Gregory Allen Howard

Gregory Allen Howard (born 1962) is an American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay to Remember the Titans (2000), a Disney film about an undefeated high school football team credited with healing the racial divide in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1971.[1]

Gregory Allen Howard
Born1962 (age 57–58)
Norfolk, Virginia, United States
OccupationScreenwriter
Websitehttp://www.gregoryallenhoward.com/bio.html

Early life

Gregory Allen Howard was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1962, but his family moved around often due to his stepfather's career in the Navy. Between the ages of five and 15, his family moved ten times, eventually settling in Vallejo, California. After attending college at Princeton University, graduating with a degree in American history, Howard briefly worked at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street before moving to Los Angeles in his mid-twenties to pursue a writing career.[2]

Career

Over the next few years Howard worked as a freelance writer and on a number of television shows, including being a story editor for Where I Live and working on the 1990 short-lived FOX series True Colors. Howard also wrote a stage play, Tinseltown Trilogy, that garnered him awards.[3] Tinseltown Trilogy weaves together three interconnected one-act plays that focus on three men in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve.

Howard was then selected for the assignment to write an original screenplay for the biopic of boxer Muhammad Ali. Having finished the first draft, and then moving back to his native Virginia, Howard discovered the story of the 1971 TC Williams Titans. Studio delays and rewrites meant that his first feature film, Ali, was not released until after his next script, Remember the Titans.

Remember the Titans was a spec script written by Gregory Allen Howard after he discovered the unique story of the integrated high school football team that the town of Alexandria, Virginia, credited for the town's positive race relations. Having based the script on extensive research, including discussions with Coaches Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, Howard initially encountered difficulty in getting his script produced. Eventually Jerry Bruckheimer agreed to produce the film.[4] Starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton, Remember the Titans became a box-office hit, grossing over $100 million domestically.[5]

Recent projects

Since the release of Remember the Titans and Ali, Howard has worked on a number of other projects. He was an uncredited writer for Glory Road, a sports drama released in 2006 that focused on Texas Western coach Don Haskins leading the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship in 1966.[6]

Howard co-wrote and co-produced the 2019 Harriet Tubman biopic film Harriet, for which he also received a "story by" credit.[7][8][9]

Howard has been working on the script for a film project with Morgan Freeman based on the 761st Tank Battalion, the first black armored unit to see combat in World War II.[10] Howard has also written the screenplay for the film Factor X, which will be produced by Ridley Scott and star Eric Bana.[11] In Spring 2014 he completed the screenplay of a movie about the Soviet Airwomen of the Great Patriotic War called Night Witches and financed by the grandson of Boris Yeltsin.[12]

Awards and nominations
Year Award Result Category Film or series
2001 Black Reel Awards Won Theatrical - Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) Remember the Titans
2002 Nominated Theatrical - Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) Ali
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References
  1. "ENPRIMEUR.CA". www.enprimeur.ca. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
  2. Vigilant, Vain &. "About | Gregory Allen Howard". www.gregoryallenhoward.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  3. "Gregory Howard | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  4. Howard, Gregory Allen (September 20, 2000). "Remembering the History of 'Titans'". articles.latimes.com. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  5. "Remember the Titans: Domestic Total Gross". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  6. Hartman, Forrest (January 13, 2006). "Movie critic rooting for feel-good 'Glory Road'". news.rgj.com. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  7. Dave McNary, ""Harriet Tubman Biopic in Development From ‘Homeland’ Director", Variety, May 2, 2016.
  8. "Charles D. King’s MACRO, Debra Martin Chase and Director Seith Mann Team Up for Harriet Tubman Film", Shadow and Act April 20, 2017.
  9. Amanda N'Duka, "Cynthia Erivo To Star As Harriet Tubman In Upcoming ‘Harriet’ Biopic", Deadline Hollywood February 8, 2017.
  10. "Actor Freeman plans war tribute". news.bbc.co.uk. June 16, 2004. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  11. Miller, Jodie (October 24, 2006). "Eric Bana Has The Factor X". screenrush.co.uk. Retrieved September 27, 2008.
  12. "‘Remember the Titans’ Scribe to Pen World War II Drama ‘Night Witches’", Variety Magazine, November 4, 2013.
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