Morgan Spurlock remembered by Documentary Community

When Morgan Spurlock, who died May 23 at the age of 53 from complications of cancer, first entered the documentary world with “Super Size Me” in 2004, he managed to parlay the film’s success into a career. A career that was not only productive, but also lucrative – a rarity in the field to this day.

The secret to Spurlock’s success? He was not only a talented filmmaker, but also a brilliant businessman.

Just eleven months after the Sundance premiere of “Super Size Me,” Spurlock teamed with FX on the docuseries “30 Days,” which chronicled the journey of an individual who found himself in an environment opposite to his background. The first season of the series aired in 2005 and featured episodes about a Christian living as a Muslim and a conservative heterosexual living with a gay man. In total, FX Chairman John Landgraf ordered three seasons of “30 Days,” which was executive produced by Ben Silverman and RJ Cutler.

“Morgan was a good man who did great work and brought joy and a fresh perspective to many,” Cutler said. “A lot of the work we did together during ’30 Days’ was about seeing the world from the other person’s point of view. That was Morgan’s vision and it permeated all his films. He abhorred hypocrisy, he loved to laugh, and he loved to make others laugh. And as we all know, he wasn’t afraid to be criticized for his efforts to make the world a fairer place. He left us far too soon, but left the world much richer for being here.”

Spurlock’s ability to tackle topics like Osama bin Laden (“Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”), product placement (“The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”) and what it means to be a man (“Mansome”) and turning them into commercially viable films that appealed to superhero fans made him and his production company Warrior Poets an anomaly in the documentary landscape.

“He was creative and also business-oriented,” says director Ondi Timoner. “He taught us that we have to be top artists.”

Timoner met Spurlock in 2004 at Sundance, where she was filming her feature documentary “Dig!” debuted.

“I walked into the Cinetic house (in Park City) and there was a basket of Ronald McDonald dolls by the fireplace,” Timoner said. “It was a learning experience seeing those Ronald McDonald dolls. I came to Sundance with a few postcards, but that was Morgan. He had such an incredible talent for marketing and making things happen across all platforms. He was simply ahead of his time in many ways. He was a great role model and an inspiration.”

At a time when most documentaries aired on HBO or PBS, Spurlock produced and directed nearly 70 documentaries and television series for the likes of Showtime (“7 Deadly Sins”), Hulu (“The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special in 3D on Ice!) and Sony Pictures (“One Direction: This Is Us.”) He received an Oscar nomination for “Super Size Me” and won a WGA award for that screenplay, along with subsequent kudos for this work on the big and small screen.

John Sloss, who sold Sundance’s ‘Supersize Me’ in 2004, said: ‘Along with Michael Moore, he pioneered the gonzo journalistic approach to on-camera documentary. He played an important role in the commercialization of documentaries and carved out a real niche for himself.

“He was an equal parts artist-slash-impresario and there is an element of impresario that is a businessman.”

Perhaps in a nod to Spurlock’s own irreverent approach, Sloss said, “I always told him that McDonald’s would catch up to him that month.”

In 2013, Spurlock teamed up with CNN Original Series to produce and host “Inside Man,” which explored various sectors of American life and took a deep dive into pressing issues facing the US.

“Morgan produced four seasons of “Inside Man” from 2013 to 2016,” said Amy Entelis, exec VP of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide. “He traveled across the country for us and showed his characteristic mix of curiosity and humor. From medical marijuana cultivation and living on bitcoin to the elderly care industry and America’s waste epidemic, his journey has always been enlightening. Morgan had a unique style for understanding these complex topics. His stories helped create CNN Original Series and we are grateful for his collaboration.”

In addition to his film and television work, Spurlock’s Warrior Poets led Hulu’s push into original programming with their first series, “A Day in the Life,” and helped fuel Yahoo’s original content strategy by producing three separate series, “Failure Club.” Mansome” and “Losing it with John Stamos.”

Spurlock’s career came to a halt in December 2017. As the #MeToo movement continued to gain traction, Spurlock wrote a lengthy social media post saying he was “part of the problem.” In the post, he admitted to serial infidelity and said he had dealt with an allegation of sexual harassment from a former assistant. He also said he was accused of rape in college. The post effectively ended Spurlock’s documentary career, as Spurlock resigned from Warrior Poets shortly afterwards.

“It makes me very sad to think of the many great film and TV projects that we will never see from Morgan, not only because of his untimely death, but also because of the cancel culture in our company that judged him far too harshly,” says director Joe Berlinger. “He was a very caring and talented human being and filmmaker.”

Timoner added: “I was very disappointed when he did some kind of #MeToo himself, because he didn’t have to do that. He was always concerned with seeing people’s potential and was always supportive of me and my career. He will be greatly missed.”