Laeta Kalogridis
Alma materDavidson College
University of Texas at Austin
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • film producer
  • television producer

Laeta Kalogridis (/ˈliːtə ˌkæləˈɡriːdɪs/ LEE-tə KAL-ə-GREE-diss) is an American screenwriter and television and film producer of Greek descent. She has written scripts for Alexander (2004), Night Watch (2004), Pathfinder (2007) and Shutter Island (2010).[1] She also served as an executive producer for the television series Birds of Prey and Bionic Woman,[2][3] and she co-wrote the screenplay for Terminator Genisys (2015)[4] and Alita: Battle Angel (2019). She is the creator and executive producer of the Netflix series Altered Carbon (2018).

She is also the founder of the pro-union website Hollywood United and was involved as a peacemaker in the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.[1] Kalogridis, formerly a member of Writers Guild of America West, left and maintained financial core status in 2022.[5]

Early life and education

Laeta Kalogridis is of Greek descent; her grandparents emigrated from Kalymnos in the early 20th century.[6] She graduated the MFA program for screenwriting at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.[7]

Writing career

Early in her career, Kalogridis wrote a spec script about Joan of Arc titled In Nomine Dei. She sold the script to Warner Bros. in April 1994, but a film was not produced.[8] In March 1995, she was a writer of the early script for the 2000 X-Men film.[9] In late 1999, she did uncredited work on the script for Scream 3.

In September 2000, she was hired to write the screenplay for the 2001 film adaptation of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.[10] Kalogridis created, executive produced and wrote multiple episodes of the 2002 series Birds of Prey. In September 2003, she was involved in the rewrite of the Wonder Woman live action film adaptation for Warner Bros.[11] Kalogridis wrote a draft of the 2004 film Catwoman but ultimately did not receive a screenwriting credit.[12] She was next credited as the screenwriter of the English language version of the 2004 film Night Watch, and also wrote the script for the 2004 film Alexander.[1]

In January 2005, she worked on a remake of The Lone Ranger for Columbia Pictures.[13] In November 2005, she helped write Borgia, an ImageMovers film about the Borgia family in 15th century Rome.[14] In February 2006 she began writing The Dive, director James Cameron's planned film about the freediver Francisco "Pipin" Ferraras and his wife Audrey Mestre.[15]

In January 2007, she began writing Alita: Battle Angel, director James Cameron's planned film based on the classic cyberpunk manga Battle Angel Alita.[16] In October 2007, she did a rewrite of the vampire film Darksiders for New Line Cinema.[17] She was screenwriter for the 2007 film Pathfinder.[1] She was also the executive producer for the 2007 TV series Bionic Woman, also writing the pilot. For Bionic Woman, she recalls being fired in part because she was told that she "didn't know how to write women," and was replaced by a male writer.[7]

Kalogridis became involved as a peacemaker in the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, working with writers and producers to reach a solution. The New York Times reported her involvement, "Ms. Kalogridis and her friends... had become a pipeline to the guild members holding out for sizable gains, whose support would be needed if any deal was to be reached."[18] She is also the founder of the pro-union website Hollywood United.[1]

She was an executive producer of the 2009 blockbuster Avatar by director James Cameron.[1] She was executive producer and screenwriter of the 2010 film Shutter Island.[1] She produced the 2013 film White House Down.[19] In 2013, she and Patrick Lussier were both named co-writers for the fifth film in the Terminator series, Terminator Genisys.[4][20]

In 2018, she was producer for the film The House with a Clock in Its Walls.[21] She was also creator, screenwriter, and executive producer of Altered Carbon, a Netflix scifi series[22] which premiered in February 2018.[23] She continues to work on the film adaptation of the manga Alita: Battle Angel as a co-writer along with James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, which was released on February 14, 2019.[24] Since 2016 she has also been writing and executive producing the untitled Sword Art Online live-action series for Netflix.[22] She is writing the pilot, noting in an interview that she was working to not "whitewash" the adaptation.[25]

In May 2019, BuzzFeed News reported that Kalogridis had been hired in the spring of 2018 to write a film based on the 2003 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and that she was close to completing the first script of a potential trilogy based on the series.[26] Representatives refused to comment,[26] and nothing has been reported since.

