Rhett Reese is an American screenwriter. His early credits included Clifford's Really Big Movie and Cruel Intentions 3. He has collaborated with Paul Wernick, writing the films Zombieland, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and Life, as well as Deadpool, Deadpool 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. Together they also created the reality series The Joe Schmo Show.
Early life Rhett Reese grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he met Paul Wernick when the two attended Phoenix Country Day School. Rheese attended Stanford University.
Career As a budding screenwriter, Reese met Wernick again as he worked as a television producer, and one of Wernick's jobs, Big Brother 2, inspired both to do their own take on reality shows, The Joe Schmo Show. Broadcast on Spike TV, the series drew the highest ratings for the channel. The Joe Schmo Show was also named on numerous Best Of lists, including Time magazine's "Top 10 TV Shows of 2003" and Entertainment Weeklys "50 Best TV Shows Ever on DVD."
In 2004, Reese and Wernick created and executive-produced Stuck on ODB, a comedy reality show starring Ol' Dirty Bastard (ODB) of the Wu Tang Clan for Spike TV. However, ODB died before the show ever aired. A year later, Wernick and Reese followed up with Invasion Iowa, a high-concept, high-stakes comedy hybrid starring William Shatner. The show premiered on Spike on March 29, 2005.
Reese and Wernick's first feature collaboration was the 2009 film Zombieland, which they created and also executive-produced. The film was released by Sony Pictures on October 2, 2009, and became the highest-grossing zombie film at the time.
Reese and Wernick followed Zombieland with Paramount Pictures' G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), starring Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, and Bruce Willis. The sequel outperformed the original, grossing $375 million.
In February 2012, it was announced Universal Studios had acquired Reese and Wernick's script for a feature film adaptation of Cowboy Ninja Viking. In September 2012, their original science fiction spec screenplay Epsilon was sold to Sony Pictures, with plans to co-produce with Michael De Luca. In April 2015, Reese and Wernick had optioned Thomas Oliver's book The Real Coke, The Real Story to produce a film about the failed launch of New Coke.
Personal life In November 5, 2016, Reese married actress, writer and producer Chelsey Crisp. By 2017, they were living in Los Angeles. In a January 2020 interview, Reese said that they had recently purchased a condominium in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Crisp gave birth to their first child in January 2022, and later gave birth to their second child.
FilmographyFilm Year Title Writer ExecutiveProducer Director2000DinosaurRalph ZondagEric Leighton2001Monsters, Inc.Pete Docter 2004 Clifford's Really Big Movie Robert Ramirez Cruel Intentions 3 Scott Ziehl 2005 Tarzan II Brian Smith 2009 Zombieland Ruben Fleischer 2013 G.I. Joe: Retaliation Jon M. Chu 2016 Deadpool Tim Miller 2017 Life Daniel Espinosa 2018 Deadpool 2 David Leitch 2019 6 Underground Michael Bay Zombieland: Double Tap Ruben Fleischer 2022 Spiderhead Joseph Kosinski 2023 Ghosted Dexter Fletcher 2024 Deadpool & Wolverine Shawn Levy 2025 Eenie Meanie Shawn Simmons 2025 Now You See Me: Now You Don't Ruben Fleischer 2026 Balls Up Peter FarrellyTelevision' Year Title Writer Producer Creator 2005 Invasion Iowa 2003–2004, 2013 The Joe Schmo Show 2019 Wayne 2023–present Twisted Metal 2023 The Continental: From the World of John Wick
References
External links
Podcast Interview with Rhett Reese at Scripts & Scribes