John August

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John August
August at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Born
John Tilton[1] Meise

(1970-08-04) August 4, 1970 (age 53)
Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
EducationDrake University, USC (MFA)
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, director, producer
Years active1998–present
Spouse
Michael August
​
(m. 2008)​
Children1

John August (born August 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is known for his work on the films Go (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000) Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Big Fish (2003), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). He is host of the Scriptnotes podcast along with Craig Mazin.

August also writes and maintains a popular screenwriting blog and develops screenwriter-targeted software.[2][3] He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voting in the Writers branch.[4] In 2016, he was awarded the WGAw's Valentine Davies Award for his dignified contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.[5]

Early life

August was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado.[6] He earned a degree in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa; while there, he participated in a summer film program at Stanford and decided to pursue screenwriting.[7] He went on to earn an MFA in film from The Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California.[8]

As part of his course at USC, August wrote a romantic tragedy called Here and Now. Though the script never sold, it resulted in August finding agent representation and helped launch his screenwriting career.[8]

Career

August's debut film was 1999's critically acclaimed Go,[9] for which he also served as co-producer and second unit director.[10]

In 1998, August acquired the film rights to Daniel Wallace's Big Fish.[11] His adaptation became the 2003 Tim Burton film of the same name and earned August a 2003 BAFTA Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.[12]

Since 2003, August has written the screenplay for several Tim Burton films, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (an adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's book), Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie. August also shared story credit with Seth Grahame-Smith on Burton's Dark Shadows.

The Nines, his writing/directing debut starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, Hope Davis and Elle Fanning, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival[13] and Venice Film Festival's Critics’ Week.[14]

For television, August has developed four projects. D.C, a one-hour drama for the WB Network, ran in April 2000.[15] Alaska, a crime drama for ABC, shot a pilot in 2004 directed by Kim Manners but was not picked up for series.[16] Ops, a one-hour drama co-created by Jordan Mechner, was developed for 20th Television/Fox, but never filmed a pilot.[17] Chosen, a high-concept family drama co-created by Josh Friedman, was developed for 20th Television/ABC.[18]

August wrote the book for the Broadway musical adaptation of Big Fish, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman.[19] The musical has subsequently been adapted all over the world, including a 2017 run on London's West End starring Kelsey Grammer.[20]

August wrote the screenplay for Walt Disney Pictures' upcoming live-action musical fantasy film Aladdin, alongside Vanessa Taylor and Guy Ritchie, who will also direct.[21]

In July 2016, August signed a deal to write a three-book series aimed at middle-grade children, inspired by his experience as a Boy Scout. The first book in the series is titled Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, and is due to be published in early 2018 by Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.[22]

Awards

August was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2003 for Big Fish.[12]

He earned a 2006 Grammy nomination for his lyrics for "Wonka's Welcome Song" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[23]

In 2016, he was awarded the WGAw's Valentine Davies Award for his dignified contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.[5]

Other work

johnaugust.com

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.[24]

August established a complimentary site, screenwriting.io, to provide concise answers to a wide range of screenwriting craft-related questions.[5]

Quote-Unquote Apps

He founded Quote-Unquote Apps in 2010, which develops software related to film and the film industry. Their releases include FDX Reader, an iOS application that displays Final Draft files;[25] Less IMDb, a browser extension for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox that reorganizes the layout of IMDb pages; and Bronson Watermarker, an OS X watermarking application that supports multiple outputs. He also commissioned the typeface Courier Prime from Alan Dague-Greene, intended to be a more readable alternative to Courier New.[26]

In 2012, the Quote-Unquote team, along with Stu Maschwitz, developed Fountain, a simple markup syntax for screenplays.[27] Later that year, Quote-Unquote released the first public beta of Highland, an OS X utility that converts screenplays between PDF, FDX, and Fountain formats, and works as a Fountain text editor.[28]

In 2014, the company released Weekend Read, a freemium iOS app for reading screenplays. The app can open PDF, Final Draft, Fountain, Markdown and text files.[29] iPad support was added in 2015. The app features a 'For Your Consideration' section featuring awards season screenplays, as well as August's own scripts.[30]

In 2015, they released Assembler, a Mac app for instantly combining text files.[31]

