Eric Garcia (born 1972) is an American writer, the author of several novels including ''

Matchstick Men ''Matchstick Men'' is a 2003 black comedy film directed by Ridley Scott and based on Eric Garcia's 2002 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman. The film premiered on September 2, 2003 at the 60th Venic ...

'' which was made into a

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

directed by

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

and starring

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gui ...

, and the '' Anonymous Rex'' series, which was adapted in 2004 for the

SciFi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. La ...

. He is also a screenwriter, with Garrett Lerner, of the 2010 film ''

Repo Men ''Repo Men'' is a 2010 science fiction action film directed by Miguel Sapochnik, starring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga and Carice van Houten. An American-Canadian production, it is based on the novel ''The Reposses ...

'', based on Garcia's novel ''The Repossession Mambo''. He is the creator and showrunner of the non-linear Netflix heist series

Kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

Career

Garcia attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

to study English and film, then transferred to the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

during his junior year. His first novel, ''Anonymous Rex'' was published in 1999. The second novel in the Rex series, ''Casual Rex'', was published in 2001, and was a prequel to ''Anonymous Rex'', a fact which was not on the book flap. The inclusion of characters in ''Casual Rex'' who were dead in ''Anonymous Rex'' confused many fans, who assumed that the book was a sequel. In 2002,

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

published ''Matchstick Men'', a novel completely different from Garcia's prior work.

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

had already purchased the film rights and signed Ridley Scott as the director, with

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in independent films and also as a character actor portraying a wide variety of roles both comedic and dramatic in films such as '' Lawn Dogs'' (19 ...

and

Alison Lohman Alison Marion Lohman (born September 18, 1979) is an American former actress. Born in Palm Springs, California, she began her career with small roles in short and independent films. Lohman headlined the drama film '' White Oleander'' (2002), wh ...

as the film's stars. The

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

, released in September 2003, received good reviews but was an average performer at the box office. 2004 was a busy year for Garcia. His third book in the Rex series, ''Hot And Sweaty Rex'', was published early in the year, and in June,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

ReganBooks ReganBooks was an American bestselling imprint or division of HarperCollins book publishing house (parent company is News Corporation), headed by editor and publisher Judith Regan, started in 1994 and ended in late 2006. During its existence, Rega ...

published ''Cassandra French's Finishing School For Boys'', a hard-core satire of the

chick-lit Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at younger women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels id ...

genre. Also in 2004, the SciFi Channel showed the two-hour

TV-movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

pilot for '' Anonymous Rex'', which was based on ''Casual Rex'' but kept the name of the original book. The show received negative reviews from both critics and fans and was never made into a series. In June 2009, it was announced that

Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary Césa ...

and

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. After making his f ...

would star in ''

'', a movie co-written by Garcia with Garrett Lerner, a writer for

Fox Broadcasting The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and ...

's ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

''. The movie is based on Garcia's 2009 original paperback novel for HarperCollins, ''The Repossession Mambo''. As of 2010, Garcia has also written an adaptation of

John Searles John Searles is an American writer and book critic. He is the author of four novels: Her Last Affair (ISBN-10: 0060779659 ), ''Help For The Haunted'' (), ''Strange But True'' () and ''Boy Still Missing'' (). His essays have appeared in national m ...

book ''Strange but True'', a thriller to be directed by Alex and David Pastor. In 2012, Garcia wrote and executive-produced produce a pilot for a TV series adapted from his novel ''Cassandra French's Finishing School For Boys'' for MTV, along with actress

Krysten Ritter Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She came to prominence when she appeared as Jane Margolis in the AMC drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2009–2010) and its spinoff film '' El Camino'' (2019). She th ...

as a fellow exec. producer. It did not go forward as a series. In 2015, Garcia produced the horror film ''

The Autopsy of Jane Doe ''The Autopsy of Jane Doe'' is a 2016 supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal. It stars Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox as father-and-son coroners who experience supernatural phenomena while examining the body of an unidentified woman ( ...

''. In 2016, Garcia wrote and executive-produced "Cassandra French's Finishing School," an 8-episode series based on his own novel, and released by DirecTV and Fullscreen. His adaptation of John Searles' novel "Strange But True" was produced in 2018, and was released in 2019 by CBS Films, starring Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Nick Robinson, Margaret Qualley, Blythe Danner, and Brian Cox. On January 1, 2023, Netflix will release

, a non-linear heist thriller on which Garcia was showrunner and creator. This is his second project with

, who is an executive producer on the show.

Personal life

Eric Garcia married his wife, Sabrina, in 1995, and lives in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

with his wife, his children Bailey and Teddy, and their dogs.

Bibliography

Standalone Novels

* ''Matchstick Men'' (2002) * ''Cassandra French's Finishing School For Boys'' (2004) * ''The Repossession Mambo'' (2009), renamed ''Repo Men'' after film of same name was made from it

Anonymous Rex series

* ''Anonymous Rex'' (1999) * ''Casual Rex'' (2001) * ''Hot and Sweaty Rex'' (2004)

Filmography

References

External links

* * *
Official website for Anonymous Rex TV show
hosted by

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Eric 1972 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American humorists American male novelists Cornell University alumni Living people University of Southern California alumni 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers