Joshua Davis (writer)

Last updated
Joshua Davis
Josh Iraq4(2).jpg
Born1974
Occupation
  • Writer
  • journalist
  • filmmaker
  • co-founder of Epic Magazine
NationalityAmerican
Website
www.joshuadavis.net

Joshua Davis (born 1974) is an American writer, film producer and co-founder of Epic Magazine. [1]

Contents

Early life

Davis is the son of Miss Nevada winner Janet Hadland and Highlander film producer Peter S. Davis. [2] Davis attended Stanford University, where he double majored in Economics and Modern Thought and Literature. [3]

Career

Davis wrote the New York Times bestselling book Spare Parts, which grew out of his article "La Vida Robot." [4] The story follows the lives of four teenage immigrants who built an underwater robot. The book was a finalist for Columbia University's J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize [5] and was adapted into the movie Spare Parts by Lionsgate starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei. It premiered in January 2015. [6]

In 2012, Davis was kidnapped in Libya while reporting an article for Men's Journal. [7] Later that year, he lived with John McAfee in Belize and documented McAfee's lifestyle and legal problems, including allegations of murder. [8] In 2003, Davis covered the Iraq war for Wired. [9] For The New Yorker in 2011, Davis wrote about bitcoin when the cryptocurrency was worth five dollars. [10] He has also profiled Elon Musk multiple times, including a 2010 Wired cover story [11] and in an early in-depth article about Tesla. [12]

Davis' first book, The Underdog, was published by Random House in 2005. [13] It chronicles Davis' entry into unusual competitions around the world, including the US Sumo Open [14] and the World Armwrestling Championship in Gdynia, Poland. Davis documented his time as a competitive arm wrestler in the film "The Beast Within," which won best documentary at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. [15]

In 2013, Davis and Joshuah Bearman formed Epic Magazine, [16] a magazine and production company specializing in unusual true stories. [17] Davis and Bearman have sold more than fifty articles to Hollywood, with four films and two TV series produced. [18] Davis, in partnership with J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, also produced the short documentary series "Moon Shot," which chronicles the work of those competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. [19]

Awards

Filmography

TitleDirectorWriterProducerRef.
West CoastYesYesYes [25]
The Beast WithinYesYesYes
The Sun Also SetsYesYesYes [26]
MoonshotNoNoYes [27]
The DebaterYesNoYes [28]
Spare Parts NoYesNo
Little America NoNoYes
Breaking NoNoYes [29]
Radical NoNoYes [30]
The Big Cigar NoNoYes [31]

Bibliography

Books

  • The Underdog, 2006
  • Entrenched, 2011 [32]
  • McAfee's Last Stand, 2012
  • Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream, 2014

Articles

  • "If We Run Out Of Batteries, This War Is Screwed," Wired, June 1, 2003
  • "La Vida Robot," Best of Technology Writing, 2006 [33]
  • "Say Hello to Stanley," Best of Technology Writing, 2007
  • "Face Blind," Best American Science Writing, 2007 [34]
  • "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist," Wired, March 12, 2009 [35]
  • "The Crypto Currency," The New Yorker, October 10, 2011
  • "Fox Makes Epic First-Look Deal for Online Venture for Film Centric Journalism," Deadline, August 19, 2013
  • "Magazine Writing, On the Web, for Film," The New York Times, August 11, 2013 [36]
  • "The Mercenary," Medium, August 19, 2013 [37]
  • "Building An Epic Brand Around Incredible True Stories," Fast Company, August 23, 2013 [38]
  • "Pipino: Gentleman Thief," Epic Magazine, 2014 [39]
  • "Deep Sea Cowboys," Epic Magazine, 2017 [40]
  • "Arab Spring Break," Epic Magazine, 2017 [41]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Holkins</span> American writer and co-creator of Penny Arcade

Jerry Holkins is an American writer. He is the co-creator and writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade along with its artist Mike Krahulik. Holkins sometimes uses the pseudonym "Tycho Brahe", which is also the name of a Penny Arcade character based on Holkins.

<i>Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story</i> 2004 sports comedy film by Rawson Thurber

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 sports comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, and Rip Torn. The film follows a group of unlikely misfits who enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in the hopes of winning $50,000 to save their cherished local gym from being taken over by corporate health fitness chain Globo Gym.

