Joe Lujan
Joe Lujan is an American film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is widely known for directing the sci-fi film The Immortal Wars (2017). Lujan has also directed Rust (2015) & Atelophobia (2015).
Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Lujan and his 3 siblings were raised by his parents Joe and Norma Lujan. Film was not Lujan's first career goal. His fascination with animals led him to pursue a career as a veterinarian, but with the inspiration of horror films such as Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Wrong Turn (2003), his interests began to shift. In 2002, his older sister took him and his younger brother out of school to watch a film they had all been waiting for. At the end of the film, as the roll credits began, Lujan made his decision "that's what I'm going to do". The title of the film was Resident Evil (2002). He then grew up performing in his own short films along with his siblings and relatives. He graduated from Montwood High School in 2007. Lujan landed a set of jobs producing and directing commercials for local businesses.
Before his success in the Sci-Fi/Action genre, Joe Lujan focused mainly on Horror. In 2014 His film "Rust," began as a short film. With no budget he had his friends as his cast and shot the entire film in one day. Lujan screened the film at a number of film festivals and received overwhelming compliments and requests to see more of the menacing character of "Travis McLennan". Lujan then Wrote & Directed the feature film which lead to 2 sequels. The franchise is followed by Lujan's biggest release "Billy" which lead to Joe receiving the award for "Best Director" at ShockFest 2021.
Prior to 2013, Lujan had begun writing a script based for a horror film, citing the fears of being imperfect and the experiences of events that took place when he was in high school. Upon completing the script Lujan wanted to express his artistic vision through every element of the film, He then designed the sets, props, costumes, and went on to creating a set of artistic fashionable promotional trailers winning him awards for "Best Costumes", "Best Trailer", and "Best Horror Feature". The film soon received wide exposure from media. In 2015 a live action experience based on the film opened its doors in Las Vegas and was labeled "Best Horror Escape Room in Nevada" Lujan continued on with a sequel and begins production on the 3rd installment in 2019 completing the trilogy. This film is known as "Atelophobia".
In 2015 Lujan began writing an adaptation of an online comic book series he created back in 2009. This adaption was a Sci-Fi / Action tale of fictional characters, introducing a shared universe of all his feature films. He introduced "Trikalypse" a character that lead the story of the film known as "The Immortal Wars" which has earned numerous awards from many Film Festivals such as "Best Sci-Fi Feature" and "Best Visual Effects" . The third sequel "The Immortal Wars: Rebirth" is set for a nation wide release in early 2022. The 4th installment begins production in late 2021. This story has spread into a mini series called "Immortal Legends" and a published comic books series "The Vanquishers".