Darren Lemke (born ) is an American screenwriter who has been active in the film industry since the late 1990s. His first major screenwriting credit was for ''

Shrek Forever After ''Shrek Forever After'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 picture book ''Shrek!'' by William Steig, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The sequel to ''Shrek the Thi ...

'' (2010), which he wrote with

Josh Klausner Josh Klausner is an American screenwriter. He wrote ''Date Night'' (2010) and ''Shrek Forever After'' (2010). Biography Early life Josh Klausner graduated from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Career He started his career in the ...

. Lemke directed the thriller film ''

Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' (2004), which he also wrote.

Background

Lemke was born in . Raised in

Carlstadt, New Jersey Carlstadt is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 6,127,Paramus Catholic High School Paramus Catholic High School is a co-educational Roman Catholic high school located in Paramus in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school, founded in 1965, under Archbishop Thomas A. Boland, and Superintendent of Schools, Mon ...

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

. After high school, he attended the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

Manhattan, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to study screenwriting. In 1997, he sold two pitches to

Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...

for

Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as ''Top Gun'' (1986), ''Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''Day ...

to direct; one of the pitches became '' Gemini Man'', which was released in 2019. In 2005, Lemke pitched the idea of adapting the English fairy tale "

Jack and the Beanstalk "Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Cole ...

" with computer-generated imagery. By 2013, ''

Jack the Giant Slayer ''Jack the Giant Slayer'' (previously titled ''Jack the Giant Killer'') is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney, from a story by Lemke and David Dobki ...

'' was directed by

Bryan Singer Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Singer d ...

. Lemke is one of six executive producers for the 2021 TV series ''

The Wheel of Time ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by American author Robert Jordan, with Brandon Sanderson as a co-author for the final three novels. Originally planned as a six-book series, ''The Wheel of Time'' spans 14 volumes, in a ...

''.

Credits

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemke, Darren 20th-century births American screenwriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Carlstadt, New Jersey Paramus Catholic High School alumni School of Visual Arts alumni