Angela Robinson is an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Outfest Fusion LGBTQ People of Color Film Festival awarded Robinson with the Fusion Achievement Award in 2013 for her contribution to LGBTQ+ media visibility.

Richard Kadrey is an American novelist, freelance writer, and photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

LifeLock by Norton was an American software company active from 2005 to 2017, and was best known for its eponymous LifeLock identity theft prevention software, now sold by Gen Digital after the latter acquired LifeLock in 2017. LifeLock's system monitors for identity theft, the use of personal information, and credit score changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Thompson (editor)</span> American technology journalist

Nicholas Thompson is an American technology journalist and media executive. In February 2021, he became Chief Executive Officer of The Atlantic. Thompson was selected in part for his editorial experience, which includes stints as the editor-in-chief of Wired and as the editor of Newyorker.com. In early 2024, The Atlantic announced it had more than one million subscribers and returned to profitability. He was responsible for instituting digital paywalls at both The New Yorker and Wired; at Wired, digital subscriptions increased almost 300 percent in the paywall's first year. While at The New Yorker, Thompson co-founded Atavist, which sold to Automattic in 2018, and in 2009, he published his first book, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War, a biography of George Kennan and Thompson's maternal grandfather, Paul Nitze. Thompson's assorted writing includes features on Facebook's scandals, his own friendship with Stalin's daughter, an unidentified hiker, and his marathon running.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satoshi Nakamoto</span> Pseudonym of the designer and developer of Bitcoin

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin until December 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finn the Human</span> Fictional character in the animated series Adventure Time

Finn Mertens, better known as Finn the Human, is a character and one of the two protagonists in the American animated television series Adventure Time and resulting franchise created by Pendleton Ward. He also appeared in the spin-off series Adventure Time: Distant Lands and Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake. He was voiced by Jeremy Shada in most appearances. The character made his debut in the original pilot, where he is named Pen and voiced by Zack Shada, Jeremy's older brother. Jonathan Frakes voices Finn as an adult in some appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Liu</span> Chinese-American writer

Ken Liu is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his novel translations and original short fiction, which has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caragh M. O'Brien</span> American novelist

Caragh M. O'Brien is an American novelist, best known as the author of the Birthmarked trilogy, a series of young adult, dystopian novels. Her books take place in a world destroyed by climate change. She also wrote an adult novel, Annie Bot, about a malfunctioning gynoid companion, under the pen name Sierra Greer.

Sphero, Inc. is an American consumer robotics and toy company based in Boulder, Colorado.

Condé Nast Entertainment (CNE) is a production and distribution studio with film, television, social and online video, and virtual reality content.

<i>Spare Parts</i> (2015 film) Film by Sean McNamara

Spare Parts is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Sean McNamara and produced by David Alpert, Rick Jacobs, Leslie Kolins Small, George Lopez, and Ben Odell. It is based on the Wired magazine article "La Vida Robot" by Joshua Davis, about the true story of a group of students from a mainly Latino high school, who won first place over M.I.T. in the 2004 MATE ROV competition. The film was released by Lions Gate Entertainment on January 16, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana Lily Amirpour</span> American filmmaker

Ana Lily Amirpour (Persian: آنا لیلی امیرپور;, is an Iranian-American film-maker, screenwriter and actress. She is best known for her feature film debut A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, promoted as "the first Iranian vampire western," which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and which was based on a previous short film that she wrote and directed, which won Best Short Film at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixelberry Studios</span> American game development company

Pixelberry Studios is a mobile game development company based in Mountain View, California, United States. Founded in 2013 by Oliver Miao, Keith Emnett, and Winston She, Pixelberry develops episodic narrative mobile games for Android and iOS, aiming to create "games with heart," beginning with Surviving High School and Cause of Death, which deals with themes of bullying, eating disorders and capturing serial killers. Since then, the company has fully released three more mobile games: Hollywood U, High School Story and Choices: Stories You Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David A. Weiner</span> American filmmaker, magazine editor, and journalist

David A. Weiner is an American filmmaker, magazine editor, and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samantha Gorman</span> Writer and narrative designer

Samantha Gorman is an American game developer known for her combination of narrative, theatricality and gaming in VR environments, and for introducing gestural interactions in touchscreen narratives. She has won multiple awards for her work, both in the field of games and in electronic literature and new media writing. Gorman co-founded the computer art and games studio Tender Claws in 2014 and has been an assistant professor at Northeastern University since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gui Cavalcanti</span> Robotics, community and PPE entrepreneur

Gui Cavalcanti is a robotics engineer who co-founded Open Source Medical Supplies, Artisan's Asylum, and MegaBots Inc.

