American director John Schultz got his first big break when he was hired to direct the making-of documentary about Steven Spielberg's pioneering dinosaur-filled blockbuster "Jurassic Park." Schultz's first narrative feature, "Bandwagon," followed an aspiring young rock group and was finally released in 1996, a few years after its filming. With a cast that included Kevin Corrigan, the movie, also written by Schultz, drew on the filmmaker's personal experiences as a drummer for the band The Connells. In 1999, Schultz helmed the teen comedy "Drive Me Crazy," starring Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier, and followed it up with "Like Mike," an inspirational basketball movie with a lead performance by young rapper Lil' Bow Wow.
Sticking to family-friendly fare, Schultz wrote and directed the quirky Texas-set tale "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town," based on the novel by Kimberly Willis Holt. He next took on a Hollywood remake of the classic sitcom "The Honeymooners," featuring Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps, but the movie was a critical and financial failure. Returning to more blatantly kid-oriented projects, Schultz directed the sci-fi comedy "Aliens in the Attic," starring tween idol Ashley Tisdale, and then unveiled "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer," another children's-lit adaptation.