Jack Epps Jr.

Last updated
Jack Epps Jr.
Born (1949-11-03) November 3, 1949 (age 74)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater Michigan State University
Occupation(s) Screenwriter, author, educator
Known forCo-writer of Top Gun , Legal Eagles , The Secret of My Success

Jack Epps Jr. (born November 3, 1949) is an American screenwriter, author, and educator, known chiefly for such popular 1980s films as Top Gun , [1] Legal Eagles , and The Secret of My Success , which he wrote with longtime partner Jim Cash. Epps Jr. graduated from the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University, and he has since gone on to teach at the University of Southern California. [2]

Contents

Career

Jack Epps Jr. came to California to become a director, but he did not have the money or know-how to do so. He decided to first write a script and to hope that this would lead to directing. Partnering with Anderson House, they sold a script to Hawaii Five-O. He continued to work with House for a few years, before partnering with Jim Cash. [3]

Top Gun and later successes

After completing seven unproduced screenplays together, Epps Jr. and Cash produced Top Gun. This film went on to become the number-one worldwide box office hit in 1986. After this, they quickly wrote other screenplays that were produced, including Legal Eagles and The Secret of My Success . Epps has co-authored over 25 screenplays and eight motion pictures that he produced well into the following decade, including Turner & Hooch , Dick Tracy , and Anaconda . [4] He wrote for some of the most successful actors in the industry including Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Warren Beatty and others.

Teaching

Jack Epps Jr. is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Writing for Screen and Television Division in the School of Cinematic Arts, at the University of Southern California. [5] Using techniques he had developed over his career and applied to classes, he authored a screenwriting manual, Screenwriting is Rewriting: The Art and Craft of Professional Revision, in 2016.

Awards and honors

Jack Epps Jr. was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts by Michigan State University at their 2009 commencement. He is also the recipient of the Michigan State University Spartans in Hollywood Award. [4] He is part of the Writers Guild of America where he has been a member for three decades and he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screenwriter</span> Writer who writes for films, TV shows, comics and games

A screenwriter is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs, and video games, are based.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Towne</span> American screenwriter, producer, director and actor

Robert Towne is an American screenwriter and director. He started with writing films for Roger Corman including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Later, he was a part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He wrote the Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), and the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975). He has collaborated with Tom Cruise on the films Days of Thunder (1990), The Firm (1993) and the first two installments of Mission: Impossible franchise.

A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show, or video game by screenwriters. A screenplay written for television is also known as a teleplay. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A screenplay is a form of narration in which the movements, actions, expressions and dialogue of the characters are described in a certain format. Visual or cinematographic cues may be given, as well as scene descriptions and scene changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screenwriting</span> Art and craft of writing screenplays

Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Rossio</span> American screenwriter

Terry Rossio is an American screenwriter and film producer. He co-wrote the films Aladdin, Shrek, and all five of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Shrek, and won the Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Shrek. He often collaborates with fellow screenwriter Ted Elliott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert McKee</span> American academic specialized in seminars for screenwriters

Robert McKee is an author, lecturer and story consultant who is known for his "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, Dialogue: the Art of Verbal Action for Stage, Page and Screen, Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World and Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen. McKee also has the blog and online writers' resource "Storylogue".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Mankiewicz</span> American writer, producer and director

Thomas Frank Mankiewicz was an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures and television whose credits included James Bond films and his contributions to Superman: The Movie (1978) and the television series Hart to Hart. He was the son of Joseph Mankiewicz and nephew of Herman Mankiewicz. He is not related to the similarly named Wolf Mankowitz who worked on the first James Bond film, uncredited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Jarre</span> American actor, screenwriter, film producer (1954–2011)

Kevin Noel Jarre was an American screenwriter, actor, and film producer. He adopted the last name of his adoptive father, Maurice Jarre.

James Willis Cash was an American film writer, noted for writing such 1980s films as Top Gun and The Secret of My Success.

<i>Legal Eagles</i> 1986 film by Ivan Reitman

Legal Eagles is a 1986 American legal romantic comedy thriller film directed by Ivan Reitman, written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. from a story by Reitman and the screenwriters, and starring Robert Redford, Debra Winger, and Daryl Hannah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew W. Marlowe</span> American screenwriter

Andrew W. Marlowe is an American screenwriter. Marlowe is best known for being the creator of, an executive producer of, and a writer on Castle, a crime mystery and comedy-drama TV show, that ran on ABC from 2009 to 2016, starring Nathan Fillion in the eponymous role.

D.B. Gilles is an American screenwriter, playwright, academic, script consultant and writing coach specializing in screenplays, TV pilots, plays and novels.

Tony Tost is an American film director, poet, critic and screenwriter. His first poetry book Invisible Bride won the 2003 Walt Whitman Award judged by C.D. Wright. He is the creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Damnation, a neo-western period drama about the labor wars in America during the 1930s that aired on USA Network and on Netflix outside the US. He is the writer-director of Americana, a rural crime drama forthcoming from Bron Studios.

A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Jennewein</span> American novelist

James 'Jim' Jennewein is an American screenwriter, author, teacher and writer, best known for writing several major Hollywood comedies of the 1990s, including the feature film adaptation of The Flintstones. He collaborates with Tom S. Parker.

David Elias Callaham is an American screenwriter and producer.

Ian Fried is an American screenwriter. He studied filmmaking at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Barnes</span> American screenwriter and producer

Rodney Barnes is an American screenwriter and producer. Barnes has written and produced The Boondocks, My Wife and Kids, Everybody Hates Chris, Those Who Can't, Marvel's Runaways, American Gods, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, and is currently an executive producer/writer on HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

<i>Anaconda</i> (film series) Series of American horror films

Anaconda is an American horror film series created by Hans Bauer, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. Produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the series began with Anaconda (1997) directed by Luis Llosa, and was followed by one theatrical stand-alone sequel, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004) directed by Dwight Little, and three television sequels, Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008), Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009), both directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, and Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015) directed by A.B. Stone and being a crossover with the Lake Placid film series. Along with a 2024 Chinese remake of the same name, Anaconda (2024) directed by Xiang Qui Liang and Xiang He Sheng. Each installment revolves around giant man-eating anacondas and the efforts of various groups of people to capture or destroy the creatures. The fictional plant known as the Blood Orchid and the company Wexel Hall Pharmaceuticals as well as the fictitious Murdoch family are repeatedly referenced in the films.

Dennis Shryack was an American screenwriter.

References

  1. 1 2 "Jack Epps Jr". IMDB. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Jack Epps Jr". Cinema USC. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  3. ↑ "Back to the 80s: Interview with Jack Epps Jr. screenwriter of Top Gun & more - Kickin' it Old School". Old School Blog. Archived from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  4. 1 2 "JACK EPPS JR". Angels in the Sky Movie. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Jack Epps, Jr.: Bloomsbury Publishing (US)".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.