U-571

A director and screenwriter who quickly established himself as a purveyor of action-oriented films that have a deeper psychological investigative base, Jonathan Mostow made his feature debut with 1997’s “Breakdown”. This taut thriller, with Kurt Russell as a man whose wife seems to have vanished in the desert, proved to be a surprise box-office hit. Mostow went on to co-found a production company with former executive Hal Lieberman and signed a four-year deal with Universal.

A graduate of Harvard, Mostow also trained at the American Repertory Company and NYC’s Lee Strasberg Institute. He helmed several short films and documentaries as well as music videos before making his first feature, the direct-to-video release “Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers” (1989) which owed a passing debt to “Re-Animator” (1985) as both dealt with attempts to bring people back from the dead. Mostow landed the Showtime film “Flight of the Black Angel” (1991), about a colonel who trains fighter pilots and his troubled protege who wants to attack the local population. Subsequently, he spent several years developing “Breakdown” and “The Game” (1997), penning an early draft of the latter with the hope of directing. Instead David Fincher landed the assignment behind the camera and Mostow was relegated to an executive producer credit. Mostow and Michael Douglas (who starred in “The Game”) were to collaborate on a WWII-era submarine film “U-571” (2000) but Douglas pulled out due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, the director assembled a cast of established players (Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey) and rising talent (Jack Noseworthy, Matthew Settle, Thomas Guiry) and helmed a taut thriller about an attempt by the USA to intercept a German U-boat carrying a coding device. Based on fact (although it really involved British forces, not Americans), “U-571” was a throwback to the enjoyable popcorn movies popular during the 1940s and 50s. Mostow once again demonstrated a talent for building and maintaining suspense and taking the audience on a rollercoaster ride. —TCM