Writer · DirectorDGA · WGA · USA · EU
Don Michael Paul.
Studio-scale action, delivered. Franchise pictures shot on five continents in fifteen languages, and never once over budget.
Jarhead: Law of Return
Writer / Director · 2019
Jarhead 2: Field of Fire
Writer / Director · 2014
Sniper: Legacy
Writer / Director · 2014
Kindergarten Cop 2
Director · 2016
Bulletproof 2
Writer / Director · 2020
Company of Heroes
Director · 2013
Half Past Dead
Writer / Director · 2002 · Screen Gems
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
Writer / Co-producer · 1991 · MGM
Who's Your Caddy?
Director / Co-writer · 2007 · Dimension
Finding Faith
Writer / Director, as Ellis Black · 2024
Never
over budget.
From tight independents to studio franchises, every picture delivered on schedule and on the money. Ten features in Bulgaria, Jarhead: Law of Return on the Tower of David in Jerusalem, crews on five continents, and a writer in the chair who fixes the page on the day.
Director's reel
Death Race: Beyond Anarchy
Jarhead 2: Field of Fire
Bulletproof 2
Company of Heroes
Finding Faith
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
Tremors: Shrieker Island
Sniper: Ghost Shooter
The Scorpion King: Book of Souls
Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell
Tremors 5: Bloodlines
Jarhead: Law of Return
Kindergarten Cop 2
Sniper: Legacy
Who's Your Caddy?
Half Past Dead
Press
What they said.
“He is a really good director and also a good writer.”Tom BerengerMovieWeb, on Sniper: Legacy
“Much closer to perfection than you might think.”Starburst MagazineTremors: Shrieker Island
“Looks like it has a bigger budget than it actually does.”The B-Movie ShelfThe Scorpion King: Book of Souls
About Don
Wrote it on a legal pad. Sold it to MGM.
Don Michael Paul makes movies that move, and he makes them anywhere.
His first script, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, brought Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson aboard and a four-picture deal from Alan Ladd, Jr. He adapted The Night of the Hunter for Ladd at MGM and Nathan’s Run for Joel Silver at Warner Bros., wrote one of the first Spider-Man screenplays, and penned pilots for every major network. Then he went on to direct franchise action for Universal and Sony: three Tremors films, Death Race, two Jarheads, two Snipers, The Scorpion King and Kindergarten Cop 2.
Today he develops and directs through Nuevo Laredo Productions in Austin, Texas, and teaches filmmaking and screenwriting as a professor of practice.
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man · MGM · 1991
Where it started.
A script written longhand on a legal pad, a deal at MGM, and a desert shoot starring Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson. These are Don’s own snapshots from the set, scanned from the original prints.
I wrote this on a legal pad in 1990 with no idea anyone would ever say these words out loud. Then Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson did.— DMP
From the vault · 1988
The Spider-Man nobody saw.
Years before Spider-Man ever swung onto a movie screen, Cannon Films hired Don to write it. This is the title page of his seventh draft of The Amazing Spider-Man, dated February 3, 1988, with the old date still crossed out by hand. The movie was announced in the trades, then never made.
His take was the wildest of the Cannon drafts: he cut Doctor Octopus and pitted Spider-Man against the Night Ghoul, a human-vampire-bat hybrid. The story is a cult favorite with fans of unmade movies. Hear Don tell it on Best Movies Never Made.
February 1988. Cannon wanted a Spider-Man movie, and I gave them the Night Ghoul. The world wasn’t ready.— DMP
Coming soon · The memoir
Dead and Cool.
“It’s better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool.”
Don wrote that line for Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. Now it’s the title of his memoir: Dead and Cool: Villains, Obsessions, and Starlets. It’s the raw story of a kid from Southern California who fell in love, fell for the movies, and fought his way to the director’s chair, with every failure, obsession and wrong turn left in.
Publishing and film rights
The manuscript is finished. For publishing, representation, or film and TV rights, talk to Don directly.
Behind the scenes
On set.
Shot on location in
- Bulgaria/
- South Africa/
- Thailand/
- Hungary/
- Canada/
- Turkey/
- Greece/
- Germany/
- Israel/
Got a picture
that needs a closer?
Management
Bryan Brucks, 831 Entertainment