John Requa (born January 1, 1967) is an American screenwriter (with Glenn Ficarra) of Cats & Dogs, Bad Santa and the 2005 remake Bad News Bears.

John Requa
Born (1967-01-01) January 1, 1967 (age 57)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, film director

Requa and Ficarra directed Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in their screenplay I Love You Phillip Morris.[1] For their writing on this film, Requa and Ficarra received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[2]

Early life

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Requa grew up in Burien, Washington, a suburb of Seattle,[3] graduating from Burien's Highline High School[4] in 1985. His talents as a writer were evident when he wrote and performed in a skit for his senior year Homecoming assembly titled "Fernbusters". It was a morphing of Ghostbusters and the Christmas Trees sketch from Saturday Night Live. In it, Requa played the killer fern. For another assembly later that year he wrote a skit about an almighty creator named Sven.

Requa attended Highline at the same time as Dana Newton, who became a senior producer on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Randy Dixon who is an internationally known improv artist who heads Unexpected Productions in Seattle, and Mike Starr who was the original Bassist for Alice in Chains and seen on season three of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Requa graduated from the film program at the Pratt Institute in the early 90s.[3] While there he met and began his long association with writing partner Glenn Ficarra.

Career

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Requa (left) with Steve Carell (center) and Glenn Ficarra at the Sydney Crazy, Stupid, Love. premiere in September 2011


Requa and Ficarra wrote numerous episodes of The Angry Beavers, an animated series on Nickelodeon from 1997 until 2001. Their first episode was season two's Kandid Kreatures which they followed with Dag for Night, Un-Barry-ble, Zooing Time, Sans-a-Pelt and Gonna Getcha. They went on to write eleven more episodes over the remaining three seasons of the show.[5]

The pair directed Focus, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey and Robbie.[6] More recently, his Zaftig company signed a deal with Fox Entertainment.[7]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title
Director Writer Notes
2001 Cats & Dogs No Yes Also co-producer
2003 Bad Santa No Yes
2005 Bad News Bears No Yes
2009 I Love You Phillip Morris Yes Yes
2011 Crazy, Stupid, Love Yes No
2015 Focus Yes Yes
2016 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Yes No
2018 Smallfoot No Story Also producer
2021 Jungle Cruise No Yes

Executive producer

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Television

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Year Title
Director Executive
Producer
Writer Notes
1998 The Wild Thornberrys No No Yes Episode "Flight of the Donnie"
1998-2000 The Angry Beavers No No Yes 16 episodes
2013 Back in the Game Yes Yes Yes Co-directed "Pilot", co-wrote "Who's on First"
2015-2018 Patriot No Yes No
2016–2018 This is Us Yes Yes No 7 episodes
2017 Controversy Yes Yes No TV movie
2020 neXt Yes Yes No Co-directed "file #1"/"file #2"
2022 WeCrashed Yes Yes No
2023 Rabbit Hole Yes Yes Yes

References

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  1. ^ "Jim Carrey Set for Phillip Morris".
  2. ^ "Writers Guild Awards". Writers Guild of America. January 4, 2011. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Madigan, Nick (July 12, 2001). "Requa and Ficarra: From Art House to Dog's House". Variety. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013.
  4. ^ Macdonald, Moira (July 30, 2011). "'Crazy, Stupid, Love' directors hit the Hollywood big time". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 22, 2019. Requa grew up in Burien and graduated from Highline High School.
  5. ^ "The Angry Beavers Episode Guide".
  6. ^ "Filming Starts for the Taliban Shuffle Adaptation, Starring Tina Fey". comingsoon.net. February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  7. ^ White, Peter (October 5, 2020). "John Requa & Glenn Ficarra Strike Broadcast First-Look Deal With Fox Entertainment". Deadline. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
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