Justified: City Primeval

Award-winning director/writer/producer Michael Dinner grew up in Denver where he dreamed of becoming a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Keith Richards or John Ford.After graduating high school with a crummy curve ball, Dinner spent a year attending college and playing music in clubs on the East Coast. He moved to Los Angeles to work as a songwriter for MCA, eventually becoming a solo artist for Fantasy Records and recording his first two albums, The Great Pretender and Tom Thumb the Dreamer, collaborating with Glenn Frey, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. Later, he returned to Harvard, graduating Cum Laude in Irish Studies before attending the American Film Institute.At AFI, Dinner began work as director/writer on his first film, Miss Lonelyhearts starring Eric Roberts. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was honored with the Prix de la Jeunesse, a special jury directing award and went on to win the Silver Lion at the Locarno Film Festival. Miss Lonelyhearts aired as part of the American Playhouse series on PBS. Simultaneously, Dinner began developing the script for Catholic Boys, which became his American studio directorial debut and was selected as the opening film for the Deauville Film Festival.Since then, he has directed and produced both films and television. On the small screen, he served as executive producer/showrunner/director for multiple series including The Wonder Years, Chicago Hope, Early Edition, Karen Sisco, Kidnapped, Mr. Sterling, FX’s Justified, Masters of Sex, Sneaky Pete and FX’s Mayans M.C. He also directed critically acclaimed pilots including Tribeca, The Street, Fantasy Island, Bionic Woman, Sons of Anarchy and Justified. In addition, he served as creator/showrunner/writer/director of Amazon’s and Channel 4’s Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, an anthology series based on the short stories of Philip K. Dick. He was a contributing director on Netflix’s award winning Unbelievable and the Apple TV+ re-boot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.FX’s Justifed: City Primeval is a work of love.&nbsp; Dinner was approached by the Elmore Leonard estate to adapt City Primeval, one of the crown jewels of Leonard’s work and the obsession of filmmakers from Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino. As Dinner started to develop City Primeval, FX expressed interest in creating a mashup of City Primeval and Justified and catapulting “Raylan Givens” onto the streets of Detroit. Dinner directed Justified: City Primeval and was the creator/co-writer/showrunner with his Justified collaborator Dave Andron.Dinner is also executive producing and directing Silo starring Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins and Steve Zahn for Apple TV+.Dinner resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife Ann, their sons Nicholas and Matthew and their genius dog Bonnie Labowowski.

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Award-winning director/writer/producer Michael Dinner grew up in Denver. He has directed and produced both films and television.

Michael Dinner headshot wearing a shirt and suit jacket with clear glasses.

Michael Dinner | Executive Producer, Showrunner, Writer, Director | Justified: City Primeval on FX

Justified: City Primeval

Michael Dinner

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