Tooth Fairy tale that opened at #1 at the box office despite being critically panned. It also served as the big-screen debut for Emma Caulfield Ford, long a fan-favorite as Anya Jenkins on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Rings (2005), his short film that connected The Ring (2002) and its sequel, was first released as a bonus disc with the re-release of The Ring on DVD. The short caught the attention of Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, and soon Jonathan was installed as the director of the company's project The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), the widely successful remake of the original. Initially announced as the director of the Friday the 13th reboot, Jonathan's next feature would instead be The Killing Room (2009) with Peter Stormare, Chloë Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Timothy Hutton, Nick Cannon and Shea Whigham. The psychological thriller played the festival circuit before being released on DVD in the United States. A few months before The Killing Room's Sundance world premiere in January 2009, Jonathan was announced as the director of Battle Los Angeles (2011), an alien-invasion film starring Aaron Eckhart and released by Columbia Pictures. The sci-fi/action film was a worldwide hit and put Jonathan in the running for a handful of big-studio pictures. Before Battle LA's release, he had handed the job of directing Odysseus as Warner Bros., though that project remains in development at this time. Instead, Jonathan took the reins for Wrath of the Titans (2012), the sequel to successful but maligned Clash of the Titans (2010).
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Biography from TMDB.
- September 15, 1976 (50)
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Director, also producer and writer
- 10 on Motif · 12 credits in all
What are Jonathan Liebesman's films like?
Across their 9 Motif titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 8
Light 2 · Serious 0 · Dark 6
A split, not a type: Grounded 3 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 3
Gentle 1 · Charged 0 · Intense 7
Steady 0 · Shifting 5 · Whiplash 3
Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 2 · Funny 1
A split, not a type: Slow burn 0 · Even-paced 3 · Relentless 5
Casual 2 · Engaged 6 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 2 · Affecting 4 · Heavy 2
Resolved 7 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
- Happy2
- Bittersweet4
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Jonathan Liebesman's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 5 of their 10 Motif titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Jonathan Liebesman's titles on Motif; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Motif score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
12 credits, 10 with a Motif page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.
Halo(2022)
Motif score: 73rd percentile of all shows
Dolittle(2020)
Motif score: 29th percentile of all films
The Shannara Chronicles(2016)
Motif score: 54th percentile of all shows
Motif score: 32nd percentile of all films
Wrath of the Titans(2012)
Motif score: 29th percentile of all films
Battle Los Angeles(2011)
Motif score: 32nd percentile of all films
The Killing Room(2009)
Motif score: 29th percentile of all films
Motif score: 35th percentile of all films
Rings(2005)
Motif score: 57th percentile of all films
Darkness Falls(2003)
Motif score: 14th percentile of all filmsGenesis and Catastrophe (not in the Motif catalog yet)(2000)
Wolf Night (not in the Motif catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 11 titles, 10 of them dated from 2000 to 2022.
Biggest box office
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Highest rated
Rings (2005)
Most popular right now
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Motif score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on Motif, shown from 5 scored.
How do Jonathan Liebesman's films land?
Their typical Motif film has a Motif score in the 31st percentile, the median of all 8; across their 8 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 30th percentile for acclaim.
- 50th to 74th3
- 25th to 49th6
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
6 of their 10 titles are Mixed.
- Crowd Pleaser3
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed6
Reviewers score the atmosphere 54/100 and the pacing 46/100 in their films, across 8 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on Motif; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Motif score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their Motif titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Jonathan Liebesman's work okay for kids?
Across up to 7 Motif titles with content scores, violence & gore and frightening / intense run heavier than most films and sex & nudity lighter.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted. The band's colour is the severity of their median, named beside it.
Who does Jonathan Liebesman work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jonathan Liebesman's Motif titles, grouped by what they did on them; Brian Tyler shares the most, 4.
Actors
- Noel FisherShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Battle Los Angeles (2011)See all 2 shared titles with Noel Fisher
Composers, cinematographers and editors
- Brian TylerShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Battle Los Angeles (2011), The Killing Room (2009), Darkness Falls (2003)See all 4 shared titles with Brian Tyler
- Lukas EttlinShared titles: Battle Los Angeles (2011), The Killing Room (2009), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Rings (2005)See all 4 shared titles with Lukas Ettlin
- Joel NegronShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)See all 2 shared titles with Joel Negron
Producers
- Andrew FormShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)See all 2 shared titles with Andrew Form
- Brad FullerShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)See all 2 shared titles with Brad Fuller
- Michael BayShared titles: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)See all 2 shared titles with Michael Bay
