John Bergin

John Bergin attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. There he published a series of cartoons in several issues of Random House's The Quarterly. Carving out a living as a factory worker, cabinet-maker, English teacher and transit bus driver, Vintar broke into the film business when he sold three original spec scripts in the span of six months.

The first screenplay, The Long Hello and Short Good-bye, was made into a German-language film by Warner Bros. in 1999, starring Nicolette Krebitz and Katja Riemann. The complex structure of the story worried Studio Hamburg, who re-edited the modern noir just prior to its premiere into a more simple linear film, a move which polarized critics. The film received a positive review in Variety that predicted it would play in broad-minded festivals around the world "where genre fans should lap it up." An English-language version of Vintar's original Long Hello script struggled to reach the screen for years under Moebius director Gustavo Mosquera R. and Face/Off director-producer John Woo.

The second screenplay, a twist-filled sci-fi love story called Spaceless, has remained in active development for over two decades, first at specialty division Fox 2000, then Fox Animation, and finally at the main live-action division of Twentieth Century Fox. The script is a long-time favorite of Gore Verbinski, who directed The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Rango. Vintar reacquired the rights to Spaceless through the little-known WGA contract "reacquisition" clause, and the project moved to Universal with Verbinski producing through his Blind Wink Productions. True Detective director Cary Fukunaga was hired to direct, but after turning in a rewrite that differed too greatly from the original script, he was removed from the project. Verbinski has since taken over again as director with Vintar back onboard as writer, and Jerry Bruckheimer producing for Paramount Pictures, aiming for a 2021 release.

The third spec sale, Hardwired, survived development hell at Walt Disney Pictures under director Bryan Singer to be picked up by Twentieth Century Fox for Alex Proyas. The resulting film, eventually renamed by the studio I, Robot after the Isaac Asimov short story collection, made $350 million worldwide and boosted the career of star Will Smith after a string of disappointing releases. The original Hardwired screenplay was a cerebral murder mystery that read like a stage play, and representatives of the Asimov estate considered the script "more Asimov than Asimov." Vintar transformed the script into a big-budget studio film, also moving the story into the greater "I, Robot" universe, complete with a young Susan Calvin and the Three Laws of Robotics. It was seen by Proyas and Vintar as a prequel explaining why robots were banned from Earth in the original Asimov stories. When Will Smith signed on to star, studio-mandated changes made the project more of a traditional summer action blockbuster, a move that angered Asimov purists, although many critics considered the final product to have brains as well as brawn.

Vintar has faithfully adapted a number of sci-fi literary works including Frederik Pohl's Man Plus and Gateway, Asimov's Foundation, Cordwainer Smith's Scanners Live in Vain, and Greg Bear's Blood Music, many of which remain in active development. Other Vintar screenplays include an early 20th Century Fox draft of Iron Man, co-written with Stan Lee, back when the head of Fox still believed, and told them, that "no one is going to watch all this superhero crap"; the first draft of Y -- the Last Man for New Line Cinema; a remake of the Orson Welles classic The Lady from Shanghai for Columbia Pictures; and the three-week rewrite of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that landed the production its high-profile voice cast, including Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, and Donald Sutherland. Vintar scripted a murder mystery set on board the International Space Station, based on Boom! Studios' Station, for producer Laurence Mark; wrote an original western inspired by the manhunt for legendary California bandit Joaquin Murieta at StudioCanal; and adapted Joe Haldeman's novella Seasons, about an anthropological mission that goes horribly wrong, for director Tim Miller and Sony Pictures. Vintar recently scripted a feature film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's celebrated mind-bending novel, Ubik, which remains a passion project for all involved.

Venturing into television, Vintar co-wrote an adaptation of Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon for Syfy; co-created his first TV show about a town filled with pulp characters, The Riviera, at Fox International Channels; and scripted a second season episode of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams -- specifically asked to write a funny episode -- based on Dick's first published short story, "Beyond Lies the Wub." He is writing and co-executive producing a limited series on Ebola for NatGeo called The Hot Zone, starring Julianna Margulies, Liam Cunningham, Noah Emmerich, Topher Grace and Robert Sean Leonard, which will premiere on May 27, 2019.

In his spare time, just for fun, Vintar creates comic strips using his extensive vintage action figure collection, which can be found on Facebook at his Super Mega Fun Time Vintage Action Figures Rock You Page.