Matthew John Costello (born 1948) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
writer specializing in the genres of
horror,
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, and
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. His articles have appeared in publications including the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' and ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
''. He has scripted
Trilobyte's bestselling CD-ROM interactive dramas ''
The 7th Guest
''The 7th Guest'' is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game, produced by Trilobyte (company), Trilobyte and originally released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in April 1993. It is one of the first computer video games to be released only ...
'' and its sequel ''
The 11th Hour'', as well as many other video games.
Career
Along with
F. Paul Wilson
Francis Paul Wilson (born May 17, 1946, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American medical doctor and author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and other genres of literary fiction. His books include the Repairman Jack n ...
, Costello created and scripted ''
FTL Newsfeed'', which ran daily on the
Sci-Fi 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. Launc ...
from 1992–1996. His television credits also include shows on
The Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...
,
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, and many others. In 2005 his novel ''
Beneath Still Waters'' was adapted into a film by director
Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna is an American producer, director, and writer. He is best known for his work in the science fiction and horror film genres. Yuzna began his career as a producer for several films by director Stuart Gordon, such as ''Re-Animator'' (1 ...
.
Costello also wrote ''Island of the Skull'' (
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...
), an original prequel to
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
's film, ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
''.
Along with his adult genres, Costello has created works for children. His works include the book series ''The Kids of Einstein Elementary'', published by Scholastic, and ''Magic Everywhere'' (Random House), as well as games including ''Aladdin’s Mathquest'' (Disney), ''A Cartoon History of the Universe'' (Putnam), and two math games based on the hit
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...
show ''
Cyberchase
''Cyberchase'' is an educational animated sci-fi children's television series that airs on PBS Kids. The series centers around three children from Earth: Jackie, Matt, and Inez, who are brought into Cyberspace, a digital universe, in order to p ...
''. He is the designer of role-playing and board games, including ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
'', ''
Call of Cthulhu'', ''Batman'', ''
Lone Wolf & Cub
is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya, and ...
'', and many others.
Recently, Costello worked on ''
Rage'', a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...
action-adventure game for
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
, and wrote its novelization, as well as a new game for
Eidos
Eidos may refer to:
* Eidos (philosophy), a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species". See Plato's theory of forms and Aristotle's theory of universals
* Eidos plc, a British software company, which created video game publisher Eido ...
with Neil Richards and Swedish developer
Avalanche Studios
Avalanche Studios Group is a Swedish video game developer and publisher based in Stockholm. It is a parent company that includes Avalanche Studios, Expansive Worlds, and Systemic Reaction. Founded by Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg in Ma ...
.
Novels
*''Sleep Tight'' (1987)
*''Revolt on Majipoor'' (1987)
*''Fate's Trick: In the World of Robert Heinlein's Glory Road'' (1988)
*''Beneath Still Waters'' (1989)
*''Midsummer'' (1990)
*''Child's Play 2'' (1990)
*''Wurm'' (1991)
*''Child's Play 3'' (1991)
*''Darkborn'' (1992)
*''Homecoming'' (1992)
*''Caught in Time'' (1992)
*''Garden'' (1993)
*''See How She Runs'' (1994)
*''SeaQuest DSV: Fire Bellow'' (1994)
*''The 7th Guest'' (1995) (with
Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner (born July 2, 1949) is an American author, best known for producing fantasy parodies similar to those of Terry Pratchett.
He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroi ...
)
*''Mirage'' (1996) (with
F. Paul Wilson
Francis Paul Wilson (born May 17, 1946, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American medical doctor and author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and other genres of literary fiction. His books include the Repairman Jack n ...
)
*''Masque'' (1998) (with F. Paul Wilson)
*''Unidentified'' (2002)
*''Artifact'' (2003) (with
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin James Anderson (born March 27, 1962) is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for ''Star Wars'', ''StarCraft'', ''Titan A.E.'' and ''The X-Files literature#Novels, The X-Files'', and with Brian Herbert is the ...
, Janet Berliner and F. Paul Wilson)
*''Missing Monday'' (2004)
*''King Kong: The Island of the Skull'' (2005)
*''
Doom 3: Worlds on Fire'' (2008)
*''
Doom 3: Maelstrom'' (2009)
*''
Rage (video game)
''Rage'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, released in November 2010 for iOS, in October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360, and in February 2012 for m ...
'' (adaptation) (2011)
*''Vacation'' (2011)
*''Home'' (2012)
*''Star Road'' (with Rick Hautala) (2014)
Videogames (script)
*''
The 7th Guest
''The 7th Guest'' is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game, produced by Trilobyte (company), Trilobyte and originally released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in April 1993. It is one of the first computer video games to be released only ...
''
(1993),
Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...
(Europe) Ltd.
*''
The 11th Hour'' (1995), Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc.
*''
Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion'' (1999),
Atari Interactive
Atari Interactive is a name used by several separate groups and corporations since the mid-1990s. In 1996, it was the name of Atari Corporation's PC publishing division, bringing games like the Atari Jaguar's ''Tempest 2000'' to the PC platfor ...
, Inc.
*''
Starsky & Hutch
''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a ''Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired by th ...
'' (2003), Empire Interactive
*''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, rece ...
'' (2003), Eidos Interactive, Inc.
*''
Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest'' (2003), Brighter Minds Media, Inc., Learning Company, The
*''
Doom 3
''Doom 3'' is a 2004 survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and ported ...
'' (2004),
Activision Publishing, Inc.
*''
Shellshock: Nam '67'' (2004), Eidos Interactive
*''
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil'' (2005), Activision Publishing, Inc.
*''
Just Cause'' (2006), Eidos GmbH
*''
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'' (2007),
Disney Interactive Studios
Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactiv ...
*''
Just Cause 2'' (2010), Eidos GmbH
*''
Rage'' (2011),
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...
*''
Planet of The Apes: The Last Frontier'' (2017),
Imaginati Studios
Awards
*
Bram Stoker Best Novel nominee (1993): ''Homecoming''
*
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...
Best Novel nominee (1999): ''Masque''
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Matthew J. Costelloa
Demian's Gamebook Web PageShane Christopher(pseudonym) at LC Authorities, 1 record, an
at WorldCat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Matthew J.
1948 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
Id Software people
Role-playing game designers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Date of birth missing (living people)