Simon Kinberg

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Main otherTemplate:Wikidata image Simon David Kinberg (born August 2, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He wrote and produced a number of films in the X-Men film franchise for 20th Century Fox, and had produced a number of other projects for Fox, such as The Martian, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Kinberg made his directorial debut in the 2019 X-Men film Dark Phoenix from a script he also wrote.

Early life

Kinberg was born in Hammersmith, London, England to American parents Monica Menell-Kinberg and Jud Kinberg, a New York City-born writer and producer. From age six, he was raised in Los Angeles, California. He is Jewish. Kinberg graduated from Brentwood High School, and then from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude; in 2003 he received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, where he won the Zaki Gordon Fellowship for Screenwriting.

Career

While still in film school, Kinberg sold a pitch to Warner Bros., then went on to write scripts for Disney, Sony, and DreamWorks, working with Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer, among others. After finishing school, Kinberg moved to Hollywood, where his first screenwriting credit was a sequel to the hit action film XXX (2002), XXX: State of the Union (2005). His next screenwriting venture was the screenplay for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, directed by Doug Liman and starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The script began as Kinberg's thesis project for film school. Kinberg also wrote the pilot episode for a television adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith for ABC. He also appears in the movie, in a scene with Brad Pitt.

Kinberg's next screenwriting job was the third movie in the 20th Century Fox X-Men film series: X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), which he co-wrote with Zak Penn. Comic-book writer Chris Claremont, who wrote the Dark Phoenix storyline that served as the primary source material for the film, also wrote the novelization of the film and made Kinberg a character in the book.

Kinberg reunited with director Doug Liman for the film Jumper (2008). Kinberg wrote and produced the film, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, Hayden Christensen, and Diane Lane. The following year, Kinberg was writer of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. In April 2010, his production company, Genre Films, signed a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox.

Kinberg was the producer of X-Men: First Class (2011), and both writer and producer of This Means War (2012). He was also co-screenwriter and an executive producer of the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in that same year. In 2013, Kinberg produced Elysium.

The following year, Kinberg was the writer and the producer of the film X-Men: Days of Future Past. That same year, he produced Let's Be Cops. In 2015, Kinberg produced the Neill Blomkamp film Chappie and the live-action version of Cinderella at Walt Disney Pictures. He also worked on Fantastic Four as writer and producer. His final film of the year was The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott.

He wrote and produced X-Men: Apocalypse, the next film in the X-Men franchise following X-Men: Days of Future Past. Kinberg produced 2016's Deadpool, 2017's Logan, 2018's Deadpool 2, 2019's Dark Phoenix (the latter of which also served as his directorial debut) and The New Mutants, all of which are X-Men spin-off films. He also produced Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.

The Hollywood Reporter initially reported that Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and Kinberg would write and produce Episodes VIII and IX of the new Star Wars films. A week later the publication stated that Kasdan and Kinberg would be working on future Star Wars projects, but not necessarily on Episodes VIII and IX.

In television, he is an executive producer on ABC's Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland, Legion created by Noah Hawley for FX, and The Gifted on Fox. He executive produced the third revival of the science fiction anthology series, The Twilight Zone which premiered in 2019 on CBS All Access (now Paramount+).

In July 2019, it was announced that Kinberg and his production company Genre Films was leaving Fox after 20 years.

On November 7, 2024, it was announced that Kinberg has been hired by Lucasfilm to write and co-produce a new trilogy of Star Wars films along with Kathleen Kennedy.

Personal life

Kinberg married Mali Heled in a Jewish ceremony on July 26, 2001. They have two sons. The couple separated in 2014, and subsequently divorced in 2017. By November 4, 2019, Kinberg became engaged to writer Cleo Wade. They have two daughters; born in 2020 and 2021.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Writer	Producer	Director	Notes
2005	XXX: State of the Union	Yes	No	Lee Tamahori
	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Yes	No	Doug Liman	Role: Investment Banker #1
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Yes	No	Brett Ratner
2008	Jumper	Yes	Yes	Doug Liman
2009	Sherlock Holmes	Yes	No	Guy Ritchie
2011	X-Men: First Class	No	Yes	Matthew Vaughn
2012	This Means War	Yes	Yes	McG
2013	Elysium	No	Yes	Neill Blomkamp
2014	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Yes	Yes	Bryan Singer
	Let's Be Cops	No	Yes	Luke Greenfield
2015	Fantastic Four	Yes	Yes	Josh Trank
	Cinderella	No	Yes	Kenneth Branagh
	Chappie	No	Yes	Neill Blomkamp
	The Martian	No	Yes	Ridley Scott
2016	Deadpool	No	Yes	Tim Miller
	X-Men: Apocalypse	Yes	Yes	Bryan Singer
2017	Logan	No	Yes	James Mangold
	Murder on the Orient Express	No	Yes	Kenneth Branagh
2018	Deadpool 2	No	Yes	David Leitch
2019	Dark Phoenix	Yes	Yes	Himself	Directorial debut
2020	The New Mutants	No	Yes	Josh Boone
2022	The 355	Yes	Yes	Himself
2023	A Haunting in Venice	No	Yes	Kenneth Branagh
2024	Lift	No	Yes	F. Gary Gray
2025	The Running Man	No	Yes	Edgar Wright

Executive producer

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
• Death on the Nile (2022)
• Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Creative consultant

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Thanks credit

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
• Rogue One (2016)

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive producer	Creator	Notes
2014–2018	Star Wars Rebels	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
2016–2019	Designated Survivor	No	No	Yes	No
2017–2019	The Gifted	No	No	Yes	No	Part of the X-Men film franchise
	Legion	No	No	Yes	No
2019–2020	The Twilight Zone	Yes	Yes	Yes	Developer	Directed "Blurryman" and wrote "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet"
2021	Invasion	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
2024	Sugar	No	No	Yes	No

Awards and nominations

Template:No footnotes He received a lifetime achievement award from the Saturn Awards in 2016.

He was named #61 on the list of 100 most powerful people in Hollywood by The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. The same year, The Hollywood Reporter named Kinberg as the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood with a record Template:USD for two X-Men scripts, and named him as one of the highest-paid producers in Hollywood with Template:USD for Deadpool in their annual Hollywood Salaries issue.

Year	Category	Award	Title	Result
2015	Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy	The Martian	Template:Won
	Academy Awards	Best Picture		Template:Nom
	Producers Guild of America Awards	Best Picture		Template:Nom
	National Board of Review	Best Film		Template:Nom
	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Film		Template:Nom
2016		Best Comedy	Deadpool	Template:Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy		Template:Nom
	Producers Guild of America Awards	Best Picture		Template:Nom
2019	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel	Dark Phoenix	Template:Nom

External links

• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata