John Gatins

John Gatins is an Oscar® nominated screenwriter. A native New Yorker, where his father was a New York City police officer, the family relocated to the Hudson Valley, near Poughkeepsie. John grew up there and later attended Vassar College, graduating as a Drama major.

After Vassar, Gatins drove to Los Angeles where he began acting roles in horror movies including "Witchboard 2" and "Leprechaun 3." He went to New York Stage and Film's summer theater program in 1994 and after a summer of classes and performing he returned to Los Angeles and wrote a screenplay called "Smells Like Teen Suicide." He sold that script to Disney and it served as a calling card and helped him secure the job of doing uncredited rewrite work on "Varsity Blues" for Paramount Pictures.

Gatins then began writing a spec script about an alcoholic commercial airline pilot. He was able to get through the first 30 pages before shelving it and returning to paying work. Paramount hired him to write the Keanu Reeves inner city baseball movie, "Hardball" which he received screenplay credit on.

Paramount remained a home base as he wrote the Samuel Jackson basketball movie, "Coach Carter." It was at this time that he was contacted by then Warner Bros. president Lorenzo DiBonaventura to see if he had designs on directing a movie. Gatins promptly pitched him an idea about a broken down racehorse trainer and his fractured relationship with his son. Gatins ultimately wrote and directed "Dreamer" for DreamWorks Pictures with Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning playing the leads.

DreamWorks was interested in getting Gatins to direct another film for them and he showed the execs the first 30 pages of the alcoholic airline pilot script, now known as "Flight." They made a script deal with him to finish a first draft of his long percolating idea. DreamWorks brought Walter Parkes and Laurie Macdonald on to produce.

Gatins was next asked by Steven Spielberg to rewrite a film based in part on a sci-fi story by Richard Matheson called "Steel." That script became "Real Steel" which grossed $300 million worldwide. Gatins was also able to secure a fun acting role for himself in the film when he played Kingpin the Mohawk-wearing sociopath that accepts a fight with the hero robot.

After "Real Steel" wrapped he was back to refining the script for "Flight," which went into production starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film earned Gatins nominations for an Academy Award®, a Critic's Choice Award, and a Writer's Guild Award. Denzel Washington also received nominations for an Academy Award, a Critic's Choice Award, a Golden Globe® and a SAG® Award.

DreamWorks Pictures