Jonathan Liebesman (born 15 September 1976) is a South African film director and writer. Liebesman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He studied filmmaking at the AFDA, The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance and at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is Jewish. His cousin is director Dean Israelite. At Tisch, he co-wrote and directed an 8-minute short film, Genesis and Catastrophe, adapted from a Roald Dahl short story. The film was screened at numerous festivals around the world, and in 2000 won an award in the category of 'best short' at the Austin Film Festival. This earned Liebesman the "Hollywood Young Filmmaker Award" at the Hollywood Film Festival in 2000. In 2002, he directed his debut feature Darkness Falls at the age of 26. Although the film suffered from generally weak reviews, it opened at no. 1 at the US box office. The film grossed over $32.5 million at the US box office, and a further $15 million worldwide. The film was nominated for Best Horror/Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards in 2003, while the film's star, Emma Caulfield, won Face of the Future from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films that year. Liebesman's next project, Rings (2005) (which he co-wrote with Ehren Kruger), was a 17-minute short that chronologically follows the events of the full-length feature, The Ring, and serves as a prequel to The Ring Two (2005). It provided an insightful transition between the two films and garnered high praise from fans of both feature-length films.The film's success brought him to the attention of Michael Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, who hired him to direct The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning opened in US theaters on 6 October 2006, and proved another box office hit for Liebesman. The $16 million movie opened at No 2 at the US box office with $18.5 million. As of 31 December 2006, the film had grossed around $50 million worldwide, including over $39.5 million in the US. n July 2011, it was announced that Warner Bros. and Liebesman would be collaborating on an upcoming biopic about Julius Caesar. In February 2012, Liebesman was brought in to direct the reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, beating Brett Ratner among others. Filming began in March 2013 in Tupper Lake, New York. Production for the film wrapped on 3 August 2013, and the movie was released in August 2014. The movie was a box office success, but received negative reviews from critics and the TMNT fan base alike. The film was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards in 2015 including Worst Director, while the film's star, Megan Fox, won Worst Supporting Actress.

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