She is currently writing and executive producing the Cleopatra film starring Gal Gadot.[27]

Filmography

† Denotes productions that have not yet been released

Films

Year Title Writer Executive
producer		 Notes
2000 Dracula 2000 No No Special thanks
X-Men No No uncredited script revision
Scream 3 No No uncredited script revisions
2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider No No uncredited script revisions
2004 Night Watch Yes No
Alexander Yes No
Catwoman No No uncredited script revisions
2007 Pathfinder Yes No
2009 Avatar No Yes
2010 Shutter Island Yes Yes
Knight and Day No No uncredited script revisions
2013 White House Down No No Producer
2015 Terminator Genisys Yes Yes
2018 The House with a Clock in Its Walls No Yes
American Dream/American Knightmare No Yes
2019 Alita: Battle Angel Yes No
2022 Ambulance No Yes
TBA Cleopatra† Yes Yes [27]

Television

Year Title Writer Executive
Producer		 Notes
2002-2003 Birds of Prey Yes Yes Creator, writer Episode: "Premiere" and unaired pilot
2007 Bionic Woman Yes Yes Episode: "Pilot" and the unaired pilot
2018-2020 Altered Carbon Yes Yes Creator, writer for 3 episodes
TBA Untitled Sword Art Online live-action series† Yes Yes [22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Laeta Kalogridis Hollywood's Hottest Screenwriter Talks "Shutter Island" and "Avatar"". Greek Reporter. March 30, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ "'Altered Carbon' Creator Laeta Kalogridis: How I Made It in Hollywood". The Hollywood Reporter. February 3, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Laeta Kalogridis". SXSW 2019 Schedule. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Laeta Kalogridis And Patrick Lussier Set To Script New 'Terminator' - Deadline.com". Deadline Hollywood. January 17, 2013.
  5. ↑ "WGAW Financial Core List".
  6. ↑ Laeta Kalogridis - Hollywood's Hottest Screenwriter, and Producer. Greek Reporter. March 28, 2010. Event occurs at 06:30. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021 – via YouTube. My grandmother's family is from Kalymnos and my grandfather's family I believe was originally from Rhodos, but met in Kalymnos … His family [were] fishermen and they came to the United States ... early in the 1900s and they emigrated to Florida.
  7. 1 2 Eggertsen, Chris (February 3, 2018). "'Altered Carbon' Creator Laeta Kalogridis: How I Made It in Hollywood". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  8. ↑ Fleming, Michael (April 6, 1994). "Warners rekindles Arc tale". Variety. Reed Business Information. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  9. ↑ Galloway, Stephen; Donna Parker (March 30, 1995). "4 top ICM agents walk, undertake own Endeavor". The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen Company.
  10. ↑ Dunkley, Cathy (September 28, 2000). "Voight joins 'Tomb Raider' family". The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen Company.
  11. ↑ Dunkley, Cathy (September 28, 2003). "Scribe is 'Wonder' woman". Variety. Reed Business Information. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  12. ↑ https://dailyscript.com/scripts/catwoman.pdf
  13. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (January 9, 2005). "Finding gold in Classic fare". Variety. Reed Business Information. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  14. ↑ Fleming, Michael (November 2, 2005). "Betting big on 'Borgia'". Variety. Reed Business Information. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Cameron taps 'Dive' writer". Variety. Reed Business Information. February 26, 2006. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2008.
  16. ↑ Thompson, Anne (January 9, 2007). "Cameron sails 'Avatar'". The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen Company.
  17. ↑ Garrett, Diane (October 7, 2007). "Kalogridis to revamp 'Darksiders'". Variety. Reed Business Information. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  18. ↑ Cieply, Michael (February 8, 2008). "In True Hollywood Fashion, Rescuers Script a Possible Ending for a Strike". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ "White House down /Columbia Pictures presents a Mythology Entertainment/Centropolis Entertainment production ; produced by Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, Harald Kloser, Larry Franco and Laeta Kalogridis ; written by James Vanderbilt ; directed by Roland Emmerich. – National Library". www.nlb.gov.sg. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  20. ↑ Bishop, Bryan (July 2, 2015). "How the director of Terminator Genisys recreated James Cameron's 1984". The Verge. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  21. ↑ "Official Webpage". Universal Pictures.
  22. 1 2 3 Goldberg, Lesley (August 2, 2016). "Japanese Novel and Anime Franchise 'Sword Art Online' Being Adapted as Live-Action TV Series". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  23. ↑ "'Altered Carbon': First teaser trailer for stunning Netflix sci-fi series". EW.com. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  24. ↑ Nobil, Taryn (December 8, 2017). "James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez's 'Alita: Battle Angel' Gets Creepy First Trailer". Variety. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  25. ↑ Trumbore, Dave (February 13, 2018). "'Altered Carbon' Creator Laeta Kalogridis on Avoiding "Whitewashing" in 'Sword Art Online'". Collider. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  26. 1 2 Aurthur, Kate (May 24, 2019). "A New "Star Wars" Movie Based On "Knights Of The Old Republic" Is In The Works". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  27. 1 2 D'Alessandro, Anthony (June 17, 2022). "Universal Circling Gal Gadot 'Cleopatra' Epic; 'Falcon And The Winter Soldier's Kari Skogland Directing". Deadline. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
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