Dan Harris (born August 29, 1979) is an American screenwriter and director best known for working with

Michael Dougherty Michael Patrick Dougherty (born October 28, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and animator, best known for the cult horror film ''Trick 'r Treat'' (2007), and the monster film '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (2019) ...

and

Bryan Singer Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Singer ...

, and whose writing credits include ''

Superman Returns ''Superman Returns'' is a 2006 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris from a story by Singer, Dougherty and Harris based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the sixth and fina ...

'', '' X2'' and '' X-Men: Apocalypse''.

Early life

Harris was raised in

Kingston, Pennsylvania Kingston is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the western bank of the Susquehanna River opposite the city of Wilkes-Barre. Kingston was first settled in the early 1770s; it was incorporated as a borough in ...

. He went to Wyoming Valley West Middle and High schools, and graduated from

Wyoming Seminary , motto_translation = Truth, beauty, and goodness , address = 201 North Sprague Avenue , location = , region = , city = Kingston , county = Luzerne , st ...

. Before he received his bachelor's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, Harris's short film ''Urban Chaos Theory'' won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the NoDance Film Festival, and the following winter, his short film, "''The Killing of Candice Klein"'', played at the 2002

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

Career

Harris made his feature film directing debut with '' Imaginary Heroes'', starring

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...

Jeff Daniels Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and playwright, known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accol ...

, Emile Hirsch and Michelle Williams. The film had its world premiere at the 29th

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

and opened Winter 2005 after being given special recognition for excellence in filmmaking from the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

. In addition to ''Superman Returns'', Harris and his writing partner

have co-written many films, including '' Urban Legends: Bloody Mary'' and ''X2'', which he wrote at the age of 22 for director Bryan Singer, an assignment offered to him after the director read the screenplay for ''Imaginary Heroes''. In the same year, he was honored as one of Variety’s top 10 screenwriters to watch. Harris directed '' I, Lucifer'', a film based on the novel which he adapted with Michael Dougherty. Harris and Dougherty opted out of writing the upcoming Superman sequel. Harris co-wrote '' X-Men: Apocalypse'' with Singer, Dougherty and

Simon Kinberg Simon David Kinberg (born August 2, 1973) is a British-born American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film franchise, and has also written such films as '' Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' and '' Sherlock Holmes''. H ...

. Also with Dougherty and Singer, Harris wrote the ''Superman Returns'' prequel comic books for

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...

. Harris' photography has twice been published by New York fashion and arts landmark ''

Visionaire The VisionAire VA-10 Vantage is a prototype single-engined light business-jet (or "very light jet") designed and developed by the American company VisionAire Jets Corporation. Originally planned for production in the late 1990s, the original Visio ...

'' and he was part of ''Vanity Fair's'' "Hollywood Portfolio" in 2005.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1979 births American male screenwriters Living people People from Kingston, Pennsylvania Screenwriters from Pennsylvania Film directors from Pennsylvania Wyoming Seminary alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni {{US-screen-writer-stub