Shane Salerno
Encyclopedia
Shane Salerno is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He has written or co-written several blockbuster films including Armageddon and Shaft
Shaft (2000 film)
Shaft is a 2000 American action-crime film directed by John Singleton, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Pat Hingle, Toni Collette, Busta Rhymes, Vanessa L. Williams, and Mekhi Phifer. This film is not a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, but rather a sequel,...

and is also one of the writer-producers of the successful CBS drama series Hawaii Five-0. He is the director of the forthcoming documentary Salinger, co-screenwriter and executive producer of Savages
Savages (2012 film)
Savages is an upcoming crime-drama film directed by Oliver Stone. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don Winslow, who co-wrote the script with Shane Salerno...

, directed by Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...

 and screenwriter of Fantastic Voyage produced by James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

.

Detour Magazine voted him one of "Hollywood's true shapers of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

" and Fade In Magazine
Fade In
Fade In is a national consumer movie magazine that has covered the film industry since 1994. The magazine is released six times per year.- History :...

, selected Salerno as one of the "100 people you need to know in Hollywood".

Early life and education

According to a 2002 profile in the Los Angeles Times, Shane Salerno was born in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

 in 1972. He attended ten schools in twelve years on both coasts of the United States including St. John's College High School
St. John's College High School
St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C., established in 1851, is the second oldest Catholic Christian Brother's school in the United States, and the oldest JROTC school. It was founded by Brother John of Mary, F.S.C., and two other Christian Brothers in St. Matthew's parish, 15th and G...

, a military Academy in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 where Salerno was co-captain of the football team and the only write-in class President since the school was founded in 1851. At San Dieguito High School in Encinitas, California, Salerno was editor of the school newspaper, played varsity football and was voted "most likely to succeed" by his classmates.

Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs

Salerno first made national headlines as a high school senior when he wrote, produced and directed the award winning documentary film Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs is an acclaimed documentary written, produced and directed by eighteen-year-old high school student Shane Salerno. The film debuted on Larry King Live in September 1991. Larry King ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are...

. The film had its world premiere on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....

in September 1991. Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....

 ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are going to be hearing about you. I have this feeling." Sundown
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs is an acclaimed documentary written, produced and directed by eighteen-year-old high school student Shane Salerno. The film debuted on Larry King Live in September 1991. Larry King ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are...

won several "best documentary of the year" honors and Salerno was honored in separate ceremonies in both houses of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

.

NYPD Blue

At the age of 19, Salerno was invited by Gregory Hoblit
Gregory Hoblit
Gregory King Hoblit is an American Hollywood film director and TV producer.Hoblit was born in Abilene, Texas, the son of Elizabeth Hubbard King and Harold Foster Hoblit, an FBI agent. Much of Hoblit's work is oriented towards police, attorneys, and legal cases...

, a nine-time Emmy winning producer/director, to apprentice as a writer/director on NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

. In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Salerno credited the backstage pass as his film school. At 22, Salerno signed a three-year contract with Universal Television to work on various series beginning with New York Undercover
New York Undercover
New York Undercover is an American police drama that aired on the FOX television network from 1994 to 1998. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's 4th Precinct who were assigned to...

.

Salerno's first feature screenplay was the World War II submarine thriller 'Thunder Below' based on the book by Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Eugene B. Fluckey
Eugene B. Fluckey
Rear Admiral Eugene Bennett Fluckey , nicknamed "Lucky Fluckey", was a United States Navy submarine commander who received the Medal of Honor during World War II.-Early life and career:...

 for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

 and his newly formed DreamWorks Pictures. In an April 29, 1999 article in Variety, Salerno stated that he went to "writing school" under Spielberg.

Armageddon

In 1997, director Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...

 recruited a 24-year-old Salerno to rewrite Jonathan Hensleigh's screenplay Armageddon. In the book Visions of Armageddon, Michael Bay calls Salerno's work "brilliant". The blockbuster film debuted at #1 on July 1, 1998 and was the highest grossing film of 1998, earning more than half a billion dollars worldwide. Following his work on Armageddon Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

selected Salerno as one of the "hottest new creatives on the film scene".

Shaft

In 1998, director John Singleton asked Salerno to serve as his writing partner on Shaft
Shaft (2000 film)
Shaft is a 2000 American action-crime film directed by John Singleton, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Pat Hingle, Toni Collette, Busta Rhymes, Vanessa L. Williams, and Mekhi Phifer. This film is not a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, but rather a sequel,...

. The Singleton-Salerno collaboration (aided by Richard Price) was well reviewed by major critics and resulted in Salerno's second #1 film when "Shaft" debuted on June 16, 2000.

Salerno then pushed into more dramatic material with screenplays for Academy Award winning directors Ron Howard
Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard is an American actor, director, and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years...

 (The Bay of Pigs), William Friedkin
William Friedkin
William Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...

