The BEST mainstream screenwriters.
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Ehren Kruger is an American film producer and screenwriter who is known for writing The Ring starring Naomi Watts and Daveigh Chase. He also wrote a majority of the Transformers sequels, Scream 3 & 4, Reindeer Games, The Ring Two, Blood & Chocolate, Dumbo, The Skeleton Key, The Brothers Grimm and Ghost in the Shell.- Writer
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Michael Arndt was born on 11 November 1965 in Harris County, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).- Producer
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Alex Kurtzman is an American filmmaker and screenwriter. He directed People Like Us and the panned 2017 reboot The Mummy starring Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella. He wrote Transformers 1 and 2, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Star Trek, The Island and Cowboys & Aliens. He also created the TV show Fringe.- Producer
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Roberto Orci was born on 20 July 1973 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He is a producer and writer, known for Star Trek (2009), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Fringe (2008). He has been married to Adele Heather Taylor since 6 June 2020. He was previously married to Melissa Blake.- Writer
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Kelly is primarily a writer for film and television but started her career in musical theater with the UK version of "Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical".
She is a co-artistic director of "The Bad Dog Theater Company"; founded in 2010 alongside the actor Tom Hardy and fellow writer Brett C. Leonard.
She lives in London.- Writer
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Philippa Boyens is a New Zealand writer and producer who has co-written several of Peter Jackson's films. She co-wrote the Academy Award winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Hobbit trilogy which is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings films, The Lovely Bones, Mortal Engines, and the 2005 remake of King Kong. She also co-produced District 9.- Writer
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Stephen McFeely was born on 24 February 1970 in Walnut Creek, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Avengers: Endgame (2019), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He is married to Jennifer Cotteleer.- Writer
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Randall Wallace was born on 28 July 1949 in Jackson, Tennessee, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for We Were Soldiers (2002), Pearl Harbor (2001) and Braveheart (1995).- Writer
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Christopher Markus was born on 16 October 1969 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). He has been married to Claire Saunders since 22 October 2011.- Writer
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Attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, graduating in 1994.
Graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1999. Majored in English.
Shortly after graduating from Georgetown University, Jonathan Nolan served as a production assistant on Memento (2000).
Wrote the short story, "Memento Mori", on which the film Memento (2000) is based.
Was co-writer, with his brother Christopher Nolan, on The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Also co-wrote the Terminator Salvation (2009).- Writer
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John Logan was a playwright in Chicago for ten years before writing, on spec, his first screenplay, "Any Given Sunday." He won the 2010 Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle awards for his play RED, which premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in London and the Golden Theatre on Broadway.- Writer
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Neal Purvis was born on 9 September 1961. He is a writer and producer, known for Skyfall (2012), No Time to Die (2021) and Casino Royale (2006).- Producer
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Drew Pearce is an English filmmaker, producer and screenwriter known for directing Hotel Artemis starring Jodie Foster and Sofia Boutella. He wrote Hobbs & Shaw, a Fast & Furious spin-off and Iron Man 3, with the controversial Mandarin reveal clarified in All Hail the King and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.- Producer
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André Nemec (born 1972) is an American writer and producer known for his work on feature films such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Without Remorse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Wonder Park. In television, André most recently wrote and produced Netflix's adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop"; Amazon Prime's original series and expanding universe "Citadel", and Epix's horror series, "From". André is also the co-creator of ABC Studios dramas "October Road," "Life on Mars" and "Happy Town; and further credits include "Alias", "Fastlane" and "Profiler".
André and his writing partner, Josh Appelbaum, remain active in film and television and produce through their Midnight Radio banner alongside Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg.- Producer
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Josh Appelbaum is known for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).- Producer
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Scott Rosenberg is an American film producer, actor and writer from Needham, Massachusetts. He has a bachelor's degree from Boston University and an MFA from UCLA. He came in third place at a UCLA screenwriting contest which led him to sign with his first agent. He wrote Disturbing Behavior (1998), Beautiful Girls (1996), Highway (2002), High Fidelity (2000) and the Jerry Bruckheimer productions Con Air (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and Kangaroo Jack (2003). He later wrote the Jumanji (1995) sequels Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) starring Dwayne Johnson and Venom (2018), a Spider-Man spin-off starring Tom Hardy.- Writer
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One of the most prolific screenwriters in the action/adventure genre, Jonathan started his career writing episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992) for George Lucas and ABC. He wrote Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), re-conceived from his original spec script "Simon Says". He followed that with Jumanji (1995). His script for the The Saint (1997) was completely re-written by others. After this frustration, he enjoyed a long working friendship with producer Jerry Bruckheimer with whom he collaborated on many projects since 1996. He re-wrote the whole script for The Rock (1996) without credit, which he tried desperately to achieve via WGA arbitration.