Scriptnotes

Since the summer of 2011, August and fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin have hosted the Scriptnotes podcast, a weekly podcast on the craft of screenwriting and the film industry.[32] It consistently ranks among iTunes's top TV & Film podcasts.[33]

Writer Emergency Pack

August launched a 2014 Kickstarter for Writer Emergency Pack, a deck of cards designed to help writers when they're stuck. The Kickstarter raised $158,104 from 5,714 backers,[34] and the pack is now for sale to the public.[35] August worked with NaNoWriMo to distribute Writer Emergency Pack to more than 2,000 classrooms worldwide.[36]

One Hit Kill

In May 2015, August launched a second Kickstarter for a card game called One Hit Kill. The Kickstarter raised $76,038 from 1,951 backers.[37]

Personal life

August is openly gay, and lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Michael August, and their daughter.[38][39]

Beginning in August 2016, he spent a year living in Paris.[40]

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
Titan A.E. Screenplay With Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund
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
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"
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 Dark Shadows Story With Seth Grahame-Smith, based on the soap opera created by Dan Curtis
Frankenweenie Screenplay Based on the short film by Tim Burton
2019 Aladdin Screenplay With Vanessa Taylor and Guy Ritchie, Filming; live-action adaptation of Aladdin, based on One Thousand and One Nights and the French interpretation by Antoine Galland

References

  1. ^ https://johnaugust.com/2017/scriptnotes-ep-307-teaching-your-heroes-to-drive-transcript
  2. ^ Macworld FDX Reader review
  3. ^ FDX Reader on CNET
  4. ^ "Academy Invites 134 to Membership" on Oscars.com
  5. ^ a b c "Screenwriter John August to Receive WGAW's 2016 Valentine Davies Award". Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  6. ^ Taylor, Drew (2012-10-03). "'Frankenweenie' Writer John August Talks Working With Tim Burton, Apps & The 'Big Fish' Musical". IndieWire. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  7. ^ "John August, from Drake to Broadway". Newsroom | Drake University. 2013-08-16. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  8. ^ a b Academy, The. "LESSONS LEARNED: John August on Screenwriting". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  9. ^ Go on Rotten Tomatoes
  10. ^ Go credits on IMDb
  11. ^ Daniel Wallace website
  12. ^ a b 2003 BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nominees
  13. ^ The Nines at Sundance.com
  14. ^ Variety.com
  15. ^ D.C. episode list on IMDb
  16. ^ The Futon Critic
  17. ^ "Scribes on a Fox mission" on Variety.com
  18. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2012-09-19). "High-Concept Family Drama From John August & Josh Friedman Sells To ABC". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  19. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-09-08. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "Andrew Lippa and John August's Big Fish Swims Onto Broadway Beginning Sept. 5" on Playbill.com
  20. ^ "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-12-08. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  21. ^ Fleming Jr., Mike (October 10, 2016). "Guy Ritchie To Direct Live Action 'Aladdin' For Disney". Deadline.com. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  22. ^ Busch, Anita (2016-07-19). "'Big Fish' & 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory' Scribe John August Signs 3-Book Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  23. ^ The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards Roundup: Film/TV/Visual Media Field
  24. ^ johnaugust.com/about
  25. ^ MacWorld.com
  26. ^ August, John. "About John August". Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  27. ^ thenextweb.com
  28. ^ NoFilmSchool.com
  29. ^ Macaulay, Scott. "John August Launches iPhone Screenplay Reader, Weekend Read | Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  30. ^ "Need to Read a Screenplay on Your iPhone? Try Weekend Read (It's Free)". No Film School. 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  31. ^ "Assembler on the Mac App Store". Mac App Store. Retrieved 2017-12-11.
  32. ^ Scriptnotes on iTunes
  33. ^ podbay.fm top ranked TV and Film podcasts
  34. ^ Writer Emergency Pack
  35. ^ Writer Emergency Pack now on sale
  36. ^ "Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire | John August | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  37. ^ One Hit Kill on Kickstarter
  38. ^ johnaugust.com » I got married
  39. ^ johnaugust.com » Two big debuts
  40. ^ August, John (September 3, 2016). "I moved to Paris". JohnAugust.com. Retrieved March 14, 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_August&oldid=814894169"