Background and career
James Platten Vanderbilt (born November 17, 1975) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for writing the films Zodiac (2007), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and its sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016). He co-wrote, produced, and co-storied Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023) and Scream 7 (2026). Vanderbilt produced several films, including The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), Ready or Not (2019) and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026). He also wrote, directed, and co-produced Truth (2015) and Nuremberg (2025).
A sixth-generation member of the Vanderbilt family of New York, James is the son of Alison Campbell (née Platten) and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt III. His paternal great-grandfather Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Sr. died on the RMS Lusitania in the 1915 sinking, his paternal grandfather, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr., once chaired the New York Racing Association, and his maternal grandfather, Donald Campbell Platten, was the chief executive and chairman of Chemical Bank. Journalist Anderson Cooper is his second cousin through Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, and attended school at New Canaan Country School. He is a graduate of St. Paul's School and the University of Southern California.
His production company, Mythology Entertainment, started in 2011. It was reincorporated as Project X Entertainment in 2019. In May 2016, Mythology acquired intellectual property rights to Slender Man from the character's creator Eric Knudsen. Vanderbilt produced the film Slender Man in 2018. In 2020, Vanderbilt co-wrote the script for Scream, the fifth installment of the Scream franchise. The film was released on January 14, 2022. Vanderbilt's most recent project, Nuremberg, is about the Nuremberg trials and was released on November 7, 2025.
In May 2005 Vanderbilt married Amber Freeman, daughter of Air Force Pilot Allan Freeman and actress Gunilla Hutton. Amber Vanderbilt is the Board Chair and Founder of the Malibu Education Foundation. The couple have three sons.
Altered Carbon (2018) Suspiria (2018) American Dream/American Knightmare (2018) The Night Agent (2023)
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
