Michael Dougherty

Michael Patrick Dougherty (born October 28, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and animator, best known for the cult horror film ''Trick 'r Treat'' (2007), and the monster film '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (2019).

Early life

Dougherty was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He attended the Tisch School of Arts at New York University in the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, which is where he produced his 1996 short film ''Season's Greetings''.
He is of Vietnamese descent on his mother's side.

Career

Dougherty made his directorial and writing debut with the animated short film ''Season's Greetings'', which was released in 1996.

Dougherty went on to co-write several screenplays, including the superhero sequel '' X2'', which was released in 2003. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2005 supernatural horror film '' Urban Legends: Bloody Mary'', and ''Superman Returns'', which was released in 2006.

Dougherty made his feature directorial debut with the cult horror anthology film ''Trick 'r Treat''. It played at several film festivals, before being released on DVD on October 6, 2009 in the US and Canada. It received acclaim and went on to gain a cult following in subsequent years. The short film ''Season's Greetings'', which was the precursor to ''Trick 'r Treat'', was released as a DVD extra and was aired on FEARnet in October 2013 as part of a 24-hour ''Trick 'r Treat'' marathon on Halloween.

In December 2014, he began work on the Christmas horror film ''Krampus'', which was released to moderate critical and commercial success in December 2015. He also co-wrote the story for the film '' X-Men: Apocalypse'' (2016). Dougherty directed the science fiction sequel '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', for which he wrote the script with Zach Shields, from a story by himself, Shields, and Max Borenstein. The film was released in 2019, to mixed reviews and grossed $386 million worldwide.

In April 2020, HBO was announced to be developing a ''Hellraiser'' television series that would serve as "an elevated continuation and expansion" of its mythology, with Mark Verheiden and Dougherty writing and David Gordon Green directing several episodes. The three will executive produce with Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Brandon James and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment.

Dougherty also co-wrote the story for ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' with Zach Shields and Terry Rossio. The film was released in May 2021 to generally positive reviews and grossed over $468 million worldwide.

Filmography

Story credits

Comic books

Bryan Singer, Dougherty and Dan Harris provided the plots to four comic book prequels to ''Superman Returns''. The four forty-page comic book prequels were published by DC Comics throughout the month of June 2006 and bridged the gap between the second Superman film and ''Superman Returns''.

In 2015, with Todd Casey, Zach Shields and Marc Andeyko, Dougherty co-wrote and created a comic book tie in to ''Trick 'r Treat'', titled ''Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead''. It featured four new short stories, spanning centuries. They depict a variety of characters and cultures, going back to the holiday's roots in ancient Ireland. Later that year, with Casey, Zach and Laura Shields, Dougherty published a tie-in to ''Krampus'', titled ''Krampus: Shadows of Saint Nicholas''. It features three stories which expand the mythology of the Krampus.

Accolades

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dougherty, Michael
1974 births
Living people
Horror film directors
American male screenwriters
Film directors from Ohio
Writers from Columbus, Ohio
American comics writers
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Screenwriters from Ohio
Weird fiction writers