Breck Eisner Biography

BRECK EISNER

Date of Birth: December 24, 1970

Born in California, Breck Eisner is the son of Michael Eisner, former Chief Executive Officer of the Disney Company. Not wanting to trade on the family name, when Breck attended the University of Southern California's film school, he directed his MFA thesis film, Recon (1996), under the name Breck Jones. The eight-minute tech-noir-thriller featured 30 CGI shots, including a 3-D CG helicopter and an animated memory wash, which created a line drawing of the actual footage produced by a program he wrote.

He began directing commercials almost by accident. Eisner had used some of Digital Domain's processors to render images for his film and they suggested he meet with some commercial production houses. After only a year-and-a-half, Eisner had directed 14 high-profile spots. His very first commercial was Budweiser's Powersurge, which aired during the 1997 Super Bowl. He also took the helm for Rold Gold Pretzels' Comrades starring Jason Alexander, which featured Pretzel Boy on a rescue mission to Mir Space station. Eisner's two anti-smoking spots for the California Department of Health Services, Gala Event and Funeral, were selected as Best Spots in back-to-back issues of Adweek. In addition, Eisner's Mad Dog for Coors's Zima aired during the Seinfeld finale and was chosen by USA Today's "Ad Meter" as the #1 spot. He has also done commercials for Sony, Sega and Coca-Cola.

Eisner's success in the commercial world opened the door for him to direct the TV movie The Invisible Man (2000) for The Sci-Fi Channel. That led to an episode of DreamWorks Television's hit mini-series Taken (2002), executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Dakota Fanning.

His film debut was the crime drama Thoughtcrimes (2003), which unfortunately went straight to DVD/Video. Eisner had better luck with the big budget feature Sahara (2005), starring Matthew McConaughey, Penélope Cruz and William H. Macy.

Filmography:

Flash Gordon (2012)
The Crazies (2010)
Sahara (2005)