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Clayton Townsend

Clayton Towsend is a producer best known for his work with director Oliver Stone and comedy producer/writer/director Judd Apatow. Townsend is known in the industry for being very hands-on, often blurring the boundaries between producer, writer, and director in his collaborations. Townsend has worked with Stone in nearly all his films, such as "Born on the Fourth of July," "JFK," and "The Doors." "Born on the Fourth of July," starring Tom Cruise, the third in a Vietnam War-centered trilogy was about one man's troubled and tragic journey to and after Vietnam, based on the autobiography by Ron Kovic. Townsend was instrumental in recreating Vietnam while filming in the Philippines--relations between the United States and Vietnam at the time prevented them from filming there. "JFK" was a political epic about the theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, notable also for its innovative multi-layered flashback film editing and technique. "The Doors," though a band biopic, focused especially on the life of Jim Morrison, played by Val Kilmer. It was a hit but was surrounded by controversy due to the creative license Stone and Townsend took with much of the story. Later in Townsend's career, he dealt more in comedies, teaming up with Judd Apatow a number of times--most notably in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." Both films were critically acclaimed for their balance of seriousness and comedy, often improvised by the actors.