Kurt Johnstad is an American screenwriter. He has worked on several films including ''

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 ...

'', for which he was nominated for a

Saturn Award The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films bel ...

, along with Michael Gordon and

Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with ''Dawn of the Dead (2004 film), Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978 film), of the same name ...

. He also wrote the screenplays for ''

Act of Valor ''Act of Valor'' is a 2012 American action film produced and directed by Mouse McCoy and Scott Waugh and written by Kurt Johnstad. The film stars active duty U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, as well as Ro ...

'', '' 300: Rise of an Empire'' and ''

Atomic Blonde ''Atomic Blonde'' is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by David Leitch (receiving his first credit as feature film director) from a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad, based on the 2012 graphic novel ''The Coldest City'' by Antony Johns ...

'', and was tapped to write one of two competing screenplays for ''

Aquaman Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles ...

'';

Will Beall Will Beall is an American screenwriter and former Los Angeles Police Department detective. He is best known for writing the scripts for '' Gangster Squad'' (2013) and the DC Extended Universe films ''Aquaman'' (2018) and ''Zack Snyder's Justice ...

's script was eventually chosen for the film.

Life and career

Johnstad grew up working on a cattle farm in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Among his family were two sisters and his father, an Air Force fighter pilot, and mother, an English teacher. Johnstad graduated high school at 16 and spent a year traveling. He enrolled in the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

in 1986 to study film and completed the program in three years. Johnstad began working on

music videos A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

and

television movies A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a terrestr ...

for the next four years. Among the people he had worked with was director

, who offered him a job as his first assistant director which lead the two to work with each other for the next ten years. Johnstad would later work on scripts and in the mid-1990s, a low-budget action film ''

True Vengeance ''True Vengeance'' is a 1997 American action film directed by David Worth, starring Daniel Bernhardt, Miles O'Keeffe, Beverly Johnson and George Cheung. Bernhardt stars as a former Navy SEAL and Yakuza henchman who must twice face his past whe ...

'' was released in the mid-1990s. Snyder asked Johnstad to assist him with his film ''

'', a fictionalized graphic novel adaptation of

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 ...

's comic involving the

Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae ( ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Polis, Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it wa ...

. The film got him nominated for a

along with Snyder and Michael Gordon. In 2011, Johnstad was working with Snyder to co-write the film ''The Last Photograph'' and ''300: The Battle of Artemisia'' for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Johnstad also worked outside of collaborations with Snyder, and was hired by producers

Basil Iwanyk Basil William Iwanyk (born January 4, 1970) is an American film producer. He is the founder of Thunder Road Films and most known for the films '' Sicario'', '' The Town'', ''Greenland'', and the ''John Wick'' franchise. His films have earned mo ...

and Jason Netter to adapt

Max Allan Collins Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic literature. His work has been published in several formats, such as his '' Ms. Tree'' series and his '' Road to Perdition'' series was the basis for a fi ...

’ novel ''Black Hats''. His next screenplays that were produced was ''

'' and '' 300: Rise of an Empire''. In 2015, ''Variety'' described Johnstad as beginning "to make a name for himself as writer who delivers big action in his scripts, along with classic heroes audiences love to root for." His screenplay based on '' The Coldest City'' by Antony Johnston was announced that year. The film was titled ''

'' and released on July 28, 2017. Films Johnstad has been assigned to write screenplays for include '' The Lost Legion'' for

and

Dan Lin Dan Lin (; born April 8, 1973) is a Taiwanese-American film and television producer. He is the chairman of Netflix Films and the founder of Rideback (formerly Lin Pictures until 2018), a film and television production company that he formed ...

, and ''

'' where another script was concurrently in development, by

. Beall's script was later used for the film.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnsrud, Kurt Living people Writers from Wisconsin American male screenwriters Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)