Chris Terrio Biography

Chris Terrio (born December 31, 1976) is an American film director and screenwriter based in New York City. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2012 film Argo, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay of 2012 and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a BAFTA nomination and the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio wrote the screenplay for the follow-up to Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, entitled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from an earlier draft by David S. Goyer.

Early life and education

Chris Terrio was raised in a Catholic family in Staten Island. He is of Italian and Irish descent. Terrio graduated in 1997 from Harvard University, where he concentrated in English and American literature and lived in Adams House. Terrio attended University of Cambridge for his PhD, but eventually decided to enroll in film school. He received his master's degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2002.

Career

Directing

At age 26, he directed the feature film Heights (Sony Pictures Classics, 2005), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It follows a pivotal twenty-four hours in the interconnected lives of five New Yorkers. It stars Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden and Jesse Bradford, and features Isabella Rossellini, George Segal and Rufus Wainwright in small roles. It was one of the final films produced by Ismail Merchant. The film won a "Best Independent Feature Film Casting" award from the Casting Society of America, USA in 2005.

In 2010, he directed the episode "I Look Like Frankenstein", which was Episode 8 in Season 3 of Damages on FX.

In 2002, he directed, wrote and produced a short film entitled Book of Kings, which starred Aasif Mandvi among others. It won "Best Short" at the 2002 Santa Fe Film Festival and also was nominated for "Best Short Film" at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival.

Screenwriting

Terrio wrote the script for Argo, winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the screenplay, and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. His screenplay was also nominated for "Best Screenplay" awards from the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards. For the Argo screenplay, he also won "Best Screenplay" or "Best Adapted Screenplay" honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the Online Film Critics Society Awards, the Austin Film Critics Association, the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards, the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, the 2013 University of Southern California (USC) Scripter Award, 2nd place in the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards. He adapted the screenplay based on a Wired magazine article by Joshuah Bearman entitled "The Great Escape" and the autobiography of Tony Mendez, The Master of Disguise.

Terrio recalls the experience of writing a dialogue-intensive scene for Argo:

Scene 58--nine men sitting in a conference room talking through scenarios for cover stories to get Americans out of Iran--was difficult. There's nothing to cut to except the actors' faces. The tension has to come from the subtle shifts of power. CIA and State Department officials debate ideas, each worse than the last. I knew the crucial beat would come when our hero, Tony Mendez speaks up. He couldn't seem disrespectful, yet he had to make his case. I settled on the idea that Mendez would throw a spitball into the conversation with a joke about giving the bicycle escapees Gatorade. The table would go silent. The attention of the room would shift to the court jester. I also had to determine whether Gatorade was on the market and a commonly recognized brand in December of 1979. I celebrated when I found a magazine from the year before featuring a dehydrated athlete with a Village People moustache: 'Gatorade: When You're Thirsty to Win.'

Terrio also wrote the screenplays for two films he directed: the feature film Heights, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and the award-winning short film, Book of Kings.

On December 18, 2013, Terrio was hired by Warner Bros. to re-write a script by David Goyer to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

On July 25, 2014, Variety reported that Terrio was also eyed by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay for Justice League.

Terrio has also been hired by Paramount Studios and Indian Paintbrush to write the script for the drama, A Murder Foretold, based on an article in The New Yorker by David Grann revolving around a number of high-profile murders in Guatemala.

Terrio will also be scripting the adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel, Tell No One, for Warner Bros., with Ben Affleck also being attached to direct. There has already been a French film directed by Guillaume Canet based on the novel.

Other work

Terrio has also edited the documentary short First Out.

He has worked on the Ivory-Merchant films (directed by James Ivory) Le Divorce and The Golden Bowl. He was also previously an assistant to director James Ivory.

Terrio also served as an assistant director on the short film Equation, directed by Anuj Majumdar, and was also a grip on the short film Awake, directed by Lori Lovoy-Goran, who won a DGA Student Film Award and a SXSW Competition Award for her documentary short film, In Between Days.

Filmography

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Screenplay	Notes
							2002	Book of Kings
2002	Equation						Assistant director to director Anuj Majumdar
2005	Heights
2006	First Out					Edited the documentary
2010	Damages					TV series; Episode "I Look Like Frankenstein"
2012	Argo					Won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay
2016	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice					Hired to re-write the script written by David S. Goyer
2017	Justice League Part One
2019	Justice League Part Two
TBA	A Murder Foretold
	Tell No One