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Flint Dille is an American screenwriter, game designer and novelist. He is best known for his animated work on ''
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...
'', ''
G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...
'', '' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', and his game-writing, '' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'', and ''
Dead to Rights ''Dead to Rights'' is a third-person shooter action video game series focusing on Jack Slate, a police officer in the fictional Grant City, and his K-9 partner Shadow. There are four games in the series. Games ''Dead to Rights'' ''Dead t ...
'', as well as a non-fiction book written with John Zuur Platten, ''The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design''.


Personal background

Dille was born in
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, the son of Robert Crabtree Dille and Virginia Nichols Dille. He attended Glenbrook South High School. In 1977, he graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in Ancient History and Classical Rhetoric. He received a
Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...
in Professional Writing (Cinema) from the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
. He lives in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Flint Dille is the grandson of John F. Dille, publisher of the original ''
Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily American newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, b ...
'' comic strip, and is part of the Dille Family Trust, which owned the rights to the character.


Professional background

After grad school, Dille worked as a freelance script reader, production assistant, and assistant art director before getting his first writing job from
Joe Ruby Joseph Clemens Ruby (March 30, 1933 – August 26, 2020) was an American animator, writer, television producer, and music editor. He was best known as a co-creator of the animated ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise, together with Ken Spears. In 1977, they ...
at
Ruby-Spears Ruby-Spears Productions (also known as Ruby-Spears Enterprises) was an American entertainment production company founded by veteran writers and '' Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' creators, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, in 1977, before closing in 1996. S ...
as a Saturday Morning Development writer. This led to writing scripts for '' Mr. T.'', ''The Puppy'', and ''RoboForce''. Later, Dille went to work for
Sunbow Productions Sunbow Entertainment (formerly known as Sunbow Productions until 1995) was an American animation studio and distributor, founded on June 23, 1980, and owned until May 4, 1998, by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York City and in the United State ...
and served in various capacities as a writer, story editor, associate producer, and co-producer on several shows, including '' The Transformers'', ''
G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...
'', ''
Inhumanoids ''Inhumanoids'' is the title of an animated series and the name of a Hasbro toy property that were both released in 1986. In the tradition of other Hasbro properties such as ''Transformers (toy line), Transformers'', and ''G.I. Joe'', the show w ...
'' and '' Visionaries''. Dille was a story editor for the first season of ''G.I. Joe'' (1985). He also wrote the episodes "The Gamesmaster", "Eau De Cobra", and ""Skeletons in the Closet", and co-wrote the episodes "The Pit of Vipers", "The Wrong Stuff", "Grey Hairs and Growing Pains", and "G.I. Joe and the Golden Fleece". Dille joined the production team of ''The Transformers'' as a supervising story editor in the show's second season (1985-1986) and also co-wrote the episode "Prime Target" with his ''G.I. Joe'' colleague Buzz Dixon. Dille worked on an extensive rewrite of Ron Friedman's screenplay for '' The Transformers: The Movie'' (1986); although Friedman contractually received sole screenplay credit, Dille was credited onscreen as the film's story consultant. After the movie, Dille served as a story editor for the third season of ''The Transformers'' (1986-1987) and wrote the season's five-part opening story, "Five Faces of Darkness." Dille returned to ''G.I. Joe'' after the series was taken over by
DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions, sometimes stylized as DİC) was a French American film and television production company that ...
, co-writing the episode "Injustice and the Cobra Way" for the show's first DIC season (1990-1991). Dille worked briefly at CBS on the in-house production of ''
Garbage Pail Kids ''Garbage Pail Kids'' is a series of sticker trading cards produced by the Topps Company, originally released in 1985 and designed to parody the '' Cabbage Patch Kids'' dolls, which were popular at the time. Each sticker card features a Garba ...
'', before working with
Amblin Entertainment Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are lo ...
on several projects, including '' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', '' Tiny Toons'' (as a movie), and '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story''.


