John Fusco is an American
screenwriter, producer, and television series creator born in
Prospect, Connecticut
Prospect is a town in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, United States. It is a suburb of the nearby city of Waterbury to its north, and is on the north-eastern fringes of the New York metropolitan area. The population was estima ...
. His screenplays include ''
Crossroads'', ''
Young Guns'', ''
Young Guns II'', ''
Thunderheart
''Thunderheart'' is a 1992 American Neo-Western mystery film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by John Fusco. The film is a loosely based fictional portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973, when followers of ...
'', ''
Hidalgo
Hidalgo may refer to:
People
* Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility
* Hidalgo (surname)
Places
Mexico
* Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico
* Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila
* Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...
'', ''
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'' and ''
The Highwaymen''. He is also the creator of the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
series ''
Marco Polo''.
Fusco is also a blues musician and a prose fiction author.
Career
John Fusco was raised in the small town of
Prospect, Connecticut
Prospect is a town in the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, Connecticut, United States. It is a suburb of the nearby city of Waterbury to its north, and is on the north-eastern fringes of the New York metropolitan area. The population was estima ...
, leaving home and high school early to travel the American south as a blues musician and blue collar laborer. He later attended and graduated from
NYU's
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
where his writing mentors were
Waldo Salt
Waldo Miller Salt (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an American screenwriter who won Academy Awards for both ''Midnight Cowboy'' and '' Coming Home''.
Early life and career
Salt was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winifred (n ...
,
Ring Lardner, Jr., and Lorenzo Semple. He won back-to-back honors in national screenwriting competitions his junior and senior year, twice winning the top prize of a
Nissan Sentra
The Nissan Sentra is a series of automobiles manufactured by the Japanese automaker Nissan since 1982. Since 1999, the Sentra has been categorized as a compact car, while previously it occupied the subcompact class. Until 2006, Sentra was a reba ...
and a contract with the
William Morris Agency
The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ag ...
. His bachelor's thesis became the Columbia Pictures Delta blues movie ''
Crossroads'' (1986), directed by
Walter Hill
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 1 ...
, and went into production while he was still a student at NYU.
Fusco has gone on to write numerous motion-pictures, an ABC mini-series, a long-form TV series, and two novels. He created the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
original series ''
Marco Polo'', which ran for two seasons from 2014 to 2016. Fusco also wrote the screenplay for the Lionsgate film ''
The Shack'' which premiered on March 3, 2017. The film was a modest hit, grossing nearly $100 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. It was panned by critics but it earned favorable audience reviews.
In 2011 it was announced that Fusco was adapting the acclaimed
Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke.
Caree ...
biography of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
, ''Last Train to Memphis'', for
Fox 2000
Fox 2000 Pictures was an American film production company within The Walt Disney Studios. It was a sister studio of the larger film studio 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures specializing in producing independent films in mid-range re ...
.
Fusco wrote a draft for the feature adaptation of the novel ''
The Alchemist'' which as of 2016 was being developed by
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...
.
He is currently at work adapting the book series "Spirit Animals" for Universal Pictures and creating the sequel for the 2015 film ''
Wolf Totem''.
Music
After traveling in the southeast United States in search of obscure blues artists in the late 1970s, Fusco returned home to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
to co-found the Travis McComb Band, a southern rock ensemble that was popular in the
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
music scene. Fusco played Hammond B3 organ, blues
harmonica, was the lead vocalist, and wrote or co-wrote the band's originals. For a short time in 1979, he joined and toured with the Dixie Road Ducks from Northern
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, but soon left both bands to return to school and his pursuit of a screenwriting career.
His first movie, ''Crossroads'', was inspired by his love for the Delta blues and his travels in the south. The movie would have him collaborating with
Ry Cooder, Steve Vai, Frank Frost, and blues harp legend Sonny Terry. He also collaborated with
Jackson Browne on the music video "Rockin' the Rez" which was a companion to Fusco's 1992 movie ''
Thunderheart
''Thunderheart'' is a 1992 American Neo-Western mystery film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by John Fusco. The film is a loosely based fictional portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973, when followers of ...
