Shane Salerno (born November 27, 1972) is an American screenwriter, film and television producer, author, and documentary director. At the age of 24 he co-wrote the worldwide blockbuster Armageddon directed by Michael Bay, which became the highest-grossing film of 1998. He most recently co-wrote and executive produced Savages directed by Oliver Stone. On August 1, 2013 he was announced as co-screenwriter with James Cameron of Avatar 4, a sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time.He is the producer and director of the documentary Salinger about reclusive author J. D. Salinger which was released theatrically by The Weinstein Company on September 6, 2013 and was one of the top ten highest-grossing documentaries of the year. A special director's cut of the film premiered as the 200th episode of the Emmy winning PBS series American Masters on January 21, 2014 and was seen by more than 2 million people. Within hours, the airing resulted in The Catcher in the Rye soaring to #1 on the amazon.com bestseller list.His first book, Salinger, (with David Shields), was released by Simon & Schuster on September 3, 2013 and was #1 on The Los Angeles Times bestseller list and #6 on The New York Times bestseller list. The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was named the Amazon Best Book of the Month.In television, he served as a writer-producer of the Golden Globe-nominated Hawaii Five-0 for CBS, (2010–present), co-creator, executive producer and showrunner of UC: Undercover for NBC (2000–2002) and writer for Fox's New York Undercover (1995–1998), the first police drama on American television to feature two people of color in the starring roles. He began his career straight out of high school as a writer-director apprentice to nine-time Emmy winning director-producer Gregory Hoblit, on NYPD Blue.Salerno has sold pitches, spec screenplays, fiction and non-fiction books, feature film documentaries, television pilots, television documentaries and foreign book deals of between $2 and $5 million on multiple occasions.Salerno is known for high-level security and secrecy when it comes to his projects and often only acknowledges their existence when a formal announcement is made.Detour Magazine voted him one of "Hollywood's true shapers of popular culture", and Fade In Magazine selected Salerno as one of the "100 people you need to know in Hollywood".
In 2005 ShowBiz Data.com listed the average domestic gross (North America only) for a Shane Salerno action script at $117,394,118.
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In 2002 Detour Magazine voted him "One of the true shapers of pop culture" in their annual "hot thirty under thirty" issue.
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In 2001 Fade In Magazine selected him as one of the "100 people you need to know in Hollywood"
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In 1997, at the age of 24, Shane was hired to rewrite "Armageddon." In the "Making of Armageddon" book director Michael Bay calls Shane's work on the script "brilliant"
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In 1991, while still a senior in high school, he made the award-winning documentary "Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs" which debuted internationally on "Larry King Live."
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Avatar 4
2022
written by pre-production
Avatar 3
2020
pre-production
Avatar 2
2018
pre-production
Untitled Tony Accardo/Sam Giancana Biopic
screenplay announced
Savages
2012
screenplay
Hawaii Five-0
TV Series teleplay by - 3 episodes, 2010 - 2011 story by - 2 episodes, 2010 - 2011
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
2007
written by
UC: Undercover
TV Series creator - 8 episodes, 2001 - 2002 teleplay - 7 episodes, 2001 - 2002 story - 3 episodes, 2001 - 2002 written by - 1 episode, 2001 writer - 1 episode, 2001
$7 Million