TSR and Dungeons & Dragons

Dille met
Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax creat ...
, co-creator of
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
, while Gygax was in Hollywood and they began collaborating on a number of projects, including the ''
Sagard the Barbarian ''Sagard the Barbarian'' is a series of four Hero's Challenge Gamebooks written by Gary Gygax, co-creator of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and Flint Dille, screenwriter ('' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', '' The Transformers: The Movie'') and game ...
''
gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...
series (1985-1986), which was published by
Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...
. Dille co-authored a script with Gygax for a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' film; however, the film was never made. Dille introduced his sister Lorraine Williams to Gygax at Gygax's request. TSR was having hard times financially, and she was suggested as both a potential investor and as a skilled manager, and she was brought in to TSR as Vice President and Administration. In 1989, TSR expanded its operations to the west coast to get adaptations of ''D&D'' back on television and into movies; Dille was put in charge of this new department, which was named TSR West. Dille was able to get the boardgame '' A Line in the Sand'' (1991) published the same day the US bombing started in the first Gulf War, as he could convince the company president to move quickly. The Buck Rogers roleplaying game '' XXVc'' was started TSR West, but Dille was unable to finish the game so it was sent back east. For the rest of the 1980s, Dille focused on animation writing and game writing and design. At TSR, Dille worked on '' Dragonstrike'', for which he wrote and directed the video portion. Dille also directed several interactive audio projects, including '' First Quest'', '' Karameikos'', '' Red Steel'' and ''
Planescape ''Planescape'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, designed by David Cook (game designer), Zeb Cook, and published by TSR, Inc., TSR in 1994. Description ''Planescape'' encompasses numerous Plane (Dun ...
''. The TSR Audio Disc ''Terror T.R.A.X: Track of the Vampyre'', was later adapted into a CD-ROM by
Grolier Grolier is one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), '' The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), '' Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), '' Ac ...
, directed by Dille and programmed by Peter Marx and Evolutionary Publishing. Dille co-wrote the '' Agent 13: The Midnight Avenger'' series of novels and graphic novels with David Marconi and also the '' Buck Rogers XXVC'' comic modules '' Rude Awakening''.


Interactive Games

Dille's career shifted to interactive games in the late 80's when he worked on several projects for the Sega CD platform, including '' Double Switch'', '' Maximum Surge'' and '' Corpse Killer''. Dille then worked on '' Soviet Strike'' and '' Nuclear Strike'' for
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
, writing the videos and completing his transition from paper games and products to video games. Dille won "Story of the Year" for his work on '' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'' and on ''
Dead to Rights ''Dead to Rights'' is a third-person shooter action video game series focusing on Jack Slate, a police officer in the fictional Grant City, and his K-9 partner Shadow. There are four games in the series. Games ''Dead to Rights'' ''Dead t ...
''. Dille was the writer for other video games, including '' Fantastic Four 2'', ''
Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC ...
'', ''
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 serves as a homage ...
'', '' James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies'', '' Soviet Strike'', and '' Nuclear Strike''.


Frank Miller

Dille is a close friend of comics creator
Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book artist, comic book writer, and screenwriter known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'', for which he created the character Elektra, and ...
; "Frank and I met during what I call our 'professional adolescence' when he was doing the Dark Knight and I was doing the Transformers cartoon series", says Dille, "and we've been great friends ever since". Dille was selected to lead the design, scriptwriting, story generation, and production of a video game adaptation of Miller's ''
Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir Comic book, comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Prese ...
'' for Red Mile Entertainment. Miller planned to direct a ''Buck Rogers'' film, with Dille as producer, but this project was scrapped in 2009. The character of Dilios in Miller's
graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
''
300 __NOTOC__ Year 300 ( CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 1053 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 300 ...
'' (1998), loosely based on Aristodemus of Sparta, is named after Dille.


Ingress

Google revealed Flint Dille to be the creative lead of alternate reality, geomobile game Ingress on All Tech Considered, an NPR radio segment. The project operates as if it isn't a game, presenting itself as reality at Wyrd Con 2014. At ComiCon 2014 Dille spoke on the panel "Story Worlds: The Alchemy of Franchise Creation." Using his experience with Ingress, he explained the way different medias are growing interconnected.


Niantic Labs

Niantic Labs spun out of Google in 2015, although Google remained a major backer. Dille was revealed to be leaving Google with Niantic Labs and continuing in his position as Creative Lead.


Autocracy

Recently Flint Dille completed a ''Transformers'' graphic novel trilogy, Autocracy, with
Chris Metzen Christopher Vincent Metzen (born November 22, 1973) is an American game designer, artist, voice actor, and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media fran ...
and Livio Ramondelli. The series follows the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron one million years before they arrive on Earth.