''.
Fusco returned to music and released his debut LP ''The X-Road Riders'' on February 11, 2019. Recorded near
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
with members of the North Mississippi All-Stars, the album has been critically acclaimed. Blues Rock Review has called the collection of original songs "an incredibly impressive and fun debut," while other music critics have praised Fusco's "smoky, soulful voice" and Hammond B3 organ skills. Fusco also plays Hammond B3 on Hill Country Revue's third LP 'HCR III' which was released on July 6, 2018, landing at #2 on the iTunes blues chart.
Martial arts
While known for
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
and Native American themed films, Fusco drew on his lifelong background in
martial arts to write ''
The Forbidden Kingdom'', starring
Jet Li and
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
. The movie opened #1 at the box office on April 18, 2008, and broke opening day box office records (at that time) in China.
Fusco first studied Martial Arts at age 12 at the Association Of Korean Martial Arts (A.K.M.A) in
Oakville, Connecticut under Romaine Staples and currently holds a
black sash rank in
Northern Shaolin Kung Fu
In its broadest sense, Northern Shaolin () is the external (as opposed to Neijia, internal) martial arts of North China, Northern China, referring to those styles from the Northern Shaolin Monastery in Henan and specifically to the style practic ...
. He is also a practitioner of
Wing Chun
Wing Chun (Chinese: 詠春 or 咏春, lit. "singing spring"), sometimes spelled Ving Tsun, is a concept-based fighting art, form of Southern Chinese kung fu and close-quarters system of self-defense. In Mandarin, it is pronounced "Yong Chun. ...
,
Jeet Kune Do
Jeet Kune Do is a primarily wing chun kung fu inspired eclectic martial arts philosophy heavily influenced and adapted by the Taoist personal life philosophy and experiences of martial artist Bruce Lee.
Overview and philosophy
Jeet Kune Do ...
, and has received an honorary black belt from the World Tang Soo Do Association for his work in promoting traditional martial arts values in film, television, and literature. He has been profiled in Black Belt Magazine, Inside Kung Fu, and Kung Fu/Tai Chi Magazine.
Fusco has also studied traditional martial arts in Zhejiang Province, China under Sifu Yi ShenGuo.
Fusco has stated in DVD special features that he is interested in the spiritual aspects of warrior cultures and acknowledges a "red thread" that runs through his interests in both
Native American and
Eastern philosophy. In 2007 he crossed Central
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
on horseback with his son, and Mongol nomads to conduct research on what would eventually develop into ''
Marco Polo''.
Personal life
Fusco is married to Richela Renkun, a graduate of NYU's Steinhardt School and an educator in the theater arts. They have one son, Giovanni. The family lives on a farm in
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
.
Awards
* 1983 — FOCUS Award, First place: ''Blues Water''
* 1984 — FOCUS Award, First Place: ''Crossroads''
* 1988 — WRANGLER Award—
Western Heritage Center: ''Young Guns''
* 2000 — WRANGLER Award—Western Heritage Center: ''Spirit''
* 2003 — THE HUMANITARIAN AWARD—First Americans in the Arts: ''Dreamkeeper'' mini-series
* 2004 —
Spur Award—
Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include histori ...
: ''Hidalgo''
Filmography
Prose fiction
Fusco is an author of two novels and an award-winning children's book:
* ''Paradise Salvage'' (Overlook Press, 2002), mystery and literary novel,
* ''Dog Beach: a novel'' (Simon & Schuster, 2014) – featuring a "struggling screenwriter" and a "stuntman turned mafia enforcer",
* ''Little Monk and the Mantis: a bug, a boy, and the birth of a kung fu legend'', illus. Patrick Lugo (Tuttle Publ., 2012), young readers book – "based on the seventeenth-century legend of Wong Long and the founding of
praying mantis kung fu",
References
External links
*
Review of Paradise Salvage by Professor Alfred Rosa*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fusco, John
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American male novelists
American male screenwriters
American television writers
American screenwriters
American male television writers
American martial artists
People from Prospect, Connecticut
Tisch School of the Arts alumni