Patrick Read Johnson (born May 7, 1962) is an American filmmaker,
special effects artist and screenwriter. Born in Wadsworth, Illinois,
he is best known for his directorial work on the films Spaced
Invaders, Angus, Baby's Day Out, The Genesis Code and 5-25-77. He also
has written and produced such films as Dragonheart.Starting out in the
field of practical special effects and models, Johnson was one of the
first people outside of Industrial Light and Magic to see Star Wars
(albeit in an incomplete form) as chronicled in his
semi-autobiographical film 5-25-77. He first saw the film during
Spring Break, sometime between late March and early April 1977, when
ILM was scrambling to complete VFX shots. He had also visited the set
of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Future General Corporation a
few days before and found Douglas Trumbull's work to be "engineered,
intimidating and mature" compared to John Dykstra's
"shooting-from-the-hip" style.Johnson ascended into mainstream
Hollywood filmmaking following the modest success of Spaced Invaders,
invited by John Hughes to work on his adaptation of Dennis the Menace,
and then later, the comedy Baby's Day Out. Baby's Day Out was
tremendously popular in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. In India, it was played at the largest theater
in Calcutta for over a year.He also wrote the fantasy film
Dragonheart, which spawned a franchise. He proposed the idea for the
film to producer Raffaella De Laurentiis. Johnson described it as "The
Skin Game with a dragon in it...or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Dragon", and that he wanted "the idea of a dragon and a knight conning
villages for money" because he thought that the concept was "not only
funny, but kind of sweet".
special effects artist and screenwriter. Born in Wadsworth, Illinois,
he is best known for his directorial work on the films Spaced
Invaders, Angus, Baby's Day Out, The Genesis Code and 5-25-77. He also
has written and produced such films as Dragonheart.Starting out in the
field of practical special effects and models, Johnson was one of the
first people outside of Industrial Light and Magic to see Star Wars
(albeit in an incomplete form) as chronicled in his
semi-autobiographical film 5-25-77. He first saw the film during
Spring Break, sometime between late March and early April 1977, when
ILM was scrambling to complete VFX shots. He had also visited the set
of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Future General Corporation a
few days before and found Douglas Trumbull's work to be "engineered,
intimidating and mature" compared to John Dykstra's
"shooting-from-the-hip" style.Johnson ascended into mainstream
Hollywood filmmaking following the modest success of Spaced Invaders,
invited by John Hughes to work on his adaptation of Dennis the Menace,
and then later, the comedy Baby's Day Out. Baby's Day Out was
tremendously popular in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. In India, it was played at the largest theater
in Calcutta for over a year.He also wrote the fantasy film
Dragonheart, which spawned a franchise. He proposed the idea for the
film to producer Raffaella De Laurentiis. Johnson described it as "The
Skin Game with a dragon in it...or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Dragon", and that he wanted "the idea of a dragon and a knight conning
villages for money" because he thought that the concept was "not only
funny, but kind of sweet".
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