He did uncredited re-writes on Con Air (1997) and the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and received executive producer credits on both. Armageddon (1998), from Jonathan's original idea, was the second time Jonathan had the highest grossing film, worldwide, at the box office. The other was Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995).- Writer
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Lawrence Kasdan is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He directed Body Heat, Grand Canyon, The Big Chill, Silverado and Dreamcatcher. He wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bodyguard, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens and Solo: A Star Wars Story. He is married to Meg Goldman since 1971 and has two sons.- Writer
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Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only a short time to realize that his true love, and his true talent, lay in writing. His first play, "Removing All Doubt", was not an immediate success, but his second play, "Hidden in This Picture", debuted in 1988 at the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar. A longer version of "Hidden in This Picture", called "Making Movies", opened at the Promenade Theater in 1990. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, Sorkin was about to break into the spotlight. In 1989, he received the prestigious Outer Critics Circle award as Outstanding American Playwright for the stage version of A Few Good Men (1992), which was later nominated for a Golden Globe. The idea for the plot of "A Few Good Men" came from a conversation with his older sister, Deborah. Deborah was a Navy Judge Advocate General lawyer sent to Guantanamo Bay on a case involving Marines accused of killing a fellow Marine. Deborah told Aaron of the case and he spent the next year and a half writing a Broadway play, which later led to the movie. Sorkin has gone on to write for many movies and TV shows. Besides A Few Good Men (1992), he has written The American President (1995) and Malice (1993), as well as cooperating on Enemy of the State (1998), The Rock (1996) and Excess Baggage (1997). In addition, he was invited by Steven Spielberg to "polish" the script of Schindler's List (1993). Sorkin's TV credits include the Golden Globe-nominated The West Wing (1999) and Sports Night (1998).- Writer
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Gina Wendkos is known for Coyote Ugly (2000), The Perfect Man (2005) and The Princess Diaries (2001).- Producer
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Aline Brosh McKenna was born on 2 August 1967 in France. She is a producer and writer, known for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Your Place or Mine (2023). She is married to Will McKenna. They have two children.- Writer
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David Koepp is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for writing Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi and Panic Room directed by David Fincher. He also directed You Should Have Left starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried.- Writer
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Writer/director Deborah Kaplan met partner, writer/director Harry Elfont, at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' prestigious film school. In a strange coincidence, they discovered that their parents were friends and that they both attended neighboring high schools in Philadelphia. Kaplan had spent time abroad in high school at a film production program at Oxford University in England, UK. Kaplan relocated to Los Angeles and was working behind the scenes in the movie business. When Elfont headed to California after college, they joined forces and crafted "The Family Way", a romantic comedy that was purchased by Can't Hardly Wait (1998) producer Jenno Topping, during her stint at The Ladd Company. The writing duo continued working with Topping, writing A Very Brady Sequel (1996). Kaplan and Elfont also lent their talents as contributing writers to Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) and Jingle All the Way (1996). In her spare time, Kaplan enjoys kick-boxing, photography, and hiking with her Mongolian Ferret Hound. Can't Hardly Wait (1998) was both Kaplan and Elfont's directorial debut.- Writer
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Ron Shelton was born on 15 September 1945 in Whittier, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Bull Durham (1988), Hollywood Homicide (2003) and White Men Can't Jump (1992). He has been married to Lolita Davidovich since 1997. They have one child.- Writer
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John August's screenwriting credits include Go (1999), Big Fish (2003), Titan A.E. (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).
Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, John earned a degree in journalism from Drake University in Iowa and an MFA in film from the Peter Stark program at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles. John has a weekly screenwriting column on Internet Movie Database, in the "Ask a Filmmaker" section of indie.imdb.com.- Producer
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David Benioff was born on 25 September 1970 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), The Kite Runner (2007) and 25th Hour (2002). He has been married to Amanda Peet since 30 September 2006. They have three children.- Writer
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Mark Protosevich was born on 24 August 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Cell (2000), Oldboy (2013) and I Am Legend (2007).- Writer
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Michael Barrie is known for Bad Boys (1995), Oscar (1991) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993).- Producer
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Peter M. Lenkov was born on 9 May 1964 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a producer and writer, known for R.I.P.D. (2013), Demolition Man (1993) and 24 (2001). He is married to Audie England. They have four children.- Writer
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Marianne Wibberley was born on 12 June 1965 in California, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), The 6th Day (2000) and National Treasure (2004). She has been married to Cormac Wibberley since 29 October 1983. They have one child.- Writer
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Cormac Wibberley was born on 28 October 1959 in California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for National Treasure (2004), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) and Bad Boys II (2003). He has been married to Marianne Wibberley since 29 October 1983. They have one child.- Writer
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Considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, Black made his mark with his Lethal Weapon (1987) screenplay. He also collaborated on the story of the sequel, Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Each successive script he turned in had a higher price attached it, from The Last Boy Scout (1991) to The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), and in between a re-write on the McTiernan/Schwarzenegger Last Action Hero (1993) script.- Writer
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William Broyles Jr. was born on 8 October 1944 in Houston, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Apollo 13 (1995), Cast Away (2000) and Planet of the Apes (2001). He is married to Andrea Bettina Berndt. They have three children. He was previously married to Linda Purl and Sybil Ann Newman.- Writer
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John Brancato was born on 8 November 1958 in the USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Game (1997), The Net (1995) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). He has been married to Jennifer Long since 21 March 1987.- Writer
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Michael Ferris was born on 29 January 1961 in the USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Game (1997), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and The Net (1995).- Producer
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Mr. Roth won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump & has been nominated for his screenplays of The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, & Dune. He wrote Mr. Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, & Best Picture Nominee, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He was a producer of the Best Picture Nominee Mank. He received the WGA Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement.- Producer
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James Vanderbilt was born in 1975 in the USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Zodiac (2007), Scream (2022) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016). He has been married to Amber Freeman since 7 May 2005.- Writer
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Andrew Kevin Walker was born on 14 August 1964 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for The Killer (2023), Se7en (1995) and Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (2023).- Writer
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Lizzy Weiss was born on 13 August 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for Switched at Birth (2011), Blue Crush (2002) and Cashmere Mafia (2008).- Producer
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Leslye Headland was born on 26 November 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Bachelorette (2012), Sleeping with Other People (2015) and Russian Doll (2019). She has been married to Rebecca Henderson since 18 September 2016. They have one child.- Writer
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Skip Woods is an American screenwriter and producer. He is best known for writing the screenplay for "Swordfish", the film adaptation of the Hitman video game series, and the 5th installment of the Die Hard franchise, "A Good Day to Die Hard". He lives in Los Angeles, CA. Woods is also a partner in Wetwork Tactical, LLC - a weapons handling and tactics consulting firm; this motivated him to begin writing action films.- Director
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Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his comedic Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), made with recurrent collaborators Simon Pegg, Nira Park and Nick Frost. He also collaborated with them as the director of the television series Spaced.- Producer
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Glen Morgan was born on 12 July 1961 in Syrcause, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The X-Files (1993), Space: Above and Beyond (1995) and The One (2001). He has been married to Kristen Cloke since 13 June 1998. They have four children.- Writer
