Shane Salerno

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shane Salerno

Shane Salerno
Born
Memphis, Tennessee
Occupation Screenwriter and producer
Genres Action film
Science Fiction
Fantasy fiction

Shane Salerno is an American screenwriter and producer. He has written or co-written several highly successful films including Armageddon starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Billy Bob Thornton and Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Bale and Jeffrey Wright and has served as an uncredited writer or script doctor on the worldwide box office hits Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, Alien vs. Predator and Breakdown starring Kurt Russell among other hit films. According to Box Office Mojo films written, co-written or rewritten by Shane Salerno have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.

  • Fade In Magazine selected Salerno as one of the "100 people you need to know in Hollywood".
  • Detour Magazine voted him one of "Hollywood's true shapers of pop culture" in their annual "hot thirty under thirty" edition.
  • In 2004 Shane became the youngest "Guest of Honor" speaker in the history of the Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo. He made follow up appearances in 2004 and 2005.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Shane Salerno was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1972. He attended ten schools in twelve years on both coasts of the United States. Among those schools was the elite St. John's College High School, a military Academy in Washington, D.C. where Salerno was co-captain of the football team, editor of the school paper and the only write-in class President since the school was founded in 1851. In 1991 he was voted the shooting star ("most likely to be succeed") by his classmates at San Dieguito High School in Encinitas, California where he was known for his love of films and his ambition to make them.

[edit] Career

While a senior in high school, Shane wrote, produced and directed the award winning documentary short film Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs. The film debuted on Larry King Live in September 1991. Larry King ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are going to be hearing about you. I have this feeling." Sundown won several "best documentary of the year" honors and was featured on major talk shows. Additionally Shane was honored, in separate ceremonies, in both houses of the United States Congress.

At 19, Salerno was invited by Gregory Hoblit, a nine-time Emmy winning producer and director, to apprentice as a writer/director on NYPD Blue during its first season. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting magazine, Salerno has credited the backstage pass to the award winning Steven Bochco/David Milch series as his front line film school. At 22, Salerno signed a three year contract with Universal Television to work on various TV series beginning with New York Undercover. His work led film producers to offer him the opportunity to write features. As a result, Salerno asked Universal to release him from his contract.

Salerno's first feature film screenplay was the fact-based World War II submarine thriller 'Thunder Below' for Steven Spielberg and the newly formed Dreamworks Pictures. Salerno's screenplay was based on the book by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Eugene B. Fluckey.

In 1997, director Michael Bay recruited a twenty-four year old Salerno to rewrite Armageddon based on an original screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh. In Visions of Armageddon, the book on the making of the film, Michael Bay calls Salerno's work on the script "brilliant". The blockbuster film debuted at #1 on July 1, 1998 and was the highest grossing film of the year, earning more than $550 million worldwide.

Following Armageddon Variety selected Salerno as one of the "hottest new creatives on the film scene."

In 1998, Director John Singleton asked Salerno to serve as his writing partner on Shaft. The Singleton-Salerno collaboration (and crime novelist Richard Price) resulted in Salerno's second #1 film when "Shaft" debuted at the top of the box office on June 16, 2000.

In 2001-2002, Salerno returned to television by co-creating (with noted crime novelist Don Winslow), executive producing and serving as showrunner, head writer, and music supervisor for the NBC TV series UC: Undercover starring Vera Farmiga, Oded Fehr, and Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames. The series won and was nominated for awards in acting, cinematography and sound.

In 2004, Salerno rewrote the screenplay for Alien vs. Predator which was the most successful film in the history of either franchise. His work led Twentieth Century Fox to hire him to write the poorly-received sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

In 2005, Salerno scripted a post 9-11 spy thriller for Michael Douglas and Irwin Winkler.

In 2007, Salerno wrote the screenplay for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem which was a box office hit worldwide despite receiving negative reviews from most film critics.

Salerno has written screenplays for Academy Award winning directors Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, William Friedkin and Academy Award nominees Michael Mann and John Singleton.

[edit] Screenwriting

[edit] Worldwide Box Office

According to Box Office Mojo: Breakdown: $50,159,144; Armageddon: $553,709,788; Shaft: $107,196,498; Alien vs. Predator: $171,251,996; Ghost Rider: $228,738,393; Alien vs. Predator: Requiem $128,984,605

[edit] External links

Languages