Kurt Johnstad is an American screenwriter. He has worked on several films including ''

300 __NOTOC__ Year 300 (Roman numerals, CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, ...

'', for which he was nominated for a

Saturn Award The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...

, along with Michael Gordon and

Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...

. He also wrote the screenplays for ''

Act of Valor ''Act of Valor'' is a 2012 American action film produced and directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, and written by Kurt Johnstad. Starring Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sánchez, Nestor Serrano and Emilio Rivera, as well as active duty U.S. Navy SEALs an ...

'', '' 300: Rise of an Empire'' and ''

Atomic Blonde ''Atomic Blonde'' is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by David Leitch (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad, based on the 2012 graphic novel ''The Coldest City'' by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart. The f ...

'', and was tapped to write one of two competing screenplays for ''

Aquaman Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). The character is a pastiche of Namor. Initially ...

'';

Will Beall Will Beall is an American screenwriter and former Los Angeles Police Department detective. He is best known for writing the scripts for '' Gangster Squad'' (2013) and the DC Extended Universe films ''Aquaman'' (2018) and ''Zack Snyder's Justice ...

's script was eventually chosen for the film.

Life and career

Johnstad grew up working on a cattle farm in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Among his family were two sisters and his father, an Air Force fighter pilot, and mother, an English teacher. Johnstad graduated high school at 16 and spent a year traveling. He enrolled in the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

in 1986 to study film and completed the program in three years. Johnstad began working on

music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

and

television movies Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

for the next four years. Among the people he had worked with was director

, who offered him a job as his first assistant director which lead the two to work with each other for the next ten years. Johnstad would later work on scripts and in the mid 1990s, a low-budget action film '' True Vengeance'' was released in the mid-1990s. Snyder asked Johnstad to assist him with his film ''

'', a fictionalized graphic novel adaptation of

Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book writer, penciller and inker, novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on Daredevil (Marvel Comics ser ...

's comic involving the

Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae ( ; grc, Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, label=Greek, ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting o ...

. The film got him nominated for a

along with Snyder and Michael Gordon. In 2011, Johnstad was working with Snyder to co-write the film ''The Last Photograph'' and ''300: The Battle of Artemisia'' for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Johnstad also worked outside of collaborations with Snyder, and was hired by producers

Basil Iwanyk Basil William Iwanyk (born January 4, 1970) is an American film producer. He is the founder of Thunder Road Films and most known for '' Sicario'', '' The Town'', ''Greenland'' and the ''John Wick ''John Wick'' is an American action thrille ...

and Jason Netter to adapt

Max Allan Collins Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic novels. His work has been published in several formats and his ''Road to Perdition'' series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the '' Di ...

’ novel ''Black Hats''. His next screenplays that were produced was ''

'' and '' 300: Rise of an Empire''. In 2015, ''Variety'' described Johnstad as beginning "to make a name for himself as writer who delivers big action in his scripts, along with classic heroes audiences love to root for." His screenplay based on ''

The Coldest City ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' by Antony Johnston was announced that year. The film was titled ''

'' and released on July 28, 2017. Films Johnstad has been assigned to write screenplays for include '' The Lost Legion'' for

and

Dan Lin Dan Lin (; born April 8, 1973) is a Taiwanese-American film producer. He is the founder and CEO of Rideback (formerly Lin Pictures until 2018), a film and television production company that he formed in 2008 that has a first-look deal at Uni ...

, and ''

'' where another script was concurrently in development, by

. Beall's script was later used for the film.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnsrud, Kurt Living people People from Wisconsin American male screenwriters Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)