John Orloff

John Orloff is an American screenwriter.

John Orloff
BornLos Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationScreenwriter
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Notable works

Early life

Orloff was born in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised in a "Hollywood" family. His father, also named John Orloff, was a TV commercial director. His grandmother was B-movie actress Peggy Knudsen, and his great-grandparents were the real-life married couple of Fibber McGee and Molly, stars of TV and radio.

Orloff studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles Film School, and on graduation went to work in the advertising business.

Career

After ten years working on TV commercials in various positions, he met a TV movie development executive, now his wife, from the HBO television network. When she continually brought home what he felt were "awful" screenplays, he decided to write his own, a 16th-century English melodrama based on the Shakespeare authorship question, which ended up being sent to Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

They were not interested in producing his project, but Hanks asked Orloff, a keen "World War II buff", to write for the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. Orloff wrote episode 2, "Day of Days" and episode 9, "Why We Fight". His work earned him a Christopher Award,[1] and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special.[2] It is the single highest grossing and best-selling TV DVD of all time, and one of the highest grossing DVDs of any kind.[3]

In 2003, Warner Bros. paid over US$500,000 for the filming rights for Mariane Pearl's memoir A Mighty Heart, and Orloff was assigned to adapt the screenplay by producer Brad Pitt.[4] New York Times film reviewer Manohla Dargis declared the finished film "a surprising, insistently political work of commercial art". Orloff's script for the film earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay.[5] In a 2011 interview with 60 Minutes' Bob Simon, the film's star, Angelina Jolie, mentioned that A Mighty Heart is her favorite film starring herself.[6]

Changing genres, Orloff next adapted the children's fantasy book series Legend of the Guardians, based on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series of books written by Kathryn Lasky. The animated 3-D film was directed by Zack Snyder, and was released in 2010.[7]

Orloff created, wrote, and co-executive produced Apple+'s Masters of the Air, a follow-up to Band of Brothers, also produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. It will premiere on January 26, 2024.

Filmography

Films
Year Title Credited as Notes
Writer Producer
2007 A Mighty Heart Yes No
2008 10,000 BC Yes No Uncredited rewrite
2010 Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Yes No
2011 Anonymous Yes Executive
2019 The Last Vermeer Yes No Used pseudonym of James McGee

Television
Year Title Credited as Notes
Writer Executive
Producer
2001 Band of Brothers Yes No 2 episodes
2024 Masters of the Air Yes TBA Creator

References
  1. "The 2002 Christopher Award Winners". The Christophers. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
  2. "10 Questions: John Orloff". IGN. May 14, 2004. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
  3. "War, What is it Good For?". The Raygun.
  4. Christian Moerk (August 25, 2005). "Dueling visions of Daniel Pearl". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
  5. Patrick Walsh (January 23, 2008). "The Write Stuff: Interview with "A Mighty Heart" Screenwriter John Orloff". Cinematical. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
  6. Simon, Bob. "Angelina Jolie: Behind the camera". 60 Minutes Transcript. CBS News.
  7. Fleming, Michael (April 13, 2008). "Snyder to watch over 'Guardians'". Variety.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.