Derek Connolly (born c. 1976) is an American screenwriter and film producer. He is best known for his collaborations with filmmaker

Colin Trevorrow Colin Trevorrow (; born September 13, 1976) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction comedy ''Safety Not Guaranteed'' (2012) to critical and commercial success. Trevo ...

, and has written the films ''

Safety Not Guaranteed ''Safety Not Guaranteed'' is a 2012 American science fiction film, science fiction comedy film directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass. It was inspired by a joke classified ad that ran in ''Backwoods Home Magazine'' ...

'' (2012), '' Jurassic World'' (2015) and its sequels '' Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'' (2018) and ''

Jurassic World Dominion ''Jurassic World Dominion'' is a 2022 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael (filmmaker), Emily Carmichael from a story by Derek Connolly and Tre ...

'' (2022), '' Kong: Skull Island'' (2017) and '' Detective Pikachu'' (2019). He also co-wrote the unproduced original draft of '' Star Wars: Duel of the Fates'', which became '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019).

Education

Connolly attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

and New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Connolly was listed on Variety's Ten Screenwriters to Watch in 2012. Connolly rewrote '' Kong: Skull Island'' (2017), for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Connolly co-wrote early (and ultimately uncredited) drafts of '' Pacific Rim: Uprising'' with

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...

, Jon Spaihts and Zak Penn; the final screenplay was by Steven S. DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and T. S. Nowlin; based on characters by Travis Beacham and del Toro Connolly and his writing partner

co-wrote the screenplays for '' Jurassic World'' (2015) and its sequel '' Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'' (2018), and by February 2018, had written a story treatment for ''

'', was released on June 10, 2022. Connolly and Trevorrow also co-wrote the first draft of '' Star Wars: Duel of the Fates'', the final film of ''Star Wars'' sequel trilogy, but both left after Trevorrow stepped down as director, they were later replaced by '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' director J. J. Abrams (who eventually replaced Trevorrow as director) and Chris Terrio; however Connolly and Trevorrow received a story credit with Abrams and Terrio on '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019). Connolly was reported to be working on a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of the film '' Flight of the Navigator'', as well as writing an upcoming original

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

film directed by

Teddy Newton Teddy Newton is an American animator and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios. Career Newton worked as a storyboard artist on ''2 Stupid Dogs'', ''The Iron Giant'', and ''Dexter's Laboratory.'' He was a charact ...

and a live action '' Legend of Zelda'' film directed by Wes Ball and produced by

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

and Avi Arad. Connolly has been tapped to pen the script for a ''

Metal Gear is a Media franchise, franchise of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear (video game), Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX, MSX home computers. The player often takes con ...

'' film.

Writing credits

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* Living people 1976 births Film producers from Florida American male screenwriters Tisch School of the Arts alumni Writers from Miami Miami Palmetto Senior High School alumni Sundance Film Festival award winners {{US-screen-writer-1970s-stub