John Fusco's life is a testament to the power of perseverance and creativity. At the tender age of 16, he dropped out of high school to pursue his passion for music and the blues, traveling across the American South and working in factories to make ends meet. However, he eventually returned to education, earning his GED diploma through night school and later being accepted into the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
At Tisch, Fusco was mentored by renowned screenwriters Waldo Salt and Ring Lardner Jr., and his early work quickly gained recognition. His first two student screenplays won the national Nissan-Focus Award, a feat he repeated for two consecutive years. His screenplay "Crossroads" (1986),inspired by his own experiences traveling the blues circuit, was directed by Walter Hill and has since become a cult classic, even influencing the music video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007).
Fusco's success continued with the iconic box office hit "Young Guns" (1988) and its equally popular sequel "Young Guns II" (1990),which he wrote and produced. His research experiences on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation led to the controversial and acclaimed film "Thunderheart" (1992),a powerful expose of federal abuses in contemporary Native American communities.
In addition to his work in film, Fusco has also made a name for himself in television. He wrote and produced the popular ABC mini-series "DreamKeeper" (2003) and the Disney epic "Hidalgo" (2004),as well as the animated film "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (2002),which received an Academy Award nomination in 2003.
From 2014 to 2017, Fusco served as the creator and showrunner of the Netflix Original Series "Marco Polo," and in 2017, he adapted the bestselling novel "The Shack" for the big screen. His most recent project is the original screenplay "The Highwaymen," which stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson and is directed by John Lee Hancock. The Netflix Original Movie is set to launch in October 2018.
Fusco is currently working on a number of projects, including adapting the bestselling young reader's novel "Pax" for SKE, creating a new dramatic series for History, and writing and producing multiple US-China co-productions under his Nomad production banner.