 (Night Train/Sonny Liston Story), Academy Award nominee Michael Mann (The Border) and a post 9/11 spy thriller for Oscar winning producers Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

 and Irwin Winkler
Irwin Winkler
Irwin Winkler is an American film producer and director. He is the producer or director of 50 major motion pictures, dating back to 1967's Double Trouble, starring Elvis Presley. The fourth film he produced, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? , starring Jane Fonda, was nominated for nine Academy Awards...

 for Douglas to star in.

In 1999, Salerno sold the rights to the bestseller Zodiac
Zodiac (film)
Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros...

to Disney's Touchstone Pictures in a seven figure deal announced in Variety on August 4, 1997. Despite Salerno delivering a well regarded screenplay, Disney was unwilling to greenlight a violent film about a serial killer. When Disney let the rights lapse, David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...

 directed Zodiac based on the same book for another studio.

UC: Undercover

In 2001-2002, Salerno returned to television by co-creating (with crime novelist Don Winslow
Don Winslow
Don Winslow is an American author most recognized for his crime and mystery novels. Many of his books are set in California. He has published a series of five novels that have a private investigator named Neal Carey as their main character...

) the NBC series UC: Undercover
UC: Undercover
UC: Undercover is an action-thriller television series that focuses on the secret lives and private demons of an elite Justice Department crime-fighting unit that confronts the country’s deadliest, most untouchable lawbreakers by going undercover to bust them. The series was broadcast from 2001 to...

which TV Guide described as "Donnie Brasco meets Mission Impossible." The series starred Vera Farmiga
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress and director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover...

, Oded Fehr
Oded Fehr
Oded Fehr is an Israeli film and television actor now based in the United States. He is known for his appearance as Ardeth Bay in the 1999 remake of The Mummy and its sequel The Mummy Returns, as well as Carlos Olivera in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil:...

, Jon Seda
Jon Seda
Jonathan Seda is an American actor, possibly best known for his role as Detective Paul Falsone on NBC's: Homicide: Life on the Street....

 and Ving Rhames
Ving Rhames
Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...

. According to a October, 2001 profile in Reel West Magazine, Salerno served as executive producer, showrunner, head writer, and music supervisor. The series won and was nominated for awards in acting, cinematography and sound.

In October 2003, Salerno re-teamed with blockbuster director Michael Bay on a television crime series for ABC that Salerno created and Bay was set to direct (Variety, October 10, 2003)
In 2004, Salerno rewrote the screenplay for Alien vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator (film)
Alien vs. Predator is a 2004 American science fiction film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson for 20th Century Fox and starring Sanaa Lathan and Lance Henriksen. The film adapts the Alien vs. Predator crossover imprint bringing together the eponymous creatures of the Alien and Predator series, a...

which debuted #1 at the box office on August 13 and went onto become the most successful film in the history of either franchise. His work led Twentieth Century Fox to hire him to write the sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem which was a worldwide box office hit in December, 2007.

In 2004 Salerno became the youngest "Guest of Honor" speaker in the history of the Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo. He made follow up appearances in 2005 and 2006. When interviewed for Expo 5, Creative Screenwriting Magazine publisher Erik Bauer remarked that "Shane Salerno has been really supportive over the years, and is a great mentor for a number of writers that I know."

On September 12, 2008, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Twentieth Century Fox had pre-emptively purchased Salerno's spec script "Doomsday Protocol" in a "seven figure deal."

In May 2009, Salerno signed on to write a project for James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

 and 20th Century Fox.

License to Steal

On Monday, June 29, 2009, Variety carried a front page story about Salerno selling "License to Steal," a pitch for "seven figures upfront" to Paramount Pictures and Kurtzman-Orci Productions (Star Trek, Transformers). The pitch was loosely inspired by a magazine article. Variety described the project as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid set in the world of hi-line repo." Several studios and A-list directors pursued Salerno. According to Variety, Salerno made the pitch four times. He accompanied Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...

 (X-Men, Usual Suspects) to Sony, McG (Terminator: Salvation) to Warner Brothers and Timor Bekmambetov (Wanted) to Universal before deciding on Paramount Pictures and Kurtzman-Orci in a deal Variety said was "...the priciest project deal of the summer." Kurtzman and Orci issued a joint statement: "We're thrilled to be working with Shane, a wildly inventive and talented creator."

J. D. Salinger documentary

On January 29, 2010, the website Deadline Hollywood broke an exclusive story and review of Salinger, a feature-length documentary about reclusive author J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....

 that Salerno directed, produced and financed himself. The documentary was kept secret for five years. The film features interviews with 150 subjects including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank, Gore Vidal, and "many other fans, journalists, filmmakers, playwrights, and artists inspired by Salinger's work." Michael Fleming, the first journalist in the world to view the film, said Salerno's picture was "arrestingly powerful and exhaustively researched." Additionally, Fleming announced that Salerno had co-written a 700 page biography on Salinger with New York Times bestselling author David Shields.

A February 4, 2010 Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

article about the Salinger documentary detailed the elaborate security protocol that was put into place to keep the film secret for five years.

