Jim Lemley started his career in New York City working for popular record label Island Records. It was during his stint with Island that he became interested in film while working on U2's documentary Rattle and Hum. "I got to know the guys and be involved in the shooting, I realized that my interest in music was a portion of the movie-making process," he said of his inspirational experience. Not long after joining Island Records, Lemley moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, working in production and music videos before joining Mel Gibson's Icon Entertainment in 1992.
At Icon, he worked on various films including Maverick, Immortal Beloved, Anna Karenina, Payback, 187, and served as executive producer on the Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers. He also produced several television projects, including The Three Stooges for ABC and Invincible for TBS. In 2001 at the age of 36, Lemley was promoted to the position of CEO at Icon Entertainment International, based in London.
Independent Producing Career
After 11 years with Icon Productions, Lemley realized he wanted to work on projects on his own and left the company to start an independent producing career. "I’d met a lot of people, so I started working on projects that were close to me," he said of his decision to move on. For his first independent production, in 2002, Jim teamed up with Ridley and Tony Scott to executive produce the medieval romance Tristan & Isolde, which starred James Franco and was directed by Kevin Reynolds. It was released in 2006 to mediocre reviews and had lackluster box office performance. In 2004, he partnered with successful horror producer Bonnie Curtis to executive produce the Wes Craven thriller Red Eye which was released in 2005 and starred Rachael McAdams and Cillian Murphy best known for playing the villain Scarecrow in Batman Begins. The film was a modest success and would only be a precursor to the smash hit Wanted.
Success with 'Wanted' to Present
In 2005, Lemley partnered with acclaimed Russian director Timur Bekmambetov to produce the hit action thrillerWanted. The film was released in 2008 to solid reviews and would go on to gross $341 million worldwide. Angelina Jolie declined to return for a sequel, which has been in development since 2008. On the subject of Wanted 2 Jim gave an interview with MTV in 2011, exclaiming he would like to see the film move forward with or without Angelina's participation. Most recently in November 2014, co-producer Marc E. Platt told Comingsoon.net that a script is coming along well, but gave no indications as to when production might move forward. Apart from producing Blockbusters, Lemley also executive produced the critically acclaimed French language drama The Diving Bell and the Butterfly based on the life of Elle Magazine editorJean-Dominique Bauby. The film was praised worldwide and maintains a solid 94% Fresh rating out of 142 possible reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Director for Julian Schnabel. Following the success of Wanted, Jim would again work with director Timur Bekmambetov on the post-apocalyptic animated feature 9, directed by Shane Acker. The film was co-produced with Bekmambetov and Tim Burton and garnered the producing team a nomination for 'Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures' for the 2010 Producers Guild Awards. Lemley again re-teamed with Timur Bekmambetov and Tim Burton to produce , released by Twentieth Century Fox on June 22, 2012 and based on the best-seller of the same name. While the film underperformed domestically, the film was a huge hit in countries like Bekmambetov's Russia and went on to be profitable overall. Lemley also has multiple projects in development including Wanted 2, Moby Dick, and a science fiction project called Forever to be directed by Gareth Edwards of Godzilla fame.
