Film Executive Jason Constantine ’92 Ushered Scripts to the Screen
Dec. 5, 1969 — June 3, 2025
Jason Constantine ’92 almost always had a film camera in hand. He knew how to capture life’s special moments, and he did it with a childlike enthusiasm.
“He was just the most authentic storyteller that anyone will ever meet,” says Chad Muir ’92, one of several Princeton friends with whom Constantine remained close for decades.
To one of his three sons, Xander ’27, this way of seeing the world was who Constantine was. “Every person was this incredible, dramatic, amazing, fantastic tale that he wanted to know more about,” he says.
Long before he became the co-president of Lionsgate Motion Pictures, Constantine was a kid in Southern California who spent most of his weekends in the movie theater with his parents and brother. His father insisted on staying until the last credit rolled, a lesson in respecting all the people who helped bring a story to life.
The moment that changed everything came when Constantine was 7. After seeing Star Wars for the first time, he walked out of the theater knowing he couldn’t just watch movies anymore; he had to be a part of the magic behind them. When each of his children turned 7, he threw a birthday screening of Star Wars in their honor.
Constantine’s camera followed him throughout his time at Princeton, where he became the unofficial documentarian of his friends. “I knew from that moment Jason was going to be involved in movies,” Michael Zampardi ’92 says.
Constantine loved to perform as well. At a talent show at then-Wilson College, he debuted an original song, “Wawa Girl,” an ode to a central part of the Princeton experience. He also participated in the Princeton Out-a-Tunes a cappella group, Theatre Intime, and Wilson open-mic nights, rowed crew, and was a member of the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship and Charter Club. A man of deep faith, Constantine wrote his senior thesis as a play titled Passionate, retelling Gospel narratives entirely through the voices of supporting characters.
At Lionsgate, Constantine became one of the studio’s most influential leaders. He was an executive since its inception over 25 years ago and played a key role in some of the studio’s most successful films, including the John Wick, Expendables, and Saw franchises, as well as Crash, Knives Out, and I Can Only Imagine. He was involved in every stage of the filmmaking process, leading acquisitions, sitting in on script development, and collaborating and working with people at various levels of the industry. He always made sure to share his success with his wife, Kristin ’91, his children, and his friends, bringing them to sets and premieres.
When Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2006, Constantine called Darren Kennedy ’93 from the limousine to share the moment with him. “I’m like, out of all the people in the world, he’s calling his doctoral student friend in Edinburgh. That’s the kind of friend he was,” he says.
Peter Safran ’87, the co-chairperson and co-CEO of DC Studios, says Constantine brought authentic enthusiasm to the industry and never became jaded. He calls him “one of the warmest and most delightful guys; not just in the business, but everywhere.”
Despite his career success, “he downplayed his role in the industry,” according to Kristin.
Constantine and Kristin met on campus during her sophomore year. “He was just so friendly [to everyone] that I didn’t understand that I was being distinguished for a long time,” Kristin says.
Xander says he and his father shared a lot of similarities, as “outgoing, extraverted, gregarious” individuals. “It wasn’t like he knew everything and understood everyone, but it was that he was so outgoing and so supportive of people’s existence in all different spaces,” he says.
Joel Smallbone, friend and member of the Christian pop duo For King & Country, says Constantine had “relentless optimism” for the world and people. That belief sustained him throughout his treatment for glioblastoma. Kennedy, a minister, noted at Constantine’s funeral how Constantine made friends with many of the doctors and nurses who cared for him.
Even as his career soared, he stayed connected to Princeton. Muir remembers one visit when Constantine spent his days with a crew led by Sylvester Stallone, and his nights with a team led by filmmaker Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves and then made time to get back to Princeton in time to speak with the professors who invited him to campus. He was particularly fond of Reunions, which he called “people Christmas.”
Film dedications have been made in honor of Constantine, including Ballerina, Wick Is Pain, and the upcoming I Can Only Imagine sequel. “He loved people, he loved life, and clearly loved movies,” Zampardi says.
Lia Opperman ’25 is PAW’s reporting fellow.
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