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Brad Falchuk was born on 1 March 1971 in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Glee (2009), American Horror Story (2011) and Pose (2018). He has been married to Gwyneth Paltrow since 29 September 2018. He was previously married to Suzanne Bukinik.Mainly for American Horror Story.- Producer
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Born November 9, 1965 in Indianapolis, Indiana, US as Ryan Patrick Murphy, he is an American writer, director, and producer, responsible for creating such hits as Nip/Tuck (2003), Glee (2009) and American Horror Story (2011). His mother, J. Andy Murphy, was a writer and communications worker and his father was a circulation director in the newspaper industry. He has one brother. He attended a Catholic school till the eighth grade and graduated from Warren Central High School. He went on to study journalism at the Indiana University Bloomington, where he was also a member of a vocal ensemble, and went on to intern in the style section of the The Washington Post in 1986. In 1990 he got into screenwriting, but only in 1999 was his first story produced: it was Popular (1999), a teen comedy show, which he co-created with Gina Matthews and which run for two seasons. In 2003 he created Nip/Tuck (2003), which brought him his first Emmy nomination. He won the award six years later, when in 2009 he directed the pilot of his hit series Glee (2009) which he co-created with Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk. In 2011 he and Falchuk co-crated another highly popular series, American Horror Story (2011). in 2015 he was awarded the Award for Inspiration from amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. In 2018 Murphy signed a five-year $300 million development deal with Netflix. He is a pan equal opportunities activist, both through his movies and television projects which very often focus on the LGBTQ+ community, and as a creator of the Half Initiative, which aims at making Hollywood more inclusive for women and minorities. He's been married to photographer David Miller since 2012. They have three sons, Logan Phineas, Ford, and Griffin Sullivan.Mainly for American Horror Story- Writer
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Steve Kloves was born on 18 March 1960 in Austin, Texas, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Wonder Boys (2000) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).- Writer
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Craig Mazin was born on 8 April 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Chernobyl (2019), The Last of Us (2023) and Mythic Quest (2020).- Producer
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John Ridley is the author of seven published novels, the most recent, What Fire Cannot Burn from Warner Books and The Drift from Knopf. His first novel, Stray Dogs, was made into the feature film U Turn (1997) directed by Oliver Stone and starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, and Nick Nolte. Additionally, Ridley wrote the screenplays for the films Undercover Brother (2002) and Cold Around the Heart (1997) and wrote the story for Three Kings (1999).
He is a playwright as well and in 2005 produced the world premiere of his first play, Ten Thousand Years. Ridley is also a commentator for National Public Radio and a regular contributor to California Connected (2002), an award-winning, news magazine which airs throughout California on 12 Public Television stations. He was the host of Movie Club with John Ridley (2004) on AMC, a unique movie review program with a panel of critics.
Ridley also wrote, directed, and produced the popular TV show, Barbershop (2005) formerly on Showtime.- Writer
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Tony Gilroy was born in Manhattan, New York, New York, USA; and raised in upstate New York. His father, Frank D. Gilroy, was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, director, and screenwriter. Tony has penned many films, including The Devil's Advocate (1997) and The Cutting Edge (1992).- Producer
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Shane Salerno is the co-screenwriter of the forthcoming Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Avatar 3 (2025), Avatar 4 (2029), Avatar 5 (2031) produced and directed by Oscar winner James Cameron. He has been a professional screenwriter since the age of 19. In the years that have followed Detour Magazine has named Salerno as "one of Hollywood's true shapers of popular culture" and Fade In magazine selected him as one of the "100 people you need to know in Hollywood". His diverse screenwriting is distinguished by the quality of directors who have chosen him to write their films including Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Ron Howard, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin and Michael Bay among many others.
Salerno produced and directed the documentary film Salinger, a documentary on the mysterious life of Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger. The film was released theatrically and was also an American Masters television special. The film features interviews with friends, colleagues and members of Salinger's inner circle that have never spoken on the record before as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen.
Salerno is also a New York Times bestselling author. He co-wrote the biography Salinger about J.D. Salinger with David Shields. The book was a New York Times bestseller and a #1 national bestseller. The book also made bestseller list for NPR, Independent Booksellers, Barnes & Noble and The Los Angeles Times. It was also named an Amazon Best Book of the Month and received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.
He was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in Memphis, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and San Diego. He attended ten schools in twelve years on both coasts of the United States.
His film debut happened when he was in high school. At 17 he wrote, produced and directed the award winning documentary film Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs. The film debuted on Larry King Live in September 1991. Sundown won several notable "best documentary of the year" honors and was showcased on major talk shows and news programs around the world. Shane was also honored individually, in separate ceremonies, in both houses of Congress.
