Tim McCanlies

Tim McCanlies (born 1953) is a film director and screenwriter. He has attracted attention for his work writing and directing Secondhand Lions, and wrote the screenplays for The Iron Giant and Dennis the Menace Strikes Again.

Tim McCanlies is a fifth-generation Texan, but rarely called one place home for long. McCanlies’ father was in the Air Force and the family traveled extensively. In his early years he was interested in both acting and the technical processes that took place behind the scenes, along with the process of filming scenes. By second grade he was writing his own novels. While he was in high school he did not participate in the school’s theatre program, but instead went to the local movie theatre and learned how to run the projector.

McCanlies attended high school in Bryan, Texas and took some college-level courses at nearby Texas A&M University. In 1971, he moved to Austin and enrolled at the University of Texas majoring in Radio-Television-Film. After a couple of years, McCanlies transferred back to Texas A & M. In 1975, he moved to Dallas where he worked as a police officer and took graduate film classes at Southern Methodist University.

Once McCanlies started taking graduate classes at Southern Methodist, he learned proper screenplay techniques and made several short films that were well accepted in national film competitions. After the making of these films he was offered the opportunity to direct commercials near the Dallas area, but he decided against this and moved to Los Angeles to attempt movie screenplays in 1978. After moving to Los Angeles he planned on attending the American Film Institute. While he was in L.A. he found his first paying job for writing was a low budget film called Crazies. While these low budget screenplays did give him experience in the business, it did not pay a great deal he needed another income. He supported himself during this time by writing computer programs. With money being low during this time, McCanlies decided against enrolling in the Film Institute as he had planned.

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