Writer/director James Cox has had an incredibly successful career as a filmmaker, making movies such as Wonderland, Straight A’s, and Billionaire Boys Club.
While fairy tales can come true, the film business can be a rollercoaster even for the most brilliant and talented artists. But Cox is also resilient and has learned how to hang on – sometimes for dear life - during the ups and downs. A visionary storyteller and master world-builder, Cox has just released his first novel, Grand Theft AI. Part The Matrix, part Blade Runner, part personal inventory of inner demons, the book takes the reader on a wild, futuristic ride that embraces our fears of the digital world while instilling hope in humanity.
I spoke to Cox over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, where we talked about his own wild ride to make it onto the Hollywood A-list.
While attending film school at NYU, Cox made a short film called Atomic Tabasco that effectively jump-started his career. “I had a very fortunate break. I was that kid you hear about every once in a while, coming out of film school with a red-hot short. And that just exploded. It won at Sundance and got a Student Academy Award. HBO bought it. When it hit L.A. and did the rounds that’s when things just blew up. My first three meetings were Ridley Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Mike De Luca,” he says.
So just a few Hollywood heavyweights.
“All three of them got into business with me. Jerry bought my first pitch on day one.
Ridley and Tony Scott signed me to RSA [Films]. Mike and Donna Langley at Newline hired me onto a Scott Rosenberg picture with a Scott Rosenberg script [Highway], with Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Selma Blair. I was off to the races,” he says.
Highway (2002)
Cox was just 23 years old. He couldn’t even graduate from school because he was working on a $14 million studio film. After directing Highway, he knew that if he wanted to make a truly outstanding, personal film, he’d need to write the script himself. That’s when the idea for Wonderland, a true-crime story about legendary porn actor John Holmes, began to percolate.
In the late 90s and early aughts, there was a small video store in Los Feliz where Cox says you could rent real police crime videos. “It was on Vermont, probably across from the Dresden Room and they just rented everything including an LAPD crime tape. I took the crime tape home and watched it. All the hairs went up on the back of my neck! I was like, ‘I have to do this!’, and I leaped in with with both feet. Then Val [Kilmer] came on board. It was incredible,” says Cox.
Cox says they shot at the real crime scene and experienced all sorts of strange phenomena. The clutch on his car went out on Cahuenga on John Holmes’s birthday, several members of the crew had the same disturbing dream on the same night and when tasked with solving the actual crime in the script – the crime had been left unsolved because everyone involved had died – Cox says he channeled the spirit of Holmes to help guide him.
Spooky stuff, but his story could perhaps be a cautionary tale about delving into the darker side of humanity.
“Looking back, I had no idea just how fortunate I was,” says Cox, adding, “Soon after that my demons kind of crept up and got the better of me. I had a hard time drawing the line between working hard and playing hard.”
Cox says he burned some bridges both personally and professionally and while he can blame ego and fear, he looks to one particular low point.
Straight A's (2013)
“When my dad passed, I just buckled. I probably should have been in therapy to get professional help grieving, but instead, I just said, ‘Screw it.’”
As things went downhill, he knew he needed to reconnect with his inner child – the kid who saw a brighter version of life.
“It was Thanksgiving, that Friday. I was in the lobby of the Hyatt on Union Square. It was like some wind that blew through me. All the hairs went up in the back of my neck. And everything changed. Maybe I was done running. But I got back to Los Angeles and I went to work facing up to who I'd become and finding the real me. I realized I wasn't that dark dude from the city. I was that kid making movies in his backyard with his camcorder at 10 years old. That passion was still there,” he says.
Cox is now on a bright new path with his wife and baby daughter. His creative passion now plays out in his new book (the first in a series), Grand Theft AI. He wasn’t necessarily planning on writing a novel but sometimes storytellers just need to listen to what’s in their heart and write it down.
“I didn't know what I was writing - it just kind of exploded. At first, it was little short stories and character bios set in this golden age of AI. I didn't know what it was or where it was going. I just knew what was true in my heart,” he says before describing the story like this.
“It’s a dystopian, technology-crazed future with bots and brain-computer interfaces, and a government that's everywhere beginning and ending with your head,” he says. What a wild ride! But don’t expect the tale to be all doom and gloom. Having a daughter makes him want to fight for a better world.
“Now, the characters I write, the worlds I build, the movies I work on, how I interact with people – it carries so much more responsibility. I mean, I'm shaping a life now! The world could be dark and treacherous, but the heroes, they’ve got to be heroic,” he says.
They certainly do.
Grand Theft AI is currently available in all formats.