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Tim McCanlies (born 1953) is a film director and screenwriter. He has attracted attention for his work writing and directing Secondhand Lions, and wrote the screenplays for The Iron Giant and Dennis the Menace Strikes Again.

McCanlies attended high school in Bryan, Texas and took some college level courses at nearby Texas A&M University. In 1971, he moved to Austin and enrolled at the University of Texas majoring in Radio-Television-Film. After a couple of years, McCanlies transferred back to Texas A & M. In 1975, he moved to Dallas where he worked as a police officer and took graduate film classes at Southern Methodist University.

McCanlies worked for Walt Disney Studios in the 1980s and wrote for all the major motion picture studios at one time or another. McCanlies made his directorial debut in his own independently produced feature Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998).

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