The critical acclaim Sundown received led nine-time Emmy winner Gregory Hoblit to invite a then 19 year old Shane to apprentice on the first season of NYPD Blue as a writer-director. Shane has credited the backstage pass to the brilliant, gritty series during a year when they were honored with a record 26 Emmy nominations as a front line film school.
Salerno is the co-writer and executive producer of Savages, directed by three-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone, based on the acclaimed crime novel by Don Winslow which the New York Times voted as one of the "top ten books of 2010". The all-star cast includes Taylor Kitsch, John Travolta, Blake Lively, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Aaron Johnson, Emile Hirsch and Mia Maestro. Universal Pictures will release the film in the fall of 2012.
Salerno one of the few screenwriters to have found success in both film and television: he's the co-writer of #1 blockbusters Armageddon and Shaft, and served as one of the writer/producers of Hawaii Five O during its Golden Globe-nominated first season.
Salerno is also one of the select screenwriters to have sold both pitches and spec scripts to studios for over $1 million.
By the age of 22 he was consistently writing the highest rated episodes of the hit Fox TV series New York Undercover. Shane's gritty, street wise episodes attracted the attention of film producers. At the end of the first season, Shane asked Universal television to be let out of his three-year contract in order to pursue the feature film opportunities that he was being offered.
The first feature screenwriting job Salerno accepted was the adaptation of the World War II submarine thriller Thunder Below for producer-director Steven Spielberg and the newly formed Dreamworks Pictures. Shane next sold the spec script A Season in Hell for $600,000 to Dino DeLaurentiis who also asked him to polish the screenplay of Breakdown starring Kurt Russell. Breakdown was released by Paramount Pictures to critical acclaim.
Salerno experienced his breakthrough at the age of 24 when director Michael Bay recruited Shane to rewrite the Jerry Bruckheimer produced Armageddon based on an original screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh. The blockbuster film debuted at #1 on July 1, 1998 and was the highest grossing film of the year, earning over $570 million worldwide.
In 1998, at the age of 25, Variety selected Shane as one of the "hottest new creatives on the film scene." Based on Thunder Below and Armageddon, John Singleton, the youngest director ever nominated for an Oscar, telephoned Shane and asked him to serve as his writing partner on "Shaft" which Paramount Pictures was mounting. The Singleton-Salerno collaboration (aided by novelist Richard Price) resulted in Shane's second #1 film when "Shaft" debuted at the top of the box office on June 16, 2000.
That year, Shane (now 27) returned to television by co-creating (with acclaimed novelist Don Winslow), executive producing and serving as show-runner, head writer, and music supervisor for the NBC television series UC: Undercover starring Vera Farmiga (Martin Scorsese's "The Departed"), Oded Fehr (Showtime's "Sleeper Cell") and Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames. The series won and was nominated for awards in acting, cinematography and sound.
Salerno is also the co-writer of the 3-D re-imagining of Fantastic Voyage, produced by James Cameron, Jon Landau and Rae Sanchini for Twentieth Century Fox.
On January 29, 2010, the website Deadline Hollywood broke an exclusive story and review of Salinger, a feature-length documentary about reclusive author J. D. Salinger that Salerno directed, produced and financed himself. The documentary was kept secret for five years. The film features interviews with 150 subjects including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank, Gore Vidal, and "many other fans, journalists, filmmakers, playwrights, and artists inspired by Salinger's work." Michael Fleming, the first journalist in the world to view the film, said Salerno's picture was "arrestingly powerful and exhaustively researched." Additionally, Fleming announced that Salerno had co-written a 700 page biography on Salinger with New York Times bestselling author David Shields. The Salinger film was profiled in Entertainment Weekly and Newsweek and is scheduled for release in 2012.
In 2010, Salerno joined the writing-producing team of Hawaii Five-0. In its first season, Hawaii Five-0 also won the "Favorite New TV Drama" at the 37th People's Choice Awards on January 5, 2011. Series star Scott Caan was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Danny on Hawaii Five-0. In addition to his producing duties, Salerno was credited for writing the episode "Po'ipu" (Episode 9) on November 15, 2010, co-writing "El Malama" (Episode 16) on February 7, 2011 and "Ho'op'i" (Episode 20) on April 18, 2011 which featured a special guest appearance by Sean Combs.
