James Ward Byrkit

James Ward Byrkit (also known as James Byrkit or Jim Byrkit) is an American filmmaker. Byrkit is perhaps best known for his collaborations with director Gore Verbinski, working together on films like Mouse Hunt and Rango. For Rango, Byrkit co-wrote the script and starred as several characters, most notably Waffles, a horned lizard.^[1]

James Ward Byrkit

Byrkit was hired by Verbinski as the conceptual consultant for the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films.^[2] He did three weeks of consultancy work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), the Black Pearl and other ships. In addition to the more than 3,000 storyboards that Byrkit created for Dead Man's Chest (2006) and At World's End (2007), he also bounced back and forth between departments, such as production design, props and the pre-visualization team, helping with simplified animatics of the overwhelmingly complex action sequences that were a blueprint for Verbinski on set, and later, for Industrial Light & Magic's visual effects.^[3] Byrkit also directed Tales of the Code: Wedlocked (2011), a short film and an immediate prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl.^[4]

Byrkit is also known for directing the science fiction thriller Coherence, his debut feature which earned critical and audience praise^[5][6][7][8] and garnered attention for his unconventional approach in the making of the film as "proof that inventive filmmakers can do a lot with a little",^[9][10][11] and identifying him as a groundbreaking talent.^[12]

Byrkit's follow-up project, Shatter Belt, is an episodic series in the tradition of Twilight Zone. Production on the first four episodes was completed in 2022, with the world premiere scheduled for 2023 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival.

In the Disney+ series Prop Culture, Byrkit made a guest appearance with concept artist Crash McCreery to discuss their work in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.^[13]

Awards

• Breakthrough Director (nominated) at the Gotham Independent Film Awards 2014^[14]
• Next Wave Best Screenplay at the Austin Fantastic Fest for Coherence (2013)^[15]
• Maria Award for Best Screenplay at the Sitges Film Festival for Coherence (2013)^[15]
• Carnet Jove Jury Award for Best In Competition at the Sitges Film Festival for Coherence (2013)^[16]
• Black Tulip Award for Best Feature Debut at the Imagine Film Festival for Coherence (2014)
• Imagine Movie Zone Award, Special Mention at the Imagine Film Festival for Coherence (2014)
• Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production for Rango (2011, won, shared with John Logan and Gore Verbinski)^[17]

Filmography

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Role	Notes
2003	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	No	No	No	Consultant	Credited as "Jim Byrkit"
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	No	No	No	Conceptual Consultant
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	No	No	No	Conceptual Consultant
2011	Rango	No	Story	No	Waffles
	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	No	No	No		Uncredited work on the Map[18]
2013	Coherence	Yes	Yes	Executive
2016	The Forest	No	No	Co-producer

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
2005	Yes, and...	Yes	Yes	No
	Fractalus	Yes	Yes	Yes
2011	Pirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code: Wedlocked	Yes	No	No	Filmed in late 2006[19][20]

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Role	Notes
2001	Stop at Nothing	Yes	No		TV movie
	Special Unit 2	Yes	No		Episode "The Rocks"
2020	Prop Culture	No	No	Himself	Disney+ docuseries; Episode: "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"
2023	Shatter Belt	Yes	Yes		4 episodes

Video game

Year	Title	Director	Writer
2011	Rango	Yes	Yes