Patrick Read Johnson

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibohxrzqzjk|publisher=Nerdist|title=PATRICK READ JOHNSON Drives to the Basement – Ain't It Cool with Harry Knowles|date=2012-07-05|accessdate=2012-08-17}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/john-hughes-in-memory |title=John Hughes: In Memory |last=Ebert |first=Roger |authorlink=Roger Ebert |date=August 6, 2009 |website=Rogerebert.com |access-date=February 23, 2015}}

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".{{cite news|last=Welkos|first=Robert W.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-12-ca-14049-story.html|title=Screenwriters Want to Tell Own Stories|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=1996-06-12}}

Up until 2021 Johnson served as a filmmaking instructor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.{{Cite web|url=https://www.uncsa.edu/faculty-staff/patrick-johnson.aspx|title = Patrick Johnson - School of Filmmaking}}

Johnson began developing 5-25-77 in 1999 after he met Gary Kurtz. In 2001, Johnson began seeking funding for 5-25-77, and didn't start shooting the film until 2004.{{cite news | last = DeMara | first = Bruce | title = Star Wars-inspired 5-25-77 a long, long time in the making: Director Patrick Read Johnson brings his nearly finished love letter to his own idealistic filmmaking youth to TIFF's Next Wave Festival. | date = 15 February 2013 | url = https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/02/15/star_warsinspired_52577_a_long_long_time_in_the_making.html

|newspaper=Toronto Star | accessdate = 2 May 2013}} An incomplete "preview cut" was exhibited in 2007 at Star Wars Celebration IV {{cite news | last = Whittaker | first = Richard | title = Voyage to the 'Hearts of Dorkness': Patrick Read Johnson and the strange oddysey of 5-25-77 | url = http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/screens/2012-07-01/voyage-to-the-heart-of-dorkness/ |newspaper=The Austin Chronicle | date = 1 July 2012 | accessdate = 2 May 2013

}} and at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2008, where 5-25-77 won the Heineken Red Star Award.[https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000310/2008 IMDb]

On May 25, 2012, the 35th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, Johnson began a cross-country road trip in his 1975 Ford Pinto to attract the funding needed to finish the film's remaining post-production work.{{cite news| title=Wadsworht Director Has New Hope for Star Wars Flick| url=http://newssun.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/12774830-417/wadsworth-director-has-new-hope-for-star-wars-flick.html| work=Chicago Sun-Times| access-date=2013-05-01| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303092547/http://newssun.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/12774830-417/wadsworth-director-has-new-hope-for-star-wars-flick.html| archive-date=2014-03-03| url-status=dead}} Johnson spent the summer of 2012 test-screening 5-25-77, his trip also becoming the subject of a documentary called Hearts of Dorkness, by filmmaker Morgan Flores.{{cite news| url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/02/15/star_warsinspired_52577_a_long_long_time_in_the_making.html | location=Toronto | work=The Star | title=Star Wars-inspired 5-25-77 a long, long time in the making | date=February 15, 2013}}[http://dorkshelf.com/2013/02/11/interview-patrick-read-johnson/ Dorkshelf.com]

In 2013, the TIFF Next Wave film festival invited Johnson to show 5-25-77 as a "work in progress", the attention from the festival Johnson attributed to the bid of his promotional tour the summer before.Norman Wilner, [https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tiff-next-wave-film-festival-2013-02-14/ "TIFF Next Wave Film Festival"]. Now, February 14, 2013.

In 2017, it was announced Johnson had completed the film and that it would receive a limited theatrical release on May 25.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/5-25-77-star-wars-movie-first-fan-patrick-read-johnson-interview/|title = The first fan to see 'Star Wars' made a new film about it}}

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Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:American directors

Category:American male screenwriters

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