Johnstad: Epic heroes make large impact on the page

Kurt JohnstadIt's no coincidence that every movie Kurt Johnstad produces is about gamers of just one stripe or other, within the epic "300" and Relativity Media's approaching "Act of Valor," starring active-duty Navy Shuts, to more recent script projects like "The Gunslinger," a great ex-Texas Ranger avenging the murder of his brother."Save for just about any handful of folks my existence, every close male relationship which i've, they all are gamers, whether or not they are Shuts, competitive mma martial artists or professional mountain climbers," Johnstad states. "There's a particular code. It's the way i have were living my existence. You gaze, strive and be humble."Johnstad was elevated around the large working cattle farm in Wisconsin with two brothers and sisters. His father was a feeling Pressure fighter pilot and test pilot who later travelled for Pan-Am his mother was an British teacher. After graduation from secondary school at 16, he spent yearly traveling, then enrolled at CalArts in 1986 to examine film and completed the program in just three years.InchA friend mentioned, 'Do you have to make about 200 dollars like a dolly grip?,' " Johnstad recalls, which he wound crewing on MOWs and musicvideos for an additional four years. Then Zack Snyder, a young commercial director he'd labored with a few occasions, offered him employment as his first assistant director, as well as the two spent the next 10 years working alongside.Meanwhile, Johnstad had started writing scripts -- including the one that really got produced, the lower-budget actioner "True Vengeance" (1995). In 2006, Snyder -- who acquired popular along with his feature film directorial debut "Beginning in the Dead" (2004) -- asked for Johnstad to help him adapt Frank Miller's graphic novel "300," a fictionalized retelling in the Fight of Thermopylae.More recently, Johnstad has reteamed with Snyder to co-write the Afghanistan war drama "The Ultimate Photograph" as well as the follow-up "300: Your Dream of Artemisia," both for Warner Bros. The WME client been hired by producers Tulsi Iwanyk and Jason Netter to evolve Max Allan Collins' novel "Black Hats," set to star Harrison Ford becoming an aging Wyatt Earp.TEN SCREENWRITERS To Check Out 2011:Josh Applebaum & Andrew Nemec Jay Baruchel & Jesse Chabot Justin Britt-Gibson Neil Mix Andrew Haigh Kurt Johnstad Lauryn Kahn Paula Pell Jon Spaihts John Yorkey Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com