Transportopia

At TechWeek LA, Dille unveiled Transportopia, which he describes as turning the entire city of Los Angeles into a massively-multiplayer online game as an attempt to change our relation to the city and "move us outside of our bubbles."


Other projects

Dille co-wrote and co-executive produced
Dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coo ...
's 2005 horror film ''
Venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
''. Dille also taught an Alternate Reality Game Design class at UCLA film school, Winter Semester 2011.


Tabletop games

* '' Sagard'' (1985-1986): the Barbarian Interactive Gamebook series with E. Gary Gygax


Screenwriting

* television series head writer denoted in bold


Video games

* '' Surgical Strike'' (1994) * '' Terror T.R.A.X.: Track of the Vampire'' (1995) * '' Soviet Strike'' (1996) * '' Nuclear Strike'' (1997) * '' Army Men: Sarge's Heroes'' (1999) * ''
Tomorrow Never Dies ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay ...
'' (1999) * ''Citizen X'' (2002) * ''
Dead to Rights ''Dead to Rights'' is a third-person shooter action video game series focusing on Jack Slate, a police officer in the fictional Grant City, and his K-9 partner Shadow. There are four games in the series. Games ''Dead to Rights'' ''Dead t ...
'' (2002) * '' Fire Blade'' (2002) * '' Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu'' (2003) * '' Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma'' (2003) * '' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay'' (2004) * '' Constantine'' (2005) * '' Scooby-Doo! Unmasked'' (2005) * ''
Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to DC ...
'' (2005) * '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (2006) * ''
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 serves as a homage ...
'' (2006) * '' Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'' (2007) * '' Transformers: The Game'' (2007) * '' The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena'' (2009) * '' Ghostbusters: The Video Game'' (2009) * '' Wheelman'' (2009)


Television

* '' The Puppy’s Further Adventures'' (1983) * '' Mister T'' (1983) * '' Robo Force: The Revenge of Nazgar'' (1984) * '' Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines'' (1985) * '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' (1985-1986) * '' The Transformers'' (1985-1987): season 3 head writer * ''
Inhumanoids ''Inhumanoids'' is the title of an animated series and the name of a Hasbro toy property that were both released in 1986. In the tradition of other Hasbro properties such as ''Transformers (toy line), Transformers'', and ''G.I. Joe'', the show w ...
'' (1986) * ''
Garbage Pail Kids ''Garbage Pail Kids'' is a series of sticker trading cards produced by the Topps Company, originally released in 1985 and designed to parody the '' Cabbage Patch Kids'' dolls, which were popular at the time. Each sticker card features a Garba ...
'' (1987) * '' Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light'' (1987) * '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' (1990) * '' Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'' (1991): season 2 head writer * '' Stunt Dawgs'' (1992) * '' Transformers: Generation 2'' (1993)


Films

* '' The Transformers: The Movie'' (1986) * '' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'' (1991) * ''
Venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
'' (2005) * '' Starship Troopers: Invasion'' (2012)


Transformers web shorts (2021)

* ''Discontinued? What do you mean I’m being discontinued?'' * ''Are you kidding me?! You dropped the Matrix!'' * ''10,000 pardons, but you mean Bombshell, right?'' * ''Who else had a Quintesson space loogie on their bingo card?'' * ''Sharkticons, good at more than just chomping!'' * ''It sucks getting old...am I right?''


Critical reception

Regarding Dille's script for ''Fievel Goes West'', critic Cliff Terry wrote, "Screenwriter Flint Dille has provided a story that is frenetic and fast-paced—in the end, too hyper, too cluttered—with some decidedly dark touches that, conceivably, could have undertones of the Holocaust. To lighten things up, Dille periodically tosses in bits of relatively sophisticated humor. At one point, the desert is described as 'a million-acre catbox,' there are references to espresso and endive, and when Miss Kitty cuts out on Tiger, she purrs—''
Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
''-like: 'We'll always have the Bronx.'"


Published works

* * Dille, Flint (2020). ''The Gamesmaster: My Life in the '80s Geek Culture Trenches with G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Transformers''. Los Angeles, CA: Rare Bird Books, A Vireo Book. .


References


External links

*
G.I. Joe Interview - Flint Dille
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dille, Flint American male screenwriters American video game designers American video game writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)