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John August (born August 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films '' Go'' (1999), '' Charlie's Angels'' (2000), '' Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'' (2003), '' Big Fish'' (2003), '' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005), '' Corpse Bride'' (2005), '' Frankenweenie'' (2012), the
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
live-action adaptation of '' Aladdin'' (2019), the novels '' Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire'' (2018), ''Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon'' (2019) and ''Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows'' (2020). He hosts the screenwriting podcast '' Scriptnotes'' with
Craig Mazin Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries ''Chernobyl (miniseries), Chernobyl'' (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, an ...
, maintains an eponymous screenwriting blog, and develops screenwriter-targeted software through his company, Quote-Unquote Apps. August is a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...
, voting in the Writers branch. In 2016, he was awarded the WGAw's Valentine Davies Award for his dignified contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large, and has been nominated for a
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
and a Grammy.


Early life

August was born John Tilton Meise in
Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...
, in 1970. Meise is a German-language surname he found was difficult to pronounce and wished to change; he eventually settled on August, both his father's middle name and the month he was born. He earned a degree in journalism from
Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...
in Des Moines,
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
; while there, he participated in a summer film program at Stanford and decided to pursue screenwriting. He went on to earn an MFA in film from The Peter Stark Producing Program at 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 ...
. As part of his course at USC, August wrote a romantic tragedy called ''Here and Now''. Though the script never sold, it resulted in August finding agent representation and helped launch his screenwriting career.


Career

August's debut film was 1999's crime-comedy '' Go'', directed by Doug Liman, for which he also served as co-producer and
second unit director A second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming s ...
. After ''Go'' finished filming, August and Melissa McCarthy, who had a small role in the film, ran into each other in a coffee shop, and August told McCarthy that he had written a short film with her in mind. The short film, ''God'', was shot after ''Go'', but finished and released before. It has been credited as one of the early showcases of McCarthy's comedic talent. August created his first television show, '' D.C.'', in 2000 for
The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
. The series was produced by '' Law & Order'' creator Dick Wolf, with August serving as co-executive producer. Seven episodes were produced, though only four aired. In the same year, August also wrote the animated science fiction feature ''
Titan A.E. ''Titan A.E.'' is a 2000 American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and starring Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo and Drew Ba ...
'', and the McG-directed '' Charlie's Angels''. In the fall of 1998, while ''Go'' was still in post-production, August had acquired the film rights to Daniel Wallace's novel '' Big Fish'' after reading it as a not-yet published manuscript. His adaptation became the 2003
Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...
film of the same name and earned August a 2003
BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...
nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He wrote the 2003 film sequel, '' Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle''. August has spoken about the difficult production process for the film. He reunited with ''Big Fish'' director Burton in 2005 for '' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', an adaptation of Roald Dahl's
children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
. August had written to Dahl as part of a third grade class project, and received a postcard reply. Though the reply was a form letter, August still had it, decades later, when he adapted the book. He earned a 2006 Grammy nomination for his lyrics for "Wonka's Welcome Song" from the film. He collaborated for a third time with Burton on the
stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...
animated fantasy '' Corpse Bride'', also released in 2005. The two films were in production simultaneously, with actors including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Christopher Lee appearing in both. The film marked the third of five produced collaborations to date between August and Burton. August made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with science fiction
psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...
'' The Nines'', starring Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, Hope Davis and
Elle Fanning Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998) is an American actress. Her works include both independent films and blockbusters, and her accolades include a National Board of Review Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and ...
. The film, which August also wrote, premiered at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
and
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
's Critics' Week. One of McCarthy's characters in the film, Margaret, is the same one she played in August's 1998 short film ''God''. In 2010, he partnered with game designer
Jordan Mechner Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964) is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, filmmaker, and former video game programmer. A major figure in the development of cinematic video games and a pioneer in video game animation, he began ...
to pitch an adaptation of Mechner's ''
Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two ga ...
''. August served as an executive producer on the resulting film, '' Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'', directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. He reunited with Burton again in 2012 for the stop-motion fantasy horror comedy '' Frankenweenie,'' 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 Burton's 1984 short film of the same name. August also received story credit on Burton's ''
Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American Gothic fiction, Gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulatio ...
'' adaptation''.'' August returned to ''Big Fish'' for a 2013 Broadway musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, directed and choreographed by
Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. Her notable theater productions include ''Oklahoma!'', ''The Music Man'', ''Crazy for You (musical), Crazy for You'', ''Contact (musical), Co ...
. August co-wrote the screenplay for
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...
' live action musical fantasy film '' Aladdin'' (2019), alongside director
Guy Ritchie Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known primarily for British comedy gangster films and large-scale action-adventure films. Ritchie left school at the age of 15, and worked in e ...
. In July 2016, August signed a deal to write a three-book series aimed at middle-grade children, inspired by his experience as a Boy Scout. The first book in the series, '' Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire'', was published on February 6, 2018 by Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Its origins and creation were documented in August's podcast ''Launch''. ''Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon'' published in 2019, and the final book in the series followed in 2020.


