Screenwriter J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI is currently rewriting The Grays for Wolfgang Peterson and Sony Pictures

Screenwriter J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI (Screenplay by) was born in New Jersey but raised all across the United States, moving over 20 times in his first 17 years. He began selling articles and short stories by the time he graduated high school, and spent the next 14 years as a journalist, writing for the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Magazine, Penthouse, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the Los Angeles Reader and Time, Inc. In the course of that work he also picked up two bachelor degrees from San Diego State University in clinical psychology and sociology, with minors in literature and philosophy.

In 1986, Straczynski jumped ship from journalism to television, starting first in animation then moving on to write for such series as The Twilight Zone; Murder She Wrote; Jake and the Fatman; Walker, Texas Ranger; Crusade, Showtime Network’s Jeremiah; and Nightmare Classics, for which he received a Writers Guild Award nomination. He also created and executive produced the double Hugo Award-winning series Babylon 5, for which he wrote 91 out of 110 produced episodes, and received the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, two technical Emmy awards, the Saturn award, the Ray Bradbury Award and many others. In 2006, he wrote, produced and directed Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, a direct-to-DVD short film for Warner Bros.

Straczynski also writes for Marvel Comics, including “The Amazing Spider-Man” (since 2001), “Fantastic Four,” “Thor,” “Bullet Points,” “Dream Police” and “The Book of Lost Souls.” His comic work has received the prestigious Eisner Award and the Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Award.

After finishing Jeremiah, Straczynski dedicated himself to film work. In addition to the production of L’Échange, he has adapted World War Z for Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Paramount Pictures; They Marched Into Sunlight for Tom Hanks’ Playtone and Universal Pictures, with Paul Greengrass attached to direct; a new Silver Surfer feature for 20th Century Fox; and rewriting Ninja Assassin for the Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver, now in production. He is currently rewriting The Grays for Wolfgang Peterson and Sony Pictures, has sold two more spec scripts—Proving Ground to United Artists and Tom Cruise and The Flickering Light to Imagine Entertainment and Ron Howard, for whom he has also just signed to adapt the famous science fiction novel series, The Lensman.