John Logan (writer)

Early years and education

Logan's parents immigrated to the United States from Northern Ireland via Canada. The youngest of three children, he has an older brother and sister. Logan grew up in California and Millburn, New Jersey, where he graduated from Millburn High School in 1979.^[1] He moved to Chicago to attend Northwestern University, where he graduated in 1983.^[2]

Stage

Logan was a successful playwright in Chicago for many years before turning to screenwriting. His first play, Never the Sinner, tells the story of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case. Subsequent plays include Hauptmann, about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, and Riverview, a musical melodrama set at Chicago's famed amusement park.

His play Red, about artist Mark Rothko, was produced by the Donmar Warehouse, London, in December 2009,^[3] and on Broadway in 2010, where it received six Tony Awards, the most of any play, including best play, best direction of a play for Michael Grandage and best featured actor in a play for Eddie Redmayne. Redmayne and Alfred Molina had originated their roles in London and also performed on Broadway, for a limited run ending in late June.^[4]

Two plays by Logan premiered in 2013; Peter and Alice, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw opened in London at the Noël Coward Theatre on March 25, 2013, and I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Bette Midler, opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on April 24, 2013.^[5]

A re-written version of Never the Sinner had its world premiere in 2004 at the Space Theatre in Adelaide, Australia, by Independent Theatre.^[6] The company had previously staged the play twice, in 1992 and 1994,^[7] and has also staged several of his other plays.^[8] Superhero, a musical by Logan and Tom Kitt, had its world premiere production Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater, with an official opening night on February 28, 2019.^[9] Logan's play Double Feature, about filmmaking and the relationship between director and star, opened at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in February 2024.^[10]

Film and TV

Logan wrote the 1999 Oliver Stone sports drama Any Given Sunday, which "changed his life".^[6] He then wrote the television film RKO 281, a historical drama released in the same year. Logan's feature films include three films released in 2011: Rango, an animated feature starring Johnny Depp and directed by Gore Verbinski; the film adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes; and Hugo, an adaptation of the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, directed by Martin Scorsese. He also wrote James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), along with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

Logan also created the 2014 television series Penny Dreadful starring Josh Hartnett, Eva Green and Timothy Dalton, for which he served as sole writer until it concluded with its third season. The show aired on Showtime in United States and Sky Atlantic in United Kingdom. In November 2018, it was announced that Showtime would produce a follow-up to the series entitled Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, which takes place in Los Angeles in 1938. Logan was the creator, executive producer, and sole writer for the show, which premiered in 2020.

In November 2015, Logan was reported to have rewritten the script for Alien: Covenant.^[11][12] During the audio commentary of Alien: Covenant, Scott mentions that Logan has already started writing Alien: Covenant 2.^[13] Other films written by Logan include Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine, and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Logan made his feature directorial debut in 2022 with They/Them, a slasher film released via the streaming service Peacock.^[14] In November 2019, it was reported that Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King was planning to produce a Michael Jackson biopic, with the screenplay written by Logan^[15] and a 2026 release date.

Selected plays

Logan's plays include:^[17]

Filmography