Career Highlights: Moonstruck, Alive, Five Corners
First Major Screen Credit: Moonstruck (1987)
Biography
Bronx native John Patrick Shanley studied educational theater at N.Y.U. before making a name for himself as a writer with his first published play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. His big breakthrough came in 1987 with the screenplay for the romantic comedy Moonstruck. Boasting an all-star cast and several Academy awards, the film won Shanley his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. His other early screenplays include the episodic comedy Five Corners and the offbeat crime comedy The January Man. In 1990 he made his directorial debut by filming his script for Joe Versus the Volcano. A strange romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the film is regarded as a box-office failure, but its uniqueness has found its way into the hearts of many fans. Sticking with writing, Shanley then adapted the book by Piers Paul Read for the adventure drama Alive, based on a real plane crash in the Andes mountains. He then wrote the screenplay for the cartoon We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, along with adapting Michael Crichton's Congo for the screen and cleaning up Robert Wiener's teleplay for Live From Baghdad. In 1998 he published the play The Dreamer Examines His Pillow and in 2002 a production company in France filmed a French-language version of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
John Patrick Shanley (born October 3, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. It is rumored that he insists in his contract that not a single word can be changed in the screenplays that he writes, but Shanley has denied that this rumor is true.[1]
In 1990, Shanley directed his script of Joe Versus the Volcano. Shanley also wrote two songs for the movie: "Marooned Without You" and "The Cowboy Song."
In 2004 Shanley was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.