In August, 2010 Newsweek ran a lengthy profile of Salerno's documentary titled "Salinger Like You've Never Seen Him." Salerno allowed the magazine to publish a never-before-seen photo of Salinger from Salerno's film. .

On January 26, 2011 Salerno spoke with AP about his Salinger documentary and its expected fall 2011 release. "In the final analysis, what distinguishes our film and book project is access — access to Salinger's friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle that have never spoken on the record before as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen," Salerno said. "We take the viewer and reader inside J.D. Salinger's private world and shine light on a man named Jerry who lived in the shadow of the myth of J.D. Salinger."

Fantastic Voyage

On December 10, 2009, MTV broke the story that the "secret James Cameron/Shane Salerno project" is a remake of the 1966 Academy Award winning film Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby.Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it....

in 3-D.

On March 31, 2010 a front page Variety story announced that Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.-Life and career:...

 (The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum) will direct the film from Salerno's screenplay for Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment.

Greengrass subsequently was replaced by Shawn Levy.

Hawaii Five-0

In 2010, Salerno joined the writing-producing team of Hawaii Five-0. In its first season, Hawaii Five-0 also won the "Favorite New TV Drama" at the 37th People's Choice Awards
37th People's Choice Awards
The 37th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2010, were held on January 5, 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and were broadcast live on CBS at 9:00 pm ET...

 on January 5, 2011. Series star Scott Caan
Scott Caan
Scott Andrew Caan is an American actor. He stars in the CBS television series Hawaii Five-0, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award. He is the son of actor James Caan.-Early life:...

 was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Danny on Hawaii Five-0.

In addition to his producing duties, Salerno was credited for writing the episode "Po'ipu" (Episode 9) on November 15, 2010, co-writing "El Malama" (Episode 16) on February 7, 2011 and "Ho'op'i" (Episode 20) on April 18, 2011 which featured a special guest appearance by Sean Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...

.

Savages

On March 4, 2010 Deadline New York announced that Oliver Stone would next direct an adaptation of Don Winslow's crime novel Savages which is co-written and executive produced by Shane Salerno. The all-star cast includes John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Emile Hirsch and Blake Lively. Universal Pictures is distributing the film.

On November 24, 2010, The New York Times selected Savages as one of the ten best books of 2010.

Filming began on July 6, 2011.

Film & Television Credits

Year Film / Television Show Notes
1991 Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs
Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs is an acclaimed documentary written, produced and directed by eighteen-year-old high school student Shane Salerno. The film debuted on Larry King Live in September 1991. Larry King ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are...

Director/Producer/Writer/Narrator/Music Supervisor
1993–1994 NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

Writer/Director Apprentice
1995–1996 New York Undercover
New York Undercover
New York Undercover is an American police drama that aired on the FOX television network from 1994 to 1998. The series starred Malik Yoba as Detective J.C. Williams and Michael DeLorenzo as Detective Eddie Torres, two undercover detectives in New York City's 4th Precinct who were assigned to...

Writer
1997 Breakdown
Breakdown (film)
Breakdown is a 1997 American thriller film, written and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Kurt Russell, J. T. Walsh and Kathleen Quinlan. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris...

Production Rewrite
1998 Armageddon Screenplay
2000 Shaft
Shaft (2000 film)
Shaft is a 2000 American action-crime film directed by John Singleton, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Pat Hingle, Toni Collette, Busta Rhymes, Vanessa L. Williams, and Mekhi Phifer. This film is not a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, but rather a sequel,...

 
Screenplay/Story By
2001–2002 UC: Undercover
UC: Undercover
UC: Undercover is an action-thriller television series that focuses on the secret lives and private demons of an elite Justice Department crime-fighting unit that confronts the country’s deadliest, most untouchable lawbreakers by going undercover to bust them. The series was broadcast from 2001 to...

Director/Executive Producer/Head Writer/Showrunner/Music Supervisor
2004 Alien vs. Predator
Alien vs. Predator (film)
Alien vs. Predator is a 2004 American science fiction film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson for 20th Century Fox and starring Sanaa Lathan and Lance Henriksen. The film adapts the Alien vs. Predator crossover imprint bringing together the eponymous creatures of the Alien and Predator series, a...

Production Rewrite
2007 Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider (film)
Ghost Rider is a 2007 superhero film written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Based on the character of the same name which appeared in Marvel Comics, the film stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist who sells his soul to the Devil and transforms into thevigilante Ghost...

Contributing Writer
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem Screenplay
2010–Present Hawaii Five-0 Writer/Consulting Producer
2011 Salinger Director/Producer/Writer
Untitled Shane Salerno/Kurtzman-Orci Project Written By/Executive Producer
Fantastic Voyage Screenplay
Savages
Savages (2012 film)
Savages is an upcoming crime-drama film directed by Oliver Stone. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don Winslow, who co-wrote the script with Shane Salerno...

Screenplay/Executive Producer

External links

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