John Hodge (screenwriter)

John Hodge
Born	1964 (age 59–60) Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	Physician, screenwriter
Years active	1994–present

John Hodge (born 1964) is a Scottish screenwriter and dramatist from Glasgow, who adapted Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting into the script for the film of the same title. His first play Collaborators won the 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Play. His films include Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996) A Life Less Ordinary (1997), The Beach (2000), The Final Curtain (2002), and the short film Alien Love Triangle (2002).

Life and career

Born and raised in Glasgow, Hodge comes from a family of doctors and carried on the tradition by studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was the writer of the annual Medics' Musical in 1988. Hodge started writing screenplays after meeting producer Andrew Macdonald at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1991. He moved to London after writing Shallow Grave and gave up medicine to concentrate on writing. He now lives in Bath, next door neighbour to Finlay Taylor-Dye.

His films include Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), The Beach (2000), The Final Curtain (2002), and the short film Alien Love Triangle (2002). Most of his films are directed by Danny Boyle; Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, and A Life Less Ordinary all starred Ewan McGregor. In 2022, Hodge made his first foray into television with the spy thriller television series The Ipcress File for ITV.

Filmography

• Shallow Grave (1994, writer)
• Trainspotting (1996, screenplay)
• A Life Less Ordinary (1997, writer)
• The Beach (2000, screenplay)
• The Final Curtain (2002, writer)
• The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007, screenplay)
• Alien Love Triangle (2008, short, writer)
• The Sweeney (2012, story)
• Trance (2013, screenplay)
• The Program (2015)
• T2 Trainspotting (2017)
• The Ipcress File (2022)

Awards

• 1995: BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay: Trainspotting: Won
• 1996: Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay: Trainspotting: Nominated.
• 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Play: Collaborators: Won

Further reading

• Trainspotting (1996) screenplay by John Hodge
• Monologue from the beginning of Trainspotting

External links

• John Hodge at IMDb
• John Hodge at the BFI's Screenonline
• John Hodge Filmography at Allmovie
• "How John Hodge wrote the Trainspotting screenplay" Interview by Tim Teeman, The Times, 11 February 2008
• "John Hodge Interview on The Dark Is Rising" by Scott Carmichael 27 Jun. 2007 Joblo.com