John Fusco, a renowned screenwriter and filmmaker, is known for his captivating stories of epic Americana. At the tender age of 16, he dropped out of high school to pursue his passion for music and travel across the American South as a blues musician and factory worker. This formative experience would later influence his writing.
In his early twenties, Fusco returned to night school, where he earned his GED diploma and eventually gained acceptance into New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. Under the guidance of esteemed mentors Waldo Salt and Ring Lardner Jr., Fusco honed his screenwriting skills.
Fusco's early success was marked by winning the national Nissan-Focus Award two years in a row for his student screenplays. His second student screenplay, Crossroads (1986),was directed by Walter Hill and has since become a cult classic, inspiring the music video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007).
In 1988, Fusco wrote and produced the iconic box office hit Young Guns (1988) and its equally popular sequel Young Guns II (1990). His research experiences on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation led to the controversial Thunderheart (1992),an acclaimed exposé of federal abuses in contemporary Native American communities.
Fusco's subsequent projects include the Native-themed ABC mini-series DreamKeeper (2003) and the popular Disney epic Hidalgo (2004). His first and only animated script, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002),was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003.
From 2014 to 2017, Fusco served as the creator and showrunner of the Netflix Original Series 'Marco Polo'. Throughout his career, Fusco has been recognized as a creative ally by the Native American community for nearly four decades.
In 2020, Fusco wrote the original screenplay 'The Highwaymen', starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, and directed by John Lee Hancock. Most recently, his 2023 original screenplay 'The Wind and the Reckoning' was the source material for the indigenous Hawaiian historical drama that won Best Film at multiple indie festivals. His latest spec script, 'The Rescue', has been purchased by Skydance and will be helmed by Potsy Ponciroli, starring Brandon Sklenar.
