John August has a very sharp website where he offers free advice to fledgling screenwriters. How does he find the time? August is one of Hollywood's most in-demand screenwriters & script doctors polishers. He has won a reputation for versatility with scripts such as Go, a cool & chaotic look at disenfranchised young people directed by Doug Liman, which I really admired, & Big Fish, the fanciful family fable directed by Tim Burton, which I didn’t care for even with the cinematic presence of Ewan McGregor & found to be a bit twee.
When he was 8 years old & had the name John Meise, his teacher had asked everyone in the class to write to someone famous. Most kids sent letters to President Jimmy Carter or an astronaut. August wrote to author, Roald Dahl. The postcard that eventually arrived was a personal note from Dahl. Decades later he would go on to write the screenplay to one of the author’s best known works.
Tim Burton wanted to do a film to follow Dahl's text more faithfully than the 1971 version, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. The book left no clue to Willy's boyhood. So August playfully made him the son of a renowned, candy-hating dentist.
In one of the script's flashbacks, Willy's father throws his son's Halloween candy into the fireplace: Willy finds a piece spared from the flames & bites in. The opening chords of Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower begin to play, & we begin a spinning perspective shot that would leave Hitchcock jealous. In little Willy's eyes we see a reaction. He's like Isaac Newton getting beaned by the apple.
August said he discovered his vocation when he was just 10 years old, while watching a rented tape of the dark comedy, The War of the Roses. August: "Everything the actors were saying & doing was written someplace. So I tried to write down the dialogue & find out what that was like."
August said his sexual orientation has helped him notice things others miss. August: “For the first 20 years of my life, I was observing the world & trying to model my behavior to look as straight as possible. It's sort of this psychological 'CSI' you're doing on a daily basis. You're always looking for motivation."
His credits include: Go (1999), Blue Streak (1999), Titan A.E. (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Jurassic Park III (2001), Minority Report (2002), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003),The Rundown (2003), Big Fish (2003), Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005),The Nines, which August also directed (2007), & a little flick called Iron Man (2008). Up next is Frankenweenie, again with Burton.
August lives in the Hancock Park neighborhood in LA, which he shares with his partner of a decade, Mike Douglass & their daughter.
When he was 8 years old & had the name John Meise, his teacher had asked everyone in the class to write to someone famous. Most kids sent letters to President Jimmy Carter or an astronaut. August wrote to author, Roald Dahl. The postcard that eventually arrived was a personal note from Dahl. Decades later he would go on to write the screenplay to one of the author’s best known works.
Tim Burton wanted to do a film to follow Dahl's text more faithfully than the 1971 version, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. The book left no clue to Willy's boyhood. So August playfully made him the son of a renowned, candy-hating dentist.
In one of the script's flashbacks, Willy's father throws his son's Halloween candy into the fireplace: Willy finds a piece spared from the flames & bites in. The opening chords of Jimi Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower begin to play, & we begin a spinning perspective shot that would leave Hitchcock jealous. In little Willy's eyes we see a reaction. He's like Isaac Newton getting beaned by the apple.
August said he discovered his vocation when he was just 10 years old, while watching a rented tape of the dark comedy, The War of the Roses. August: "Everything the actors were saying & doing was written someplace. So I tried to write down the dialogue & find out what that was like."
August said his sexual orientation has helped him notice things others miss. August: “For the first 20 years of my life, I was observing the world & trying to model my behavior to look as straight as possible. It's sort of this psychological 'CSI' you're doing on a daily basis. You're always looking for motivation."
His credits include: Go (1999), Blue Streak (1999), Titan A.E. (2000), Charlie's Angels (2000), Jurassic Park III (2001), Minority Report (2002), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003),The Rundown (2003), Big Fish (2003), Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005),The Nines, which August also directed (2007), & a little flick called Iron Man (2008). Up next is Frankenweenie, again with Burton.
August lives in the Hancock Park neighborhood in LA, which he shares with his partner of a decade, Mike Douglass & their daughter.
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