In addition to his own writing, Salerno also runs The Story Factory a company that produces the work of screenwriters and authors. The company has had six New York Times bestsellers.
In 2004 Salerno became the youngest "Guest of Honor" speaker in the history of the Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo. He made follow up appearances in 2005, 2006 and 2011.- Writer
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Douglas Cook was born on 26 June 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Rock (1996), Criminal (2016) and Double Jeopardy (1999). He died on 19 July 2015 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Writer
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Ted Elliott was born on 4 July 1961 in Santa Ana, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Shrek (2001), The Lone Ranger (2013) and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).- Producer
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Caspian Tredwell-Owen was born in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He is known for The Island (2005), Beyond Borders (2003) and Profile of a Killer (2012).- Writer
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Terry Rossio was born on July 2, 1960 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. He is a writer, known for Godzilla VS. Kong (2021), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Aladdin (1992), and Shrek (2001). Additional credits for Rossio include Deja Vu, G-Force, Lovestruck, The Long Ranger and Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.- Writer
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Linda Woolverton was born in Long Beach, California, graduating from high school in 1969 and having been an honors student in her schools theater program. She enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, graduating with a BFA in Theater Arts in 1973. She worked full-time for a year in the entertainment division at Disneyland, and began working toward her Masters Degree in Theater for Children at California State Fullerton, while working as a substitute teacher.
Upon the completion of her Masters Degree in 1976, she formed her own children's theater company. She wrote, directed and performed all over California in churches, malls, schools, and local theaters. She also began in 1979, to work as a coach to children acting in commercials. In 1980 she began working as a development executive for CBS, concentrating on both children's and late-night programming.
In 1984 she began working as a children's television writer, penning scripts for shows such as Star Wars: Ewoks (1985), The Real Ghostbusters (1986), Alvin & the Chipmunks (1983) and DuckTales (2017). She also had two young adult novels published: Starwind and Running Before the Wind.
When one of her novels caught the attention of a Disney executive, she was hired to write the script for the animated motion picture Beauty and the Beast (1991). Upon its release in 1991, Beauty and the Beast (1991) became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Woolverton also co-wrote the script for The Lion King (1994) and Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). She also adapted the script of Beauty and the Beast for the stage, which opened to critical acclaim on Broadway in Spring 1994, and was later nominated for a Tony Award for Best Book in a Musical. She also wrote the book for Disney's third Broadway production 'Aida.- Additional Crew
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Dan Scanlon joined Pixar Animation Studios in September 2001 as a storyboard artist on Pixar's award-winning feature films "Cars" and "Toy Story 3." During the initial production stages for both films, he worked closely with the directors to bring their ideas to the screen.
Scanlon went on to co-direct the original short film, "Mater and the Ghostlight," which is included as one of the bonus features on the "Cars" DVD. In addition to his work at Pixar, Scanlon simultaneously wrote and directed the live action film "Tracy," released in 2009.
Scanlon made his animated feature directorial debut in 2013 with "Monsters University," which grossed over $738.9 million worldwide at the box office, and received the 2013 "Hollywood Animation Award" from the Hollywood Film Awards. Scanlon's latest Pixar feature, "Onward," releases March 6, 2020.
In his role as Vice President, Creative, Scanlon is involved in key creative decision-making at the studio and consults on films in both development and production. Scanlon will serve as the Executive Producer on two upcoming unannounced Pixar films.
As a child growing up in Clawson, Michigan, Scanlon possessed a love for Warner Bros. cartoons, animated Disney films, and as fate would have it, Pixar short films. His passion inspired him to study film and animation in high school and in college, where he focused on illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD).
