Justin Marks (born 1980) is an American screenwriter, producer, and television showrunner. He wrote the screenplay for the 2016 live-action Jungle Book, and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Academy Awards as one of the writers of Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Alongside his wife Rachel Kondo, Marks created and served as showrunner of the FX epic series Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell. The 2024 series won a Peabody Award at the 85th Annual Ceremony. It also won 18 Emmys in its first season, which is more wins than any other single television season in history.
Education Marks graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 2002, where he studied architecture. During his senior year, he befriended a literary manager, who helped him launch his career in screenwriting.
Career One of the first scripts Marks penned was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li for 20th Century Fox. A year prior, he had also written a script for a potential He-Man film, initially entitled Grayskull: The Masters of The Universe. Marks is no longer involved with this project as of 2024, when it was announced that the film will have a script written by Chris Butler.
After a pilot produced for SyFy failed to sell, Marks wrote of his experiences for the Hollywood Reporter.
In July 2013, Marks was hired by Disney to write a live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. Jon Favreau came on board as director, and the film was released in April 2016, grossing $966 million worldwide. In 2016, Marks was working on a Jungle Book sequel with Favreau returning as director.
In June 2015, it was announced that Marks was working on the screenplay for a sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun. The film, titled Top Gun: Maverick, was released in May 2022; Marks was credited as story co-writer with Peter Craig. For his work, he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Academy Awards.
Marks created the Starz science-fiction thriller Counterpart, starring J. K. Simmons. The show was ordered straight-to-series for two ten-episode seasons. The first episode premiered December 10, 2017, but the series failed to attract an audience. Marks stated on his Twitter feed that MRC would attempt to find the series a new home. Starz cited a lack of female appeal as a factor in the show's cancellation.
In 2020, Marks and his wife Rachel Kondo commenced work on a new television TV adaptation of the James Clavell novel Shogun.
He is also currently writing Prince of Port Au Prince, a Netflix CG-animated feature film inspired by the childhood of Haitian singer and The Fugees cofounder Wyclef Jean.
Filmography Film writer Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) The Jungle Book (2016) Top Gun: Maverick (2022) (Story only)
Television Year Title Writer ExecutiveProducer Showrunner Creator Notes 2013 Rewind TV movie 2017–2019 Counterpart 2024 Shōgun with Rachel Kondo
Awards
Features YearTitleAcademy AwardsSatellite AwardsUSC Scripter AwardsWGA AwardsResult2023Top Gun: Maverick1111Nominee2017The Jungle Book1Nominee
Television +Awards and nominations received by ShōgunYearAwardAward TitleEpisodeResult2025Golden GlobesBest Television Series - DramaWinner2025WGA AwardEpisodic DramaWinner2025WGA AwardDrama SeriesWinner2025WGA AwardNew SeriesWinner2025Gold Derby TV AwardDrama EpisodeAnjinNominee2025BAFTABest International Series Winner2025Film Independent Spirit AwardBest New Scripted SeriesWinner2025PGA AwardOutstanding Producer of Episodic Television, DramaWinner2025USC Scripter AwardBest Television SeriesNominee2024Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesWinner2024Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Writing for a Drama SeriesNominee2024Gotham TV AwardBreakthrough Limited Series Nominee2024Emmy AwardOutstanding Writing For A Drama SeriesAnjinNominee2024Emmy AwardOutstanding Drama SeriesWinner2024Peabody AwardWinner2024TCA AwardsOutstanding New ProgramWinner2024TCA AwardsOutstanding Achievement in DramaWinner2024TCA AwardsProgram of the YearWinner
References
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