Zak Penn

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Zak Penn
Zak Penn by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Penn at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
Born (1968-03-23) March 23, 1968 (age 56)
New York, U.S.
OccupationScreenwriter

Zak Penn (born March 23, 1968) is an American screenwriter. [1] Penn wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness and The Grand , wrote the script for The Incredible Hulk, co-wrote the scripts for X2 , X-Men: The Last Stand , and the story for The Avengers . With Michael Karnow, Penn is the co-creator of the TV series Alphas on the Syfy network. [2]

Contents

Early life

Penn was born in New York. He is the son of New York businessman and lawyer Arthur Penn, who led the acquisition of the Capital Markets Assurance Corporation from Citicorp. [3]

Zak Penn graduated from Wesleyan University in 1990. His screenplay for PCU was based on his experiences at the Eclectic Society house.

Career

Films that Penn has been involved in writing include Last Action Hero , X2 , X-Men: The Last Stand , and Elektra . Penn wrote early drafts of Hulk , The Incredible Hulk , The Avengers and Free Guy .

Penn is also a jury member for the digital studio Filmaka, a platform for undiscovered filmmakers to show their work to industry professionals. [4]

In July 2012, Avatar Press released the first issue of Penn's first comic book, Hero Worship. The six-issue series is co-written with Star Wars: The Clone Wars screenwriter Scott Murphy and drawn by Michael DiPascale. It centers on Zenith, an indestructible hero who has fans following every disaster, trying to catch a glimpse of the ultimate celebrity and risking their own lives in the process. One fan becomes so obsessed that it leads to the development of his own powers.

He directed the documentary film Atari: Game Over .

Filmography

Films

YearTitleCredited asNotes
Director Writer
1993 Last Action Hero NoStoryCo-story writer with Adam Leff
1994 PCU NoYesCo-screenwriter with Adam Leff
1997 Men in Black NoUncredited [5]
1998 Antz NoUncreditedStory consultant
1999 Inspector Gadget NoYesCo-screenwriter with Kerry Ehrin
2000 Charlie's Angels NoUncreditedScript revisions
2001 Behind Enemy Lines NoYesCo-screenwriter with David Veloz
2002 Reign of Fire NoUncredited [6]
2003 X2 NoStoryCo-story writer with David Hayter and Bryan Singer
2004 Incident at Loch Ness YesYesDirectorial debut; co-screenwriter with Werner Herzog; on-screen appearance
Suspect Zero NoYesCo-screenwriter Billy Ray
2005 Elektra NoYesCo-screenwriter with Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand NoYesCo-screenwriter with Simon Kinberg
2007 The Grand YesYesCo-screenwriter with Matt Bierman
2008 The Incredible Hulk NoYesStory; with uncredited screenwriting rewrites by Edward Norton
2012 The Avengers NoStoryCo-story writer with Joss Whedon
2014 Atari: Game Over YesNoDocumentary; on-screen appearance
2018 Ready Player One NoYesCo-screenwriter with Ernest Cline
2021 Free Guy NoYesCo-screenwriter with Matt Lieberman

Television

YearTitleCredited asNotes
Writer Producer Showrunner Creator
2011–2012 Alphas YesExecutiveNoYesCo-created with Michael Karnow
2023 Beacon 23 YesExecutiveYesYes

Video games

YearTitleCredited asNotes
Creative director Writer Technical director
2005 Fantastic Four NoYesNoCredited for game story and dialogue
2006 X-Men: The Official Game NoYesNoCredited for screenplay

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References

  1. "The New York Times". Movies & TV Dept. Baseline & All Movie Guide. 2008. Archived from the original on March 9, 2008.
  2. "Elmira Star-Gazette". Elmira Star-Gazette.
  3. "Jefferson Names First Endowed Chair in Department's History". Jefferson.edu. Jefferson University.
  4. Filmaka Jury Member Zack Penn, Filmaka.com.
  5. Wolf, Jaime (August 23, 1998). "The Blockbuster Script Factory". The New York Times.
  6. Ullrich, Chris (April 15, 2008). "Interview: Zak Penn on The Grand, X-Men Fans and Co-Writing Hulk". ComicMix. Retrieved February 18, 2023.