John C. Thomas is an American screenwriter based in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. With his brother Jim Thomas, he wrote and/or was substantially involved with the screenplays of numerous films - including ''

Predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

'' (1987), ''

Predator 2 ''Predator 2'' is a 1990 American science fiction action film written by brothers Jim and John Thomas, directed by Stephen Hopkins, and starring Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades, María Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Peter Hall ...

'' (1990), ''

Executive Decision ''Executive Decision'' is a 1996 American action film directed by Stuart Baird in his directorial debut. The film stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, and B.D. Wong. It depicts t ...

'' (1996), ''

Wild Wild West ''Wild Wild West'' is a 1999 American steampunk Western film co-produced and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock alongside Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, from a story penned by brothers Jim and John ...

'' (1999), and '' Behind Enemy Lines'' (2001), which spawned a franchise.

Early life

Born in Needles, California and raised in Bakersfield, John worked as lifeguard, teacher, ditch digger and carpenter, as well as attempting to be a writer. His brother had the idea for the script that would become ''Predator'', in 1983, and asked John for help. Thomas and his brother took inspiration from a joke circulating Hollywood concerning the ''Rocky'' franchise and wrote a screenplay based on it. The Thomas script for ''Predator'' was originally titled ''Hunter''. The script was picked up by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

in 1985, and turned over to producer

Joel Silver Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer. Life and career Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School i ...

who, based on his experience with ''

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'', decided to turn the science fiction pulp storyline into a big-budget film. Thomas worked on a number of Hollywood productions through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, such as '' The Rescue'' (1988), ''

Two-Fisted Tales ''Two-Fisted Tales'' is an anthology war comic published bi-monthly by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title originated in 1950 when Harvey Kurtzman suggested to William Gaines that they publish an adventure comic. Kurtzman became the editor o ...

'' (1992) and ''

Mission to Mars ''Mission to Mars'' is a 2000 American science fiction adventure film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Jim Thomas, John Thomas, and Graham Yost, and suggested by Disney's theme park attraction of the same name. The film depicts the first ...

'' (2000). Along with his brother, he created the short-lived TV series ''

Hard Time on Planet Earth ''Hard Time on Planet Earth'' is an American science fiction television series that aired on CBS as a midseason replacement from March 1 to June 21, 1989. Airing for 13 episodes, the series starred Martin Kove and was created by Jim and John ...

''. Scheduled opposite

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Unsolved Mysteries ''Unsolved Mysteries'' is an American mystery documentary television show, created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer. Documenting cold cases and paranormal phenomena, it began as a series of seven specials, presented by Raymond Burr, Ka ...

'' and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Growing Pains ''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the ...

'' on Wednesdays, ''Hard Time on Planet Earth'' ranked 65th out of 81 programs upon its premiere. Ratings for the series never improved and the series was canceled by CBS in May 1989.

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American screenwriters 21st-century American screenwriters American male screenwriters Living people People from Needles, California Screenwriters from California 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers {{US-screen-writer-stub