John August
| John August | |
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| Born | John Meise August 4, 1970 Boulder, Colorado, United States |
John August is an American screenwriter and film director.
He writes and maintains the popular screenwriting blog johnaugust.com, and develops screenwriter-targeted software.[1][2]
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voting in the Writers branch.[3]
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[edit] Personal Life
August was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. He earned a degree in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and an MFA in film from the The Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.
He is openly gay. He married Michael August on June 28, 2008 during the four months same-sex marriage in California was recognized.[4] Together they have a daughter.[5]
[edit] Career
August's debut film was 1999's critically acclaimed Go,[6] for which he also served as co-producer and second unit director.[7]
In 1998, August acquired the film rights to Daniel Wallace's Big Fish.[8] His adaptation became the 2003 Tim Burton film of the same name and earned August a 2003 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.[9]
Since 2003, August has written the screenplay for several Tim Burton films, including Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (an adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's book), and the upcoming Frankenweenie.
The Nines, his writing/directing debut starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, Hope Davis and Elle Fanning, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival[10] and Venice Film Festival's Critics’ Week.[11]
For television, August has developed three projects. D.C, a one-hour drama for the WB Network, ran in April 2000.[12] Alaska, a crime drama for ABC, shot a pilot in 2004 directed by Kim Manners but was not picked up for series.[13] Ops, a one-hour drama co-created by Jordan Mechner, was developed for 20th Television/Fox, but never filmed a pilot.[14]
August is writing the book for the Broadway musical adaptation of Big Fish, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman. The show was announced in June 2011, with plans to reach the stage in 2012.[15]
He earned a 2006 Grammy nomination for lyrics for "Wonka's Welcome Song" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[16]
[edit] Other Work
In 2003, August established johnaugust.com as a repository for the 100+ screenwriting advice columns he had written for IMDb. The site now has over 1,500 posts and 31,000 approved comments.[17]
In 2010, he founded Quote-Unquote Apps, which develops software related to film and the film industry. Their most popular release, FDX Reader, is an iOS application that displays Final Draft files.[18] The company also released Less IMDb, a browser extension for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox that reorganizes the layout of IMDb pages.
In 2011, August and fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin began Scriptnotes, a weekly podcast on the craft of screenwriting and the film industry.[19]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | God | Writer, director | Short, starring Melissa McCarthy |
| 1999 | Go | Written by | Also co-producer, 2nd unit director |
| 2000 | D.C. | Creator, Co-executive producer | TV series |
| 2000 | Titan A.E. | Screenplay | With Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund |
| 2000 | Charlie's Angels | Written by | With Ryan Rowe & Ed Solomon, based on the TV series created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts |
| 2003 | Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle | Screenplay, story | With Cormac Wibberley & Marianne Wibberley, based on the TV series created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts |
| 2003 | Big Fish | Screenplay | Based on the novel by Daniel Wallace; also wrote the song "Twice the Love" |
| 2005 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Screenplay | Based on the book by Roald Dahl; also wrote the lyrics to "Wonka's Welcome Song" |
| 2005 | Corpse Bride | Screenplay | With Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler; also wrote the lyrics to "Remains of the Day", "Tears to Shed", "According to Plan" |
| 2007 | The Nines | Written by, director | |
| 2010 | Prince of Persia: Sands of Time | Executive producer | Based on the video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner |
| 2012 | Frankenweenie | Screenplay | Based on the featurette by Tim Burton |
[edit] References
- ^ Macworld FDX Reader review
- ^ FDX Reader on CNET
- ^ "Academy Invites 134 to Membership" on Oscars.com
- ^ johnaugust.com » I got married
- ^ johnaugust.com » Two big debuts
- ^ Go on Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Go credits on IMDb
- ^ Daniel Wallace website
- ^ 2003 BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nominees
- ^ The Nines at Sundance.com
- ^ Variety.com
- ^ D.C. episode list on IMDb
- ^ The Futon Critic
- ^ "Scribes on a Fox mission" on Variety.com
- ^ Playbill.com
- ^ The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards Roundup: Film/TV/Visual Media Field
- ^ johnaugust.com/about
- ^ MacWorld.com
- ^ Scriptnotes on iTunes
