John Collee

Creative Director, Hopscotch Features

John Collee studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland, and worked as a doctor in the UK, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Solomon Islands and the former Soviet Union. From 1991-96, while still working as a doctor, he wrote a weekly column for The Observer Newspaper (UK).

His published novels include Kingsley's Touch, A Paper Mask and The Rig, all published by Penguin in the UK and USA. His credits as screenwriter or co-writer include Paper Mask, Happy Feet, Master And Commander, and most recently Creation about the life of Charles Darwin.

His original storyline for Hibernation was recently bought by DreamWorks Animation and his storyline of the Ramayana by Mandalay. His animated feature of the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs (2013) is in production at Fox/ Animal Logic and he is co-writer with Jean Jacques Annaud of Wolf Totem (2014) in preproduction in China.

John is creative director of Hopscotch Features who were recently awarded a $1M grant to develop new Australian feature films.