John Carlin (journalist)
John Carlin (born 12 May 1956)[1] is a journalist and author, dealing with both sports and politics. His book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation about former South African president Nelson Mandela is the basis for the 2009 film Invictus.
Personal life
Carlin was born to a Scottish father and Spanish mother, and spent the first three years of his life in North London, before moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina, due to his father's posting to the British Embassy.[2] Having returned to England, he was schooled in a boarding school in Ludlow, Shropshire, and went on to gain an MA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University.[2]
Career
Carlin was The Independent's South Africa bureau chief from 1989-1995.[1] In 1993 Carlin wrote and presented a BBC documentary on the South African Third Force, his first television work.[3]
From 1995-1998 he was the United States bureau chief for the The Independent on Sunday.[1]
In 1997, Carlin wrote an article titled "A Farewell to Arms" for Wired magazine about a cyber warfare attack. This was originally intended to form the basis of a 1999 film, WW3.com.[4] When this project stalled, its script was rewritten into the 2007 film, Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0)..[5]
Carlin was writer and interviewer for the 1999 episode The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela of the American PBS series Frontline.[6] It was also broadcast as The First Accused in South Africa by the SABC.[3]
An article by Carlin was the basis for the interview script in the 2000 Channel 4 documentary Maradona - Kicking the Habit.[7] Carlin won the 2000 El País Ortega y Gasset Award for journalism, for an article in Spanish newspaper el País.[1] Between 2004 to 2008 Carlin was senior international writer for El País.[1]
Nelson Mandela
Much of Carlin's career has dealt with the politics of South Africa, leading to a relationship with the former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
In a 1998 interview, Mandela said of Carlin's journalism "What you wrote and the way in which you carried out your task in this country was absolutely magnificent…it was absolutely inspiring. You have been very courageous, saying things which many journalists would never say."[8] Mandela wrote the foreward to Carlin's 2004 Spanish language book Heroica Tierra Cruel about Africa.[1]
In August 2008, Carlin published the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, about Mandela's actions as President during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa.[9] The book became the basis for the 2009 film, Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela. Carlin was consulted for a week in his Barcelona home by the filmakers about the adaptation of the book into a screenplay.
Filmography
- American Experience (1991) (Consultant)
- Frontline (1999) (Writer/Cast)
- Katbot (2005) (Executive Producer)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007) (Script/Article)
- Invictus (2009) (Novel)
Bibliography
- Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, Template:ISBN-13 Template:ISBN-10, Penguin, August 2008
- Heroica Tierra Cruel (Spanish) Template:ISBN-13 Template:ISBN-10, September 2004
- White Angels: Beckham, Real Madrid and the New Football, Template:ISBN-13 Template:ISBN-10, Bloomsbury, September 2004
- A Farewell to Arms, John Carlin, Wired Magazine, Issue 5.05, May 1997
References
- ^ a b c d e f Official site of John Carlin, Curriculum Vitae
- ^ a b Official site of John Carlin, My Story
- ^ a b Official site of John Carlin, TV
- ^ Fox eyes 'WW3.com' as tentpole for 1999 Variety.com, 27 Jan 1998
- ^ The 'Die Hard' is cast for scribe Richardson Variety.com, 26 Jul 2004
- ^ Television Review; Nelson Mandela: Man, Leader and, of Course, Legend New York Times, 25 May 1999
- ^ Maradona opens up on life of deception John Carlin, The Independent, 6 August 2000
- ^ Official site of John Carlin, Review Extracts, Playing the Enemy
- ^ When Nelson had a ball The Guradian, 31 August 2008
External links
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