Awards

August was nominated for a
BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...
for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2003 for ''Big Fish''. He earned a 2006 Grammy nomination for his lyrics for "Wonka's Welcome Song" from ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. In 2016, he was awarded the WGAw's Valentine Davies Award for his dignified contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.


Other work


johnaugust.com

In 2003, August established johnaugust.com as a repository for the 100+ screenwriting advice columns he had written for
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
. The site now has over 1,500 posts. August established a complementary site, screenwriting.io, to provide concise answers to a wide range of screenwriting craft-related questions.


Quote-Unquote Apps

He founded Quote-Unquote Apps in 2010, which develops software related to film and the film industry. Their releases include FDX Reader , an iOS application that displays Final Draft files; Less IMDb, a browser extension for
Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...
, Chrome, and
Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...
that reorganizes the layout of IMDb pages; and Bronson Watermarker, an
OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
watermarking application that supports multiple outputs. He also commissioned the typeface Courier Prime from Alan Dague-Greene, intended to be a more readable alternative to Courier New. In 2012, the Quote-Unquote team, along with Stu Maschwitz, developed
Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...
, a simple markup syntax for screenplays. Later that year, Quote-Unquote released the first public beta of Highland, an
OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
utility that converts screenplays between PDF, FDX, and Fountain formats, and works as a Fountain text editor. In 2014, the company released Weekend Read, a freemium iOS app for reading screenplays. The app can open
PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
, Final Draft, Fountain, Markdown and text files. iPad support was added in 2015. The app features a 'For Your Consideration' section featuring awards season screenplays, as well as August's own scripts. In 2015, they released Assembler, a Mac app for instantly combining text files.


Podcasts

Since the summer of 2011, August and fellow screenwriter
Craig Mazin Craig Mazin (born 1971) is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known for creating, writing, and producing the HBO historical disaster drama miniseries ''Chernobyl (miniseries), Chernobyl'' (2019) and co-creating, co-writing, an ...
have hosted the ''Scriptnotes'' podcast, a weekly
podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
on
screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, dev ...
and the film industry. August debuted a second podcast in January 2018, titled ''Launch'', a six-episode series produced by Wondery, which chronicles August's experience writing, selling, and releasing his debut novel, '' Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire''. On its first day of release, ''Launch'' reached the top 10 on the iTunes podcast chart.


Card games

August launched a 2014
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
for Writer Emergency Pack, a deck of cards designed to help writers when they're stuck. The Kickstarter raised $158,104 from 5,714 backers, and the pack is now for sale to the public. August worked with NaNoWriMo to distribute Writer Emergency Pack to more than 2,000 classrooms worldwide. In May 2015, August launched a second Kickstarter for a card game called One Hit Kill. The Kickstarter raised $76,038 from 1,951 backers.


Personal life

August lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Michael August, and their daughter. From 2016 to 2017, he spent a year living in Paris.


Filmography

Film writer Executive producer * '' Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'' (2010) Television


References


External links


John August Interview

johnaugust.com

Quote-Unquote Apps
* {{DEFAULTSORT:August, John 1970 births 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American screenwriters American expatriates in France American film and television podcasters American gay writers American LGBTQ film directors American LGBTQ novelists American LGBTQ screenwriters American male screenwriters American people of German descent Animation screenwriters Drake University alumni Film directors from Colorado Gay novelists Gay screenwriters LGBTQ people from Colorado Living people Screenwriters from Colorado USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Writers from Boulder, Colorado