Bir

th o

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ir In 1985, at the tender age of 13, Mat Hofmann entered into the BMX circuit as an amateur, and by 16 he

had risen to the professional lev Throughout his storied career, Hoffmann

has ignored conventional limitations,

instead, focusing his efforts on the purity

of the sport and the pursuit of “what’s next.” His motivations stem purely from

his own ambitions, and even without

endorsements, cameras, fame and fans,

Hoffmann would still be working to

push the boundaries of gravity.

Academy Award nominee Spike Jonze and

extreme sport fanatic Johnny Knox-

ville, along with director Jeff Tremaine, will

showcase the inner workings and exploits

of the man who gave birth to “Big Air.”

Dire

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by

John

ny K

noxv

ille,

Sp

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Jonz

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eff T

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aine

Spike still directs skate videos for a skateboard company that he and his friends started in 1993, called Girl Skateboards and Chocolate. Girl’s last full-length video, “Yeah Right,” was one of the top selling skate videos of all time.

Currently, he’s working on “Where the Wild Things Are,” on which he collaborated with Maurice Sendak and co-wrote with Dave Eggers. In addition, he produced longtime friend and colla-borator, Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, “Synecdoche, New York.”

eff Tremaine was born a poor white military brat and was hustled from state to state until

finally settling in the area of Rockville, Maryland. There he defied his parents on a regular basis and got into all sorts of ne’er-do-well activities such as skate-boarding, BMX, reggae music and art. Perhaps most key is that in high school Tremaine met Adam Spiegel, a hyperac-tive little pipsqueak that puberty had somehow skipped over. In 1985, Jeff was booted from the parental nest and landed in St. Louis where he attended Washington University.

Tremaine headed out west to join back up with his childhood friend Adam, now known as Spike. Tremaine slid into the layout jockey position on “Go”, the result of a collision between Free-stylin’ and BMX Action. Tremaine briefly waffled over to a snowboard magazine in 1992 before being hired on as the art/editorial director for Big Brother, a fledgling skateboard rag that had gotten off on the altogether wrong foot with its first issue. In time, however, his leader-ship took Big Brother to new and exciting levels of distribution, notoriety, and an all-encompassing sense of stupidity not normally tolerated in any industry.

It’s no big secret what happened past this point in the life of Jeffrey Tremaine. In addition to helming the “Jackass” fran-chise, Tremaine has served as executive producer and co-creator of “Wildboyz,” executive producer and co-creator on “Rob and Big,” and has directed music videos for Turbonegro, Andrew WK, and The Sahara Hot Nights.

ohnny Knoxville gained fame as the creator and star of the controversial MTV series “Jack-

ass.” Johnny starred in and produced both box-office hits, “Jackass” and “Jack-ass Two.” He has also been seen in “The Ringer,” directed by the Farrelly Brothers, opposite Katherine Heigel, and starred in the “Dukes of Hazzard.” Before that he was seen in “The Lords of Dogtown,” directed by Catherine Hardwicke and co-starring Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsch. Prior to “Lords of Dogtown,” Knoxville starred in a wide variety of films including the John Waters ensemble comedy, “A Dirty Shame” with Tracey Ullman, Chris Isaak and Selma Blair. He was also seen in MGM’s box-office hit “Walking Tall,” opposite the Rock, as well as Barry Son-nenfeld’s sequel “Men In Black 2.”

Currently, Knoxville and his cousin Roger Alan Wade host a Sirius Radio Show on Channel 65 called “Me and Rog.” Knoxville’s show airs Saturdays at 8pm ET. Premiering in early 2009, Knox-ville has created yet another gem for MTV called “Nitro Circus” which will follow around the world’s greatest free-style motocross rider Travis Pastrana and his group of athlete friends as they travel the world performing outrageous stunts.

pike Jonze started out shoot-ing skateboarding photographs and videos, and later made

music videos for Beastie Boys, Bjork, Weezer and Fat Boy Slim, among others. His videos have been nominated for dozens of MTV Video Music Awards, including three wins for Best Director.

His first film was “Being John Malk-ovich,” with John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. His second film, “Adaptation,” with Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Jonze also spends his time on other interests, ranging from creating and producing the “Jackass” franchise, to directing a video portrait of Al Gore. In 1999, he co-starred in “Three Kings,” directed by David Russell.

45JohnnyKnoxville

Mat is awesome as shit, so we decided to make a movie about him. —Spike Jonze, Jeff Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville

I grew up riding BMX. I stole wood to build ramps. I got chased by security guards from the mall. Spike Jonze and I were outcasts; we rode bikes and skateboards and listened to punk rock. We got our first jobs together at the premier BMX shop on the East Coast, and later we ventured across the country to Los Angeles. Our dreams led us to start our careers at the leading BMX publication in the 1980s. Eventually, we were able to repay that debt of inspiration and share what’s great about action sports with the masses through our work at Dickhouse.

I first crossed paths with Mat Hoffman when BMX was a small sport. Even at age 16, Mat was the best rider any-one had ever seen. I watched him take punishing slams and get back up time and again. He was a gladiator whose spirit couldn’t be broken. He is one of those guys who found his purpose in life early on. The irony about Mat is he does what he was born to do, and it could kill him.

In the early 1990s, the sport of BMX was at an all-time low. Mat was organizing events, building his own bikes and redefining riding. In his quest to go higher he built the tallest ramp ever constructed. He cleared the 20-foot aerial mark, set a world record and lost his spleen in the process. The birth of Big Air stands as one of the crowing achievements in all of action sports. —Jeff Tremaine

Personal Statement

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