James Erwin (author)

Last updated

James Erwin
Born Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
Pen namePrufrock451 [1]
OccupationAuthor
Genrehistory, science fiction

James Erwin is an American author. He has written several works of history and science fiction. He came to public notice by creating Rome Sweet Rome, a short story on Reddit which went viral and became the basis of a Warner Brothers screenplay.

Contents

Personal life

Erwin was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa. He currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2009, Erwin was a two-time Jeopardy! champion. [1]

As an author

Erwin's first book, a historical encyclopedia about secessionist movements in the United States titled Declarations of Independence, was published in 2007. He worked as a technical writer. He wrote a second historical encyclopedia in 2010 but it was never published due to the sale of the publisher, Facts on File. [1]

He came to public notice when he created the story Rome Sweet Rome, under the alias Prufrock451, in response to a question on Reddit. The story quickly went viral. Featured in national media, the story came to the attention of producer Gianni Nunnari, as well as the motion picture studio Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers bought a screenplay based on the short story, and Erwin became the subject of profiles and interviews in Wired Magazine, [1] Time, [2] FT, [3] Popular Mechanics, [4] and other media. [5]

In 2013, it was revealed that Apollo 18 screenwriter Brian Miller had been hired by Warner Brothers to write a second draft of the screenplay. [6] By 2018, the screenplay had been languishing in development hell for five years since the most recent script rewrite of 2013 and has yet to be picked up for further development. [7] [8]

Erwin parlayed his success into a Kickstarter campaign for his first novel Acadia. [9]

Bibliography

Novels

Nonfiction

Short stories

Screenplays

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Nolan</span> British and American filmmaker (born 1970)

Christopher Edward Nolan is a British and American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide. The recipient of many accolades, he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and eight Golden Globe Awards. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, and in 2019, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to film.

<i>SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron</i> Animated television series

SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is a 1993–1994 American animated television series created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. The series takes place in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated by anthropomorphic felines, known as "kats". The SWAT Kats of the title are two vigilante pilots who possess a state-of-the-art fighter jet with an array of weaponry. Throughout the series, they face various villains as well as competition from Megakat City's militarized police force called the Enforcers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius J. Epstein</span> American writer

Julius J. Epstein was an American screenwriter, who had a long career, best remembered for his screenplay, written with his twin brother, Philip, and Howard E. Koch, of the film Casablanca (1942), for which the writers won an Academy Award. It was adapted from an unpublished play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, written by Murray Bennett and Joan Alison.

Ernest Paul Lehman was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his achievements and his influential works for the screen. He was the first screenwriter to receive that honor.

Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. His best-known films include Blazing Saddles, The In-Laws, The Freshman and Striptease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Thomas (writer)</span> Young adult novel author, television program writer

Robert James Thomas is an American author, producer, director and screenwriter. He created the television series Veronica Mars, co-developed 90210 (2008–2013), and co-created Party Down and iZombie (2015–2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James De Mille</span> Canadian novelist

James De Mille was a professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and an early Canadian novelist who published numerous works of popular fiction from the late 1860s through the 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ridley</span> American writer and director

John Ridley IV is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series American Crime. In 2017 he directed the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.

Howard E. Koch was an American playwright and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studio bosses in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Nolan</span> British-American screenwriter (born 1976)

Jonathan Nolan is a British-American screenwriter, producer and director. He is the creator of the CBS science fiction series Person of Interest (2011–2016) and co-creator of the HBO science-fiction/Western series Westworld (2016–2022).

<i>Objective, Burma!</i> 1945 film by Raoul Walsh

Objective, Burma! is a 1945 American war film that is loosely based on the six-month raid by Merrill's Marauders in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War. Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn, the film was made by Warner Bros. immediately after the raid.

<i>The Strawberry Blonde</i> 1941 American romantic comedy film by Raoul Walsh

The Strawberry Blonde is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland, and featuring Rita Hayworth, Alan Hale, Jack Carson, and George Tobias. Set in New York City around 1900, it features songs of that era such as "The Band Played On", "Bill Bailey", "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie", "Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie", and "Love Me and the World Is Mine". It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. The title is most often listed beginning with the word The, but the film's posters and promotional materials called it simply Strawberry Blonde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diablo Cody</span> American writer and producer

Brook Maurio, known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning the Academy Award, and the BAFTA Award.

Ernest Jacob Haller, sometimes known as Ernie J. Haller, was an American cinematographer.

<i>Princess ORourke</i> 1943 film by Norman Krasna

Princess O'Rourke is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed and written by Norman Krasna, and starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings and Charles Coburn. Krasna won the 1944 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Lester Chambers is an American recording artist, and member and lead singer of the 1960s soul rock group The Chambers Brothers, who had the hit single, "Time Has Come Today".

"Rome, Sweet Rome" is an alternative history and military science fiction short story by American freelance writer and military historian James Erwin. Posted online on Reddit under his handle Prufrock451 on August 21, 2011, it describes what might happen if a United States Marine Corps expeditionary unit were somehow transported back to the time of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar. The first few installments were published on Reddit, corresponding to the first eight days of the Marines' arrival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary W. Goldstein</span> American film producer (born 1952)

Gary Wolff Goldstein is an American author, speaker, consultant and Hollywood film producer, best known for producing Pretty Woman, Under Siege, and The Mothman Prophecies and generating over a billion dollars in worldwide revenue.

<i>Penpal</i> (novel) Horror novel

Penpal (2012) is the debut novel of American author Dathan Auerbach. The horror-suspense novel is based on a series of creepypasta stories Auerbach posted to the "No Sleep" forum on Reddit. The book follows the first-person narrator as he realizes he was the focus of an obsessed stalker who tracks him throughout his childhood.

<i>Endless Thread</i> Podcast

Endless Thread is a podcast from Boston-based WBUR, in partnership with Reddit, that focuses on stories relating to Reddit posts. The hosts are Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fagone, Jason (March 2012). "How One Response to a Reddit Query Became a Big-Budget Flick". Wired Magazine . Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  2. Phillips, Jack (October 17, 2011). "Social Cinema: reddit Post Catches Hollywood's Attention". Time . Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  3. Vincent, James (May 24, 2013). "First Person: James Erwin: 'Hollywood is turning my blog post into a film'". Financial Times .
  4. Sheppard, Alyson (October 31, 2011). "Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire?". Popular Mechanics . Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  5. Frappier, Rob (October 14, 2011). "Interview: James Erwin On Selling 'Rome Sweet Rome' To Warner Bros". Screen Rant . Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  6. Rothman, Lily (January 17, 2013). "What Happens to a Reddit Thread When It Becomes a Hollywood Movie?". Time . Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  7. Kelly, Meghan B. (web producer); Johnson, Ben Brock (host); Sivertson, Amory (host) (September 14, 2018). "What Happens When One 'Nerd's Lunchtime Fantasy' Goes To Hollywood". Endless Thread (mp3). NPR. WBUR-FM. Written companion material to audio broadcast.
  8. Bramesco, Charles (July 27, 2020). "A short history of Hollywood's (ill-fated) attempts to adapt the internet". Little White Lies. The last update came in 2018, and that update was "never going to happen."
  9. Erwin, James (September 1, 2013). "Acadia: A New Sci-Fi Novel from James Erwin". Kickstarter . Retrieved June 4, 2015.