Eric Jacobus is a stuntman, actor, and action designer. Jacobus began his stunt and filmmaking career in his hometown of Redding, California in 2001. A gymnast and weightlifter at the time, Jacobus formed a group of local martial artists and gymnasts to create short action comedies and called it The Stunt People. Eric received his BA in cinema at San Francisco State University in 2004 where he grew The Stunt People into a tight-knit group of 25 stunt performers.
Jacobus and The Stunt People received acclaim for their short film Teamwork 2 which was featured on the DVD Everyone Is Kung Fu Fighting. He then connected with local filmmaker Stephen Reedy and starred in his short film Undercut in 2004, which combined the team’s collective gymnastics, martial arts, and stunt expertise with Reedy’s run-n-gun filmmaking style and witty humor. The came second place for best short in the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.
Jacobus then wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first feature film Contour with a microscopic budget of $5,000. Contour combined the talents of the entire team and made the film a cult classic upon its release in 2006, garnering it numerous awards and earning The Stunt People the moniker “The Premiere Independent Action Team” from Kung Fu Cinema.
After putting his producing and directing abilities and his physicality to the test in multiple short and feature films for the next five years, Jacobus tackled his second feature film effort Death Grip in 2011. The film was distributed worldwide and earned notoriety for its combination of dark comedy and gritty fight scenes.
Jacobus then teamed up with American stuntman and producer Clayton Barber. Barber knew that his experience as a producer and stunt coordinator would be the perfect counterpart to Jacobus’s physical, comedic, and filmmaking abilities. In keeping with the mantra of “Action Guys Doing Action Films” Jacobus had developed with The Stunt People, Barber and Jacobus developed an American martial arts film brand in the vein of Jackie Chan and Charlie Chaplin with their first short film Rope A Dope, co-directed by long-time collaborator Pete Lee and co-starring long-time Stunt People member Dennis Ruel. It was an instant hit. While getting featured roles in films like ABCs of Death 2 and Mortal Kombat Legacy, Jacobus and Barber produced Rope A Dope 2, a bigger and bolder example of what the team could do on a small budget.
In 2016 Jacobus and Barber created JB Productions and partnered with David No’s Furious Films to create Blindsided, an homage to the blind swordsman Zatoichi which served as Barber’s directorial debut.
Jacobus meanwhile produced a series of Tekken In Real Life videos, which earned the attention of animators at Santa Monica Studio and earned Jacobus a leading part in God of War (2018) as Kratos.
Barber and Jacobus continued the blind swordsman legacy with Blindsided: The Game in 2017. Jacobus was then hired to action direct Vasan Bala’s Bollywood film Man Who Can Feel No Pain in 2018.
Timeline:
2001 – Founded The Stunt People
2002 – Teamwork 2 released on Everyone Is Kung Fu Fighing
2003 – Escapee released with Kahana and Leung, mass downloading crashes Stunt People server
2004 – Starred in Stephen Reedy’s MTV Movie Award-nominated film Undercut
2005 – Produces, directs, and stars in first feature film Contour
2007 – Stars in Micah Moore’s Dogs of Chinatown
2008 – Featured on Discovery Channel’s Time Warp with Ray Carbonel
2009 – Stunt coordinates for Love Aaj Kaal starring Saif Ali Khan
2011 – Produces, directs, and stars in second feature film Death Grip
2012 – Stars as “Stryker” in Mortal Kombat Legacy
2013 – Directs and stars in Rope A Dope in collaboration with Clayton Barber
– Stars in the ABCs of Death 2’s segment “A Is For Amateur”
2014 – Co-Directs and stars in Rope A Dope 2, his second Barber collaboration
2015 – Fight coordinates under Barber for Heart of a Champion in Beijing and Bangkok
– Fills multiple stunt roles for 2K’s Mafia III
– Creates Tekken In Real Life
2016 – Stars in and action directs Clayton Barber’s directorial debut Blindsided
– Cast as the stuntman for Kratos in God of War
2017 – Stars in and action directs Clayton Barber’s Blindsided The Game.
– Stunt coordinates Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You
2018 – Action directs Vasan Bala’s Bollywood action comedy Man Who Can Feel No Pain