G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

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Writer

David Elliot

Bio

PAUL LOVETT & DAVID ELLIOT Paul Lovett was born and raised in Surrey, England, before moving to Versailles, France, and later, at the age of 13, to (umm?) Plano, Texas. Lovett met David Elliot while studying sociology at the University of Texas in Austin. It was there that he also attended a lecture by the late (and immensely great) novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who said, “If you really want to piss off your parents…then become a writer.â€� And so he did…

Determined to make a go of things, Lovett completed his first novel, Bread and Circuses, at age 23, before turning his energies to the highly lucrative field of short story writing. This period of creative integrity, however, was cut short when he was lured to Babylon by his college roommate, David Elliot (then living in Los Angeles), who had recently written and directed a critically successfully independent film called “Nothing Sacred.â€�

David Elliot was born in Los Angeles but raised in Brooklyn, New York, and Dallas, Texas. After graduating at UT and finishing both a law degree and all the course work for a PhD in psychology at Stanford University, Elliot abruptly decided to flush all those worthless degrees and drive to Hollywood in his $600 Volvo to live on his friend’s couch on Stoner Avenue – a street address that prompted his mother to famously quip, “Don’t worry about that kid. He’s got a good future behind him.â€�

Elliot & Lovett’s first dip into the dark waters of Babylon came in the form of three comedy pilots for Touchtone Television and ABC, where they were mentored by then-president of Touchstone, Stephen McPherson (now of ABC).

But in the end, Lovett & Elliot’s first major break came in feature films when they landed a coveted assignment at Imagine Entertainment to pen an adaptation of “Hogan’s Heroes,â€� to which Russell Crow was then attached to star. Since then, they’ve been fortunate enough to write scripts in just about every genre for a wide variety of talent, including Robert De Niro, Ice Cube, Channing Tatum, Will Smith and Mark Walhberg, who starred in their hit summer action/drama “Four Brothersâ€� – their first collaborative project with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Paramount Pictures. In the wake of “Four Brothers’â€� success, they were asked to write several drafts of “GI JOE.â€�

Elliot and Lovett’s current projects include “Sagaâ€� with director Timur Bekmambetov at Universal Pictures and “The Zoneâ€� with Joe Carnahan at 20th Century Fox.

Writer- Job Description

A general term for someone who creates a written work, be it a novel, script, screenplay, or teleplay.