John Collee

Last updated

John Collee
JC photo.jpg
Born
John Gerald Collee

1955 (age 68–69)
NationalityScottish/ Australian
OccupationScreenwriter
Website www.johncollee.com

John Gerald Collee (born 1955) is a Scottish/Australian doctor, novelist and screenwriter whose films have three times been nominated for Oscars. Master and Commander was nominated for Best Film 2003, Happy Feet won Best Animation in 2006, and Tanna (2015) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Feature in 2015. His many other films, written or co-written, include Creation (2013), Hotel Mumbai (2018) and Lee . His novels include Kingsley's Touch, A Paper Mask, and The Rig. His TV adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe received critical acclaim upon release on Netflix in 2024. [1]

Contents

Background

Collee was born in 1955 to Isobel Galbraith and Prof J. Gerald Collee CBE, [2] who became professor of microbiology at the University of Edinburgh. [3] Collee grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and in India. [4] He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and began practising medicine in Cambridge, Bath, and Bristol. [5] In his third year of practice, he wrote the medical thriller Kingsley's Touch, which was published in 1984. Collee subsequently worked in emergency medicine at home and abroad in Gabon, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka. [4] His second novel titled A Paper Mask was published in 1987. Rights to the novel were acquired for a film adaptation, and Collee wrote the screenplay for director Christopher Morahan and Granada, who released the film Paper Mask in 1990. Around the time that his third novel The Rig was published, in 1991, Collee became a columnist for The Observer and wrote articles about travel, science and medicine, weekly for the next six years. [4]

While escorting medical supplies to Azerbaijan in the former Soviet Union, Collee met his wife Deborah Snow - Moscow-based correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The following year, and mid-way through writing a book about Soviet medicine called The Kingdom of the Blind, Collee accepted a medical post in the Solomon Islands. The couple had their first child, Lauren, on the islands. [4] then both worked in London for a short time before moving to Sydney, Australia where Collee joined forces with Australian directors Peter Weir and George Miller. With Weir, Collee wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , and with Miller he wrote the Oscar-winning Happy Feet . [5] He wrote an early (uncredited) draft of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) for Warner Bros. [6] with Guillermo del Toro slated to direct. [7] The movie was later directed by David Yates.

Creation reunited him with Paul Bettany and he later executive-produced The Water Diviner with Russell Crowe directing. Tanna was a collaboration with anthropological film-makers Bentley Dean and Martin Butler which was shortlisted for an Oscar in the foreign language category. [8] Wolf Totem with director Jean-Jacques Annaud made upwards of $100M at the Chinese box office. After co-writing Hotel Mumbai , which starred actor Dev Patel, he collaborated with Patel on the actor's first film as director, Monkey Man . [9] His most recent films are Lee (with co-writer Marion Hume), about war correspondent Lee Miller, starring Kate Winslet; [10] and The Return , taken from The Odyssey , starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope.

John Collee was one of four co-founders of the Australian production company Hopscotch Features. [11] He was also, for many years, a board member of the Australian branch of climate activist group 350.org. [12] and, until recently, vice-president of the Australian Writers Guild

Filmography

Screenwriter

Executive producer

YearTitleRoleBudget
1990 Paper Mask Writer (novel, screenplay)
2003 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Writer$150 million
2006 Candy Script Editor
2006 Happy Feet Writer$100 million
2009 Creation Writer (screen story, screenplay)$10 million
2013 Walking with Dinosaurs 3D Writer (screenplay)$80 million
2014 Son of a Gun Executive producer, script consultant, writer (additional material)
2014 The Water Diviner Executive producer$22 million
2015 Wolf Totem Writer$38 million
2015 Tanna Writer
2016 The Patriarch Writer (screenplay)
2018 Hotel Mumbai Executive producer, writer$21 million
2023Whale NationWriter (English adaptation)
2023 Lee Co-writer (story & screenplay), executive producer
2023 Monkey Man Writer$30 million
2024 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Story consultant$135 million
2024 Boy Swallows Universe (TV Series)Writer (8 episodes), executive producer (8 episodes)
2024 The Return Writer

See also

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ "Netflix's Eagerly Awaited 'Boy Swallows Universe' Series is Coming to Your Streaming Queue in 2023". 3 March 2023.
  2. ↑ https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-professor-j-gerald-collee-cbe-frcpath-frcpe-frse-microbiologist-2469442 [ bare URL ]
  3. ↑ Cornwell, Tim (6 December 2003). "Interviews – John Collee: Master of the High Seas". The Scotsman .
  4. 1 2 3 4 McMullen, Myles (Spring–Summer 2005). "Screenwriting 101 – Get a Life! John Collee thinks writers should get out more" . Metro Magazine (146/147). Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM): 122–126.
  5. 1 2 Sragow, Michael (23 November 2003). "Man of the world wielded a pen for 'Master': Co-writer Collee can draw on his travels, medical-aid experiences". The Baltimore Sun .
  6. ↑ "Comment: Property investment – and private banking's role". Scotsman.com.
  7. ↑ "Del Toro Directing 'Tarzan'?". ComingSoon.net. 15 December 2006.
  8. ↑ "Australian film Tanna to tell Romeo and Juliet-like tale in Melanesia". SBS Movies.
  9. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (12 March 2021). "Netflix Strikes $30M Deal For Dev Patel's Buzzed-About Directorial Debut 'Monkey Man'". Deadline Hollywood .
  10. ↑ "Kate Winslet Embodies an Unsung American Icon in 'Lee'". Vanity Fair . 6 September 2023.
  11. ↑ George, Sandy (24 May 2012). "Hopscotch Features: John Collee, Frank Cox, Troy Lum and Andrew Mason". Screen Daily. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Collee, John (24 August 2015). "Betting against climate change not a smart punt". The Age . Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  13. ↑ Goodfellow, Melanie (2 November 2015). "Wild Bunch finds 'Faith' in Cuba with Banderas". Screen Daily . Retrieved 23 November 2015.
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