Paul Wernick is a Canadian television/movie

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and producer. He is best known for writing the screenplays to the 2016

superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature action, advent ...

Deadpool Deadpool is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (cover-dated Feb. 1991). Initially, Deadpo ...

'' and its 2018 sequel with his creative partner

Rhett Reese Rhett Reese is an American film producer, television producer, and screenwriter. As a screenwriter, his early credits included ''Clifford's Really Big Movie'' and ''Cruel Intentions 3''. He has collaborated with Paul Wernick, writing the film ...

Career

Early career

Wernick has produced several network reality shows, including

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

's '' Big Brother 2'' and ABC's '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!''. Wernick has won three

Emmy Awards 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 ...

for his work in news, which included producing stints at

KVOA KVOA (channel 4) is a television station in Tucson, Arizona, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its primary transmitter is ...

, KOLD,

KTVK KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KTVK and KPHO-TV share ...

, KSL and

KCAL The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of o ...

. ''Big Brother 2'' inspired Wernick and

, a screenwriter friend of his brother back from

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, where both attended high school - Reese was a senior on Wernick's freshman year - to create their own take on reality television, ''

The Joe Schmo Show ''The Joe Schmo Show'' is a reality television hoax show created by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. The series was broadcast in the U.S. on the cable network Spike. The show's premise is that a target person or people are led to believe tha ...

''.

Film

Wernick and Reese's first feature collaboration was the 2009 film ''

Zombieland ''Zombieland'' is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer in his theatrical debut and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film follows a geeky college student ( Jesse Eisenberg) making his wa ...

'', which they created and also executive-produced. The film was released by

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acq ...

in theaters October 2, 2009, and went on to become one of the highest grossing zombie movies of all-time. Wernick and Reese followed ''Zombieland'' with

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

’ '' G.I. Joe: Retaliation'', starring

Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the develop ...

Channing Tatum Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor. Tatum made his film debut in the drama ''Coach Carter'' (2005), and had his breakthrough role in the 2006 dance film '' Step Up''. He gained wider attention for his leading rol ...

, and

Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...

, which was released on March 27, 2013. The sequel outperformed the original, grossing $375 million. Paul Wernick wrote and executive produced

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

's ''

'', along with Reese. ''Deadpool'' starred

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

, and was directed by Tim Miller. The R-rated film was released on February 12, 2016. Its opening weekend was the highest grossing of all time for R-Rated films, and it went on to gross more than $780 million worldwide. The team's next project, sci-fi thriller ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'', was released in March 2017. The film was directed by

Daniel Espinosa Jorge Daniel Espinosa (born 23 March 1977) is a Swedish film director from Trångsund, Stockholm, of Chilean origin. Early life He attended the National Film School of Denmark and graduated in 2001. Career His third feature film, '' Easy Mone ...

, produced by Skydance, and through

, with Ryan Reynolds,

Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He ...

, and Rebecca Ferguson starring. They wrote ''

Deadpool 2 ''Deadpool 2'' is a 2018 American superhero comedy film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel to ''Deadpool'' (2016) and the eleventh installment overall in the ''X-Men'' film series. ...

'' in 2018, which like its predecessor was released to positive reviews. Wernick and Reese were announced as the co-screenwriters of the feature film adaptation of '' Cowboy Ninja Viking''. Reportedly

Chris Pratt Christopher Michael Pratt (born June 21, 1979) is an American actor. He rose to prominence for playing Andy Dwyer in the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015). He also appeared in The WB drama series '' Everwood'' (2002–2006) ...

will star in the film as well as also serve as executive-produce. The film is being distributed by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

. Their original science fiction spec screenplay ''Epsilon'' was sold to

; with contracts to co-produce in partnership with

Michael De Luca Michael De Luca (born August 13, 1965) is an American film studio executive, film producer and screenwriter. The former president of production at both New Line Cinema and DreamWorks, De Luca has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Bes ...

. Wernick and Reese recently optioned Thomas Oliver's book, ''The Real Coke, The Real Story'', about the failed launch of New Coke. The pair will write and produce the project.

Television

Wernick and Reese first collaborated in 2001, creating, writing, and executive-producing ''

'' for

Spike TV Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was ...

. The series drew Spike’s highest-ever ratings. Joe Schmo was named to numerous Best Of lists, including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'''s "Top 10 TV Shows of 2003" and ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

s "50 Best TV Shows Ever on DVD." The Schmo format has sold internationally, in the UK, France, Spain, and New Zealand. Wernick and Reese followed up with '' Invasion Iowa'', a high-concept, high-stakes comedy hybrid starring

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...

. The show premiered on Spike in the first quarter of 2005 and aired internationally immediately following. Invasion Iowa was released on DVD in May, 2009. Reese and Wernick created and executive-produced ''Stuck on ODB'', a comedy reality show starring

Ol' Dirty Bastard Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), better known by his stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard (often abbreviated as ODB), was an American rapper. He was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group primarily fr ...

(ODB) of the

Wu Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affi ...

for

. ODB died before the show ever aired.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

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Check out these Exclusive stills from ZOMBIELAND starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wernick, Paul Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian male television writers