Tinybop is a Brooklyn based publisher of apps for children.

References

  1. "Building An Epic Brand Around Incredible, True Stories". Fast Company. 23 August 2013. Archived from the original on 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  2. "Peter S. Davis, 'Highlander' Producer, Dies at 79". The Hollywood Reporter. 2021-02-23. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  3. "Convocation speakers extol active learning, exploring new experiences".
  4. Davis, Joshua. "La Vida Robot". Wired.
  5. "Jenny Nordberg, Harold Holzer and Dan Egan Win the 2015 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  6. "George Lopez film about Phoenix school gets release date". Azcentral.com. 1 July 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  7. "Arab Spring Break". Men's Journal. 2012-09-13. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  8. Davis, Joshua. "McAfee's Last Stand". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  9. ""If We Run Out of Batteries, This War is Screwed."". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  10. Davis, Joshua. "The Crypto-Currency". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2014-11-01. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  11. "How Elon Musk Turned Tesla Into the Car Company of the Future". Wired. Vol. 18, no. 10. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  12. "Batteries Included". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  13. "*** UNDERDOG NATION *** THE BOOK ***". Underdognation.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  14. SUMO, 10 September 2009, archived from the original on 2021-12-12, retrieved 2021-04-27
  15. "Tickets $10 -mountainfilm fest- bouldering etc..." CascadeClimbers.com. 21 April 2004. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  16. "Extraordinary True Stories - Epic Magazine". Epicmagazine.com. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  17. "Building An Epic Brand Around Incredible, True Stories". Fast Company. 23 August 2013. Archived from the original on 8 September 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  18. "Magazine Writing on the Web, for Film". The New York Times . 12 August 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  19. Santos, Nix (17 March 2016). "Watch: Reach to Infinity and Beyond With J.J. Abrams on 'Moon Shot'". Indiewire.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  20. "Telluride fest to support environment fund". Pique Newsmagazine. 9 April 2004. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  21. "National Magazine Awards 2014 Finalists Announced". Magazine.org. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  22. "Spare Parts". Macmillan. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  23. "The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards | Columbia Journalism School". journalism.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  24. Radical - IMDb , retrieved 2023-04-04
  25. Davis, Joshua, West Coast (Drama), Erica Shaffer, Monty Black, Gil Ferrales, Nikolai Kinski, retrieved 2021-04-28
  26. Davis, Joshua (2006-06-10), The Sun Also Sets (Documentary, Short), Carlos Roig, retrieved 2021-04-28
  27. Moon Shot (Documentary), Mike Vergalla, Bad Robot, Epic Digital, Grain Media, 2016-03-15, retrieved 2021-04-28{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  28. "Epic Digital documents the making of IBM Project Debater: The first AI to debate a human". Vox Media. 2020-05-05. Archived from the original on 2020-07-15. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  29. Breaking (2022) - IMDb , retrieved 2023-03-28
  30. Radical (2023) - IMDb , retrieved 2023-03-28
  31. The Big Cigar (TV Mini Series 2023– ) - IMDb , retrieved 2023-03-28
  32. Entrenched: The Best of Joshua Davis . Retrieved 2021-04-28 via www.amazon.com.
  33. "La Vida Robot | Epic Magazine". epicmagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  34. "Face Blind". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2020-06-17. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  35. "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2020-12-14. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  36. Carr, David (2013-08-12). "Magazine Writing on the Web, for Film". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  37. Davis, Joshua (2016-03-07). "The Mercenary". Medium. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  38. Zax, David (2013-08-23). "Building An Epic Brand Around Incredible, True Stories". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  39. Magazine, Epic (2016-03-07). "Pipino: Gentleman Thief". Medium. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  40. "Deep Sea Cowboys | Epic Magazine". epicmagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
  41. "Arab Spring Break". Epic Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-28.