Zak Penn Wiki Biography
Zak Penn is an American screenwriter and director. Penn wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness, The Grand, and co-wrote the script for X-Men: The Last Stand. With Michael Karnow, Penn is the co-creator of the TV series Alphas on the Syfy network.
| Full Name | Zak Penn |
| Net Worth | $10 Million |
| Date Of Birth | September 1, 1968 |
| Place Of Birth | New Jersey, United States |
| Profession | Screenwriter, Film Producer, Writer, Television Producer, Actor, Film Director |
| Education | Wesleyan University |
| Nationality | United States of America |
| Parents | Arthur Penn |
| Nicknames | Zachery Penn |
| http://www.twitter.com/zakpenn | |
| IMDB | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0672015 |
| Nominations | Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program |
| Movies | The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand, X2, Atari: Game Over, Incident at Loch Ness, Elektra, The Grand, Last Action Hero, Behind Enemy Lines, PCU, Suspect Zero, Inspector Gadget, Osmosis Jones, Star Maps, Chuck & Buck, Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound |
| TV Shows | Alphas |
| Quote | |
|---|---|
| 1 | [his experience co-writing the original draft of Last Action Hero (1993)] The weird thing is that The Simpsons (1989) inspired it in the first place….We thought, ‘If this show can destroy genres even as it embraces them, why can’t we do it in live action?’ But somewhere along the way, the movie got lost. And nobody came out smelling like a rose. (…) We dubbed it ‘Reverse Purple Rose’ after we realised it was the opposite of Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), where a character comes out of the screen into the real world. (…) We rented every action movie we could think of and made a checklist. Does the second-most evil bad guy die before or after the most evil bad guy? Does the hero have a Vietnam buddy? It was fun, although watching Steven Seagal movies one after another can be soul-crushing. (…) [The premiere] was not a pleasant experience. People kept saying, ‘Did you do all those fart jokes?’ ‘No, no, that wasn’t me.’ ‘Why did you have a kid thrown off a roof in the opening sequence? It made my kid cry.’ ‘I didn’t write that!’ [Empire 2012] |
| 2 | If you want to do only what you want, be prepared to make no money. If you want to get paid, you’re going to have to do something that people want to see. And I’ve tried pretty hard to balance those two things without getting angry. It’s not like, I’m an important artist so I deserve to be rich and do whatever I want to do. |
| 3 | …if you get a bunch of cynical people making a big-budget Hollywood movie, the irony is it doesn’t work. [referring to his experience with ‘The Last Action Hero’] |
| Fact | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Earliest known memory is of the Watergate break-in. |
| 2 | Graduated from Wesleyan University in 1990. |
Writer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ready Player One | 2018 | screenplay post-production | |
| The Karate Kid 2 | screenplay announced | ||
| Avengers Assemble in the Playroom | 2012 | Video short story – uncredited | |
| Alphas | TV Series creator – 23 episodes, 2011 – 2012 written by – 2 episodes, 2011 story – 1 episode, 2011 teleplay – 1 episode, 2011 | ||
| The Avengers | 2012 | story | |
| The Incredible Hulk | 2008 | screen story / screenplay | |
| The Grand | 2007 | written by | |
| X-Men: The Last Stand | 2006 | written by | |
| X-Men: The Official Game | 2006 | Video Game screenplay & story | |
| Fantastic Four | 2005 | Video Game | |
| Elektra | 2005 | written by | |
| Suspect Zero | 2004 | screenplay / story | |
| Incident at Loch Ness | 2004 | written by | |
| X2 | 2003 | story | |
| Behind Enemy Lines | 2001 | screenplay | |
| Inspector Gadget | 1999 | screenplay | |
| PCU | 1994 | written by | |
| Last Action Hero | 1993 | Video Game characters | |
| Last Action Hero | 1993 | story |
Producer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphas | 2011 | TV Series executive producer – 11 episodes | |
| The Grand | 2007 | producer | |
| Ozzy & Drix | 2003-2004 | TV Series executive producer – 13 episodes | |
| Incident at Loch Ness | 2004 | producer | |
| Osmosis Jones | 2001 | producer |
Actor
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| On Story | 2013 | TV Series | |
| Dakota | 2012 | TV Series | Baseball Cap |
| Hero Factor | 2008 | TV Series | |
| Osmosis Jones | 2001 | Emergency Room Doctor #3 | |
| Chuck & Buck | 2000 | Josh Weintraub | |
| Star Maps | 1997 | Carmel County Writer | |
| PCU | 1994 | Bathroom Patron |
Miscellaneous
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphas | 2012 | TV Series consultant – 3 episodes | |
| Charlie’s Angels | 2000 | script revisions – uncredited | |
| Antz | 1998 | story consultant |
Director
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atari: Game Over | 2014 | Documentary | |
| The Grand | 2007 | ||
| Incident at Loch Ness | 2004 |
Thanks
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Brothers Grimsby | 2016 | special thanks | |
| Rescue Dawn | 2006 | special thanks | |
| Star Maps | 1997 | special thanks |
Self
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Insiders on TheLipTV | 2015 | TV Series | Himself |
| Atari: Game Over | 2014 | Documentary | Himself – Narrator |
| Conversations with Hollywood | 2012 | TV Series | Himself |
| Advice for New Screenwriters | 2010 | Video documentary short | Himself |
| More Tales from the Script | 2010 | Video documentary | Himself |
| Writers on Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller | 2009 | Video documentary | Himself |
| Tales from the Script | 2009 | Documentary | Himself |
| Starz Inside: Comic Books Unbound | 2008 | TV Movie documentary | Himself – Screenwriter, X2 & X-Men: The Last Stand |
| Up Close with Carrie Keagan | 2008 | TV Series | Himself |
| X-Men: The Excitement Continues | 2006 | Video documentary short | Himself |
| Incident at Loch Ness | 2004 | Himself (Crew of Discovery IV) |
Won Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Hugo | Hugo Awards | Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form | The Avengers (2012) |
| 2004 | New American Cinema Award | Seattle International Film Festival | Incident at Loch Ness (2004) |
Nominated Awards
| Year | Award | Ceremony | Nomination | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Bradbury Award | Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America | The Avengers (2012) | |
| 2004 | Daytime Emmy | Daytime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Ozzy & Drix (2002) |
| 2004 | Hugo | Hugo Awards | Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form | X2 (2003) |
| 2002 | ALMA Award | ALMA Awards | Outstanding Screenplay (Original or Adapted) | Behind Enemy Lines (2001) |
| 1994 | Saturn Award | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA | Best Writing | Last Action Hero (1993) |
| 1994 | Razzie Award | Razzie Awards | Worst Screenplay | Last Action Hero (1993) |