Jon Watts

Initially, Jon Watts planned to become a chemical engineer. But after falling in love with the work of directors such as Steven Spielberg, the Coen brothers and Terrence Malick, he decided to study film at New York University.

After graduating, Watts directed music videos and commercials and was making satirical short films for IFC’s “Onion News Network.” In 2010, Watts and Christopher D. Ford, who he met at NYU, uploaded a fake trailer for a non-existent horror film called, Clown. They credited Eli Roth as director. Then they got a call from Eli Roth, who instead of suing them, asked them to actually make the film.  

After Clown, Watts directed, Cop Car, the low budget film staring Kevin Bacon. It was a winner of The National Board of Review Top 10 Independent Films of 2015. It also caught the attention of executives at Marvel and Sony.

Watts went from directing these two low budget films to leaping into directing the coveted “Spider-Man” reboot. He is now best known for for directing and co-writing Spider-Man: Homecoming and its sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home.