Phil Joanou / Biography

As "Final Analysis" and "Heaven's Prisoners" proved to be critical and financial disappointments, Spielberg and Bono of U2 (separately) encouraged Joanou to "write something personal" and "from the heart", resulting in the extensively autobiographical "Entropy". Virtually every detail is based on the director's real life: just as portrayed in the film, the director had a lengthy relationship with a fashion model and a short-lived marriage to a girl he'd met backstage at a U2 concert; he filmed U2 in concert and on tour for "Rattle and Hum" and the group returned the favor during one Zooropa tour show by projecting footage of Joanou's Vegas wedding to the record company A&R executive he'd just met and married on the rebound; he once punched a studio executive on set; he has a cat named Puddy Tat, an editing room in his basement, and a brother-in-law who happens to be a screenwriter.
First film credit while still a high school student as 'special visual consultant' on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) under supervision of Star Wars effects innovator John Dykstra.
Joanou directed Lithgow again in the 1996-97 second season finale of his hit television comedy series, "3rd Rock from the Sun" (1996), broadcast during the May ratings 'sweeps' period. Almost a quarter of the special hour-long episode, 'A Nightmare on Dick Street', required special glasses for viewing 3-D dream sequences which no doubt accounted for a significant amount of the reported $1.3 million budget.
Attended the University of Southern California Film School in the 1980s and went on to direct music videos for U2 and Tom Petty in between films.
Last name is pronounced "Joe-Wan-No".