Jamie Blanks, the Australian filmmaker and composer, died unexpectedly Monday, according to his family. He was 54.
Blanks’ family confirmed on X that the filmmaker “passed away suddenly at his home in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday 16 March,” describing his passing as “unexpected, despite some ill health in recent years.”
Blanks was best known for his work in the genre space, both as a filmmaker and composer.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Blanks attended Swinburne Film School. After directing a string of shorts, his big break came in his mid-20s on 1998 cult horror film Urban Legend for TriStar Pictures. The U.S. movie starred Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson and Alicia Witt and made $72M WW.
According to interviews, Blanks has said that the path to directing Urban Legend began with him receiving screenplays for both Scream (after a manager saw his student film) and
...Keep reading this article on DEADLINE.
