Bruce Anslie Evans (born September 19, 1946) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for his work on Stand by Me (1986), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) and Mr. Brooks (2007).
After writing 1997's Jungle 2 Jungle, a remake of the 1994 French filmUn indien dans la ville, Evans and Gideon wrote "screenplays and rewrites and all of that kind of stuff" before their next credited film.[5] They struggled to have their subsequent scripts produced as each demanded too high a budget for most studios, including what they regarded as a "great World War I love story", until they wrote the 2007 filmMr. Brooks, starring Kevin Costner as the title character.[5] With the idea of a seemingly normal business man who leads a second life as a serial killer, they hoped to "make an adult film" and "change our image" as writers in the film industry.[5] They originally conceived the project as a television series, which they pitched to a number of television producers and studios in Hollywood. Their original version was considered "too soft", and their revised story, which was deemed "too dark", was written instead as a film spec script.[6] Fifteen years since Kuffs, Evans said that, with Mr. Brooks, directing again "was kind of like riding a bicycle".[4]
In addition to Evans and Gideon's intention of making two sequels to Mr. Brooks,[5] Evans said that "we have two originals in mind" and "there are a few [scripts] that are kind of on hold that I would direct that other people have written".[3]
