John Orloff is an American screenwriter.

Early life

Orloff was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California, where he was raised in a "Hollywood" family. His father, also named John Orloff, was a TV commercial director. His grandmother was B-movie actress

Peggy Knudsen Margaret Ann "Peggy" Knudsen (April 22, 1923 – July 11, 1980) was an American character actress. Early life She was born Margaret Ann Knudsen in Duluth, Minnesota. Her father was Conrad Knudsen, Duluth's fire chief. Her ancestors were Irish an ...

, and his great-grandparents were the real-life married couple of

Fibber McGee and Molly ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime highly popular husband-and-wife team radio comedy program. The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most p ...

, stars of TV and radio. Orloff studied screenwriting at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Film School, and on graduation went to work in the advertising business.

Career

After ten years working on TV commercials in various positions, he met a TV movie development executive, now his wife, from the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television network. When she continually brought home what he felt were "awful" screenplays, he decided to write his own, a 16th-century English melodrama based on the

Shakespeare authorship question Image:ShakespeareCandidates1.jpg, alt=Portraits of Shakespeare and four proposed alternative authors, Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author. poly 1 1 105 1 1 ...

, which ended up being sent to

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

and

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

. They were not interested in producing his project, but Hanks asked Orloff, a keen "World War II buff", to write for the 2001 HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers''. Orloff wrote episode 2, " Day of Days" and episode 9, "Why We Fight". His work earned him a

Christopher Award The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organization ...

, and an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. It is the single highest grossing and best-selling TV DVD of all time, and one of the highest grossing DVDs of any kind. In 2003,

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. Di ...

paid over US$500,000 for the filming rights for

Mariane Pearl Mariane van Neyenhoff Pearl (born 23 July 1967) is a French freelance journalist and a former reporter and columnist for '' Glamour'' magazine. She is the widow of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who was the South Asia Bureau Chief for ''The ...

's memoir ''

A Mighty Heart ''A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl'' (also subtitled ''A Mighty Heart: The Inside Story of the Al Qaeda Kidnapping of Danny Pearl'') (2003) is a memoir by Mariane Pearl, a freelance French journalist. She cover ...

'', and Orloff was assigned to adapt the screenplay by producer

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...

. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' film reviewer

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

declared the finished film "a surprising, insistently political work of commercial art". Orloff's script for the film earned him an

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...

nomination for Best First Screenplay. In a 2011 interview with ''60 Minutes''

Bob Simon Robert David Simon (May 29, 1941 – February 11, 2015) was an American television correspondent for CBS News. He covered crises, war, and unrest in 67 countries during his career.Gottlieb, Hooper. Shearer, Benjamin F. ed., ''Home Front Her ...

, the film's star,

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

, mentioned that ''A Mighty Heart'' is her favorite film starring herself. Changing genres, Orloff next adapted the children's fantasy book series ''

Legend of the Guardians ''Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'' is a 2010 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure film directed by Zack Snyder. Based on the ''Guardians of Ga'Hoole'' book series by Kathryn Lasky, the film was written by John Orloff and Emil Ste ...

'', based on the ''

Guardians of Ga'Hoole ''Guardians of Ga'Hoole'' is a fantasy book series written by Kathryn Lasky and published by Scholastic. The series contains a total of 16 books and although originally intended to conclude with the 2008 publication of ''The War of the Ember' ...

'' series of books written by

Kathryn Lasky Kathryn Lasky (born June 24, 1944) is an American children's writer who also writes for adults under the names Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Her children's books include several Dear America books, The Royal Diaries books, ''Sugaring Tim ...

. The animated 3-D film was directed by

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 ...

, and was released in 2010. Orloff created, wrote, and co-executive produced Apple+'s "''

Masters of the Air ''Masters of the Air'' is an upcoming American war drama miniseries based on the actions of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It is being produced by Playtone, Parliament of Owls, Amblin Television an ...

,"'' a follow up to '' Band of Brothers,'' also produced by

and

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orloff, John Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American male screenwriters American television writers American writers American screenwriters American male television writers