Upon graduating from CCAD, Scanlon began working as an animator and story artist for Character Builders, a 2D animation company that produced feature and commercial work in Columbus, Ohio.- Producer
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Chris Morgan is known for Furious 7 (2015), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) and Fast & Furious 6 (2013).- Writer
- Producer
Derek Haas was born on 30 June 1970. He is a writer and producer, known for FBI: International (2021), The Double (2011) and Chicago P.D. (2014).- Writer
- Director
- Composer
Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis (1996). His film Open Your Eyes (1997) was a huge success in Spain and was distributed worldwide. It was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky (2001), starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz (also the star of the original version) and Cameron Diaz. The Others (2001) is Amenábar's first English language film.- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Katie Dippold was born on 10 January 1980 in Freehold Township, New Jersey, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for The Heat (2013), Parks and Recreation (2009) and Ghostbusters (2016).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Billy Ray is known for Captain Phillips (2013), The Hunger Games (2012) and Shattered Glass (2003). He is married to Stacy Sherman. They have two children.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Brian Helgeland was born in Providence, Rhode Island and raised in New Bedford Massachusetts. A born worker, Helgeland has endeavored to achieve in the following fields: snow shoveler, scrap newspaper collector, dishwasher, nursing home janitor, drug store clerk and unreliable nightshift gas station attendant. Facing unemployment after receiving a degree in English, Helgeland fell back on generations of family tradition and took a site as a 'half-share man' on the fishing vessel Mondego II, working the dredges of a deep sea scalloper over 100 miles offshore for two weeks at a time. Fish School. North Atlantic University. After a year at sea, a chance meeting with a book entitled "A Guide To Film School" changed everything. Ignorant as to the existence of such venerable institutions, he applied to several and was accepted by one. Giving up his now 'full-share man' berth on the fishing vessel Concordia, Helgeland headed west in 1985. After getting his break with several low budget horror films, he made his mark with several spec script sales, the flashiest being "The Ticking Man" which he co-wrote with Manny Coto. Two other specs sales to Warner Bros landed him an exclusive writing deal at what was then the greatest movie studio on earth. That deal resulted in seven produced films starting with two for director (and longtime mentor) Richard Donner and ending with two films for Clint Eastwood. In between came the much lauded "LA Confidential" for which Helgeland won an Academy Award finally living up to his grandmother's nickname for him of 'Golden Boy'.
Helgeland's directing career began when Donner gave him an episode of "Tales From The Crypt" to direct. Tired of Helgeland's relentless script note complaints, Donner was eager for him to see how things looked at the trigger end of the gun instead of the barrel. Next up as writer/director was "Payback" which Mel Gibson committed to after leafing through a rough draft version of the script on a Warners ADR stage. Although the director's cut was eventually released, the experience was bittersweet as Paramount demanded a happier ending which Helgeland refused to direct. With the rug pulled out from under him, Helgeland regained momentum with the spec script for "A Knight's Tale". He envisioned the rags to riches story of a peasant determined to prove himself a knight, as a version of his own humble beginnings before moving to Hollywood, but also as the tale of a lowly screenwriter who wants to become a noble director. Columbia Pictures bought the script in a bidding war and mere months later Helgeland found himself in the Czech Republic with Heath Ledger, Paul Bettany and the gang conjuring the story of William Thatcher - aka Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein - in what would become his most fan favorite film.
As solely a screenwriter, the great-never-late Tony Scott is the director he felt closest to sensibility-wise, in that both of them believed that any single moment in a film can be ordinary and absurd and funny and tragic all at the same time. They worked on several projects together - produced and unproduced. "Man On Fire" was their crowning achievement. Helgeland also directed and wrote the film "42" with Chadwick Boseman and "Legend" with Tom Hardy. Both were biopics. His most recent film is "Finestkind" with Ben Foster, Toby Wallace and Jenna Ortega. It is full of truth about people he once knew, but crammed with lies about what they got up to. As he likes to say about writing: "It's okay to lie if you reach a higher truth doing so." Helgeland is an admirer of John Huston, Richard Brooks, Walter Hill, Frank Pierson, Curtis Hanson and all screenwriters who knighted themselves into the director's chair.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Jonathan Levine was born on 18 June 1976. He is a producer and director, known for 50/50 (2011), The Wackness (2008) and Warm Bodies (2013).- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
David Lindsay-Abaire was born on 30 November 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is a writer, known for Rabbit Hole (2010), Poltergeist (2015) and Rise of the Guardians (2012).