Ruben Samuel Fleischer (; born October 31, 1974) is an American film director, film producer, television producer, music video director, and commercial director. He is best known as the director of ''

Zombieland ''Zombieland'' is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer in his directorial debut and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. It stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, ...

'' (2009), his first feature film, and its sequel '' Zombieland: Double Tap'' (2019). He has also directed the films ''

30 Minutes or Less ''30 Minutes or Less'' (stylized onscreen as ''30:Minutes or Less'') is a 2011 American action comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Michael Peña, and Fred Ward. Th ...

'', '' Gangster Squad'', ''

Uncharted ''Uncharted'' is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the ''Uncharted'' franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who trav ...

'', and 2018's ''

Venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

'' featuring the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

character of the same name. Prior to features, he directed television commercials for such brands as

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, and

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

, and music videos for artists such as M.I.A.,

Electric Six Electric Six is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Detroit in 1996. They are known for combining elements of Rock music, rock, disco, garage rock, Heavy metal music, metal, New wave music, new wave, and punk rock. Since achieving wide ...

DJ Format Matt Ford, better known as DJ Format (a near-inversion of his birth name), is a hip hop DJ born in Southampton, England who lives in Brighton. He collaborates frequently with Abdominal on the album '' Music For the Mature B-Boy'' and with Abdo ...

and

Gold Chains Gold Chains is an electro rap musician (born Christopher LaFata) from San Francisco, California. Gold Chains has performed along with Sue Cie (real name Sue Costabile), a video artist also from the San Francisco area. Early life LaFata grew u ...

Early life

Fleischer was born and raised in Washington, D.C, the son of Karen Lee (née Samuel) and David Elliot Fleischer, who is a physician at the

Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

in Arizona and a professor of medicine. His brother, Lucas, works in new media. His father was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family, while his mother

converted to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( or ) is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. "Thus, by convertin ...

. Fleischer was raised in

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish religious movements, Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its Jewish ethics, ethical aspects to its ceremo ...

. After graduating with a major in history from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

, Fleischer moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, where he worked as a freelance HTML programmer, unsure what he wanted to do with his life.

Career

Taking the advice of close friend Mike White (also a Wesleyan graduate), Fleischer worked as a PA in the writers' office of ''

Dawson's Creek ''Dawson's Creek'' is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college. It aired from January 20, 19 ...

''. He eventually turned to directing and worked his way through the industry, tackling music videos, and television commercials before landing his first feature film, ''

'', in 2009. His second feature, ''

'', opened in theaters on August 12, 2011. Fleischer directed '' Gangster Squad'', a 2013 action thriller film, based on the special tactical group created by the

LAPD The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

to combat the

Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the Dragna crime family, the Southern California crime family or the L.A. Mafia, and dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Mafia" by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, is an Italian American Mafia crime fa ...

. He next directed ''

'', a film about

character

Eddie Brock Edward Charles Allan "Eddie" Brock is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, making a cameo appearance in ''Web of Spider-Man'' #18 (September 1 ...

, starring Tom Hardy; it was released on October 5, 2018. In 2019, he directed '' Zombieland: Double Tap'', reuniting the four original leads. In February 2020, he was hired to direct ''

'', based on the video game series of the same name. In September 2022, he was hired to direct '' Now You See Me: Now You Don't''.

Filmography

Short film

Feature film

;Producer * '' Two Night Stand'' (2014) * '' Unicorn Store'' (2017) * ''

Bad Trip A bad trip (also known as challenging experiences, acute intoxication from hallucinogens, psychedelic crisis, or emergence phenomenon) is an acute adverse psychological reaction to the effects of Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substances, namely ...

'' (2021)

Television

Music videos

Commercials

Collaborations

Like many directors, Fleischer has worked with certain actors on two or more of his films:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleischer, Ruben 1974 births American music video directors American Reform Jews American comedy film directors Film directors from San Francisco Film directors from Washington, D.C. American horror film directors Living people Wesleyan University alumni Writers from San Francisco Writers from Washington, D.C. American people of Jewish descent