Background
Jimmy Jack was born in Melbourne but raised in Perth, Western Australia.
Jimmy Jack was born in Melbourne but raised in Perth, Western Australia.
His work as an actor instilled in him a love of the film-making process. In 2001, he began working on The Black Balloon with Elissa Down, in her hometown of Sydney, and the film was under production for six years until its completion in 2007. The narrative is semi-autobiographical, mostly drawn from Down"s childhood experiences, but she asked Jack to join her in writing the screenplay.
He claims the pair argued often during the writing process and "at one point Elissa threw her laptop at me and I walked out and went back to Perth," later returning upon realising that "the arguments meant richer story material.
Neither of us would let the other person get away with bullshit."
In 2007 Jack wrote, produced, directed and acted in the experimental feature Five Guys Named Moe which was produced before The Black Balloon but has yet to be taken to market. He caused a minor sensation with his acceptance speech after reading an extract of an article from The Age written by film critic Jim Schembri.
After pocketing the article Jack declared "F**k you Jim Schembri" an outburst which received a star-studded ovation, but was later censored from the Channel 9 broadcast. In 2008 Jack was poached by Mark Naglazas film editor of The West Australian as a film reviewer, which he did into 2009.
He then wrote articles for PerthNow with his weekly column "Manscape".
From 2013 he began contributing to The Guardian. Jack is currently working on Sex, Brains and Rock n" Roll with producer James Grandison, due for release in December 2011. The film tells the story of a dissatisfied zombie who decides to pursue a career in music
Jack is looking for a real rock band to play The Zombies, stating "I don"t think actors could convincingly play a band".
In 2010 Jack launched the YouTube channel "EXPLODERVISION" which he describes as his "side project". The channel consists of skits of his own and other media oddities.
In 2013 Jack founded the film sales and distribution company named after the video store Quentin Tarantino worked at before he became an auteur. The company"s first acquisition is low-budget horror film Jugular.