--- name: "John Collee" canonical: "https://film.one/person/john-collee" fi1m_id: "john-collee" imdb_id: "nm0171722" tmdb_id: 55474 wikidata_id: "Q6226674" roles: ["Writer"] born: "1 January 1955" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 66 average_as: "writer" average_over: 6 updated: "2026-10-05T13:02:39.190444+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # John Collee ## Identity John Collee - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/john-collee - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** john-collee - **IMDb ID:** nm0171722 - **TMDB ID:** 55474 - **Wikidata ID:** Q6226674 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6226674, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171722/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/55474 Writer. Born 1 January 1955 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer - **Born:** 1 January 1955, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - **Active:** 1981–present - **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as writer, over 6 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 78 (2), 2010s 42 (1), 2020s 66 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 66 to 66 across 5 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 3, Adventure 2, Animation 2, Crime 2, Family 2, War 2 - **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $781m across 5 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6226674, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171722/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/55474 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World*](https://film.one/film/master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world.md) (86) - **Netflix:** [*Boy Swallows Universe*](https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe.md) (64) - **Disney+:** [*Lee*](https://film.one/film/lee.md) (61) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Walking with Dinosaurs*](https://film.one/film/walking-with-dinosaurs.md) (42) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on John Collee > John Collee is a joiner among screenwriters: his scripts are soundly built, faithful to their sources and reluctant to leave anything out. With Peter Weir that steadiness made *Master and Commander*. In the crowded adaptations since, it has let in too much. In *Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* (2003) the chase keeps stopping so that people can work and talk. Weir and Collee's adaptation of Patrick O'Brian gives the pursuit at sea room for conversation and conflicting ideas about duty, and the battles matter because we have been allowed to take an interest in the men first. That is the Collee habit: he would rather we knew who was in the cabin than what the cabin was about to hit. The same screenplay is episodic and lets the middle lose urgency, and that is the other Collee habit. The two have travelled together ever since. He came to the trade sideways. He trained in medicine at Edinburgh and practised as a doctor in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and the Solomon Islands before writing novels in the 1980s; his first produced screenplay was the 1990 adaptation of his own novel *Paper Mask*. He moved to Sydney in the mid-1990s, and after *Master and Commander* came *Happy Feet* (2006) with George Miller, *Tanna* (2015), made with a community in Vanuatu, and *Hotel Mumbai* (2018) with Anthony Maras. Nearly all of it is drawn from a book, a life or a documented event. He is a writer who starts with something true and arranges it. Then three in one year. *Monkey Man* (2024), written with Dev Patel and Paul Angunawela, is a revenge film in the old shape whose fights land hard while the story wanders and repeats itself, a quarter of an hour too long. *Lee* (2024), written with Liz Hannah and Marion Hume, has a great deal of ground to cover and covers it in order, with Mikkel E.G. Nielsen cutting back to a kitchen table so that each scene can be explained aloud. *Boy Swallows Universe* (2024), the series he created from Trent Dalton's novel, is generous, loud, often lovely and far too much. The fault is the same in all three and it is the opposite of a lazy writer's: not too little, but everything, tidily. The scenes of the two brothers alone in a room moved us more than the series around them had any right to expect, and every time the plot came back through the door we minded. Collee has said that being a screenwriter is like being a furniture maker, that every piece is different but only a few structures work. His pieces are honestly made and they stand up. What he needs is a director with a long voyage and no hurry, who will carry out the chairs he does not need. Weir was one. Patel, twice now, is learning to be. Most of the others have simply shipped the lot. ## Biography John Collee is a Scottish-Australian screenwriter, novelist and former doctor. Born in Edinburgh in 1955, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practised in the UK and several other countries before turning to writing. His screen credits include the adaptation of *Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* (2003), *Happy Feet* (2006), *Hotel Mumbai* (2018), *Lee* (2024) and *Monkey Man* (2024). He has also written the novels *Kingsley's Touch*, *A Paper Mask* and *The Rig*, and adapted the Netflix series *Boy Swallows Universe* (2024). Several of his films have received Academy Award nominations, including *Master and Commander* for Best Picture and *Happy Feet* for Best Animated Feature. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) - *Boy Swallows Universe* (2024), Fi1m 64, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe.md) - *Lee* (2024), Fi1m 61, Story, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/lee.md) - *Monkey Man* (2024), Fi1m 72, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/monkey-man.md) - *Walking with Dinosaurs* (2013), Fi1m 42, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/walking-with-dinosaurs.md) - *Happy Feet* (2006), Fi1m 71, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/happy-feet.md) - *Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* (2003), Fi1m 86, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world.md) ## Complete filmography (31) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Whale Shark Jack* (2026), Story Consultant - *The Return* (2024), Writer - *Lee* (2024), Story, Screenplay — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/lee.md) - *Monkey Man* (2024), Screenplay — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/monkey-man.md) - *Boy Swallows Universe* (2024), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/tv/boy-swallows-universe.md) - *Three* (2023), Writer - *Black Site* (2022), as Additional Writing - *The Story of Lee Ping* (2021), Screenplay - *Roborovski* (2020), Executive Producer, Writer - *Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears* (2020), Script Consultant - *Hotel Mumbai* (2019), Screenplay, Executive Producer - *Mahana* (2016), Screenplay - *The Legend of Tarzan* (2016), Writer - *Tanna* (2015), Writer - *Wolf Totem* (2015), Screenplay - *The Water Diviner* (2014), Executive Producer - *Son of a Gun* (2014), as Additional Writing · Executive Producer - *Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D* (2014), Writer - *Tango Underpants* (2014), Writer - *Walking with Dinosaurs* (2013), Writer — Fi1m 42, [page](https://film.one/film/walking-with-dinosaurs.md) - *Creation* (2009), Screenplay, Screenstory - *The View from Greenhaven* (2008), Script Editor - *Happy Feet* (2006), Writer — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/happy-feet.md) - *Candy* (2006), Script Editor - *Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* (2003), Screenplay — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world.md) - *The Heart Surgeon* (1997), series, Writer - *The Heart Surgeon* (1997), Writer - *Paper Mask* (1990), Novel, Screenplay - *Star Cops* (1987), series, Writer - *Function Room* (1985), series, Writer - *Bergerac* (1981), series, Writer ## Gallery - ![John Collee](https://film.one/media/person/10959/gallery-6e99de383cbe.jpg) John Collee — Johncollee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/JC_photo.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![John Collee (2020)](https://film.one/media/person/10959/gallery-4c35d173dd9b.jpg) John Collee (2020) — Johncollee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/John_Collee.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![The cast and crew of the film 'The Return' at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/10959/gallery-07570fecb79d.jpg) The cast and crew of the film 'The Return' at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival — John Sears, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/The_cast_and_crew_of_the_film_%27The_Return%27_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-The_cast_and_crew_of_the_film_%27The_Return%27_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![John Collee](https://film.one/media/person/10959/gallery-298594ab8c6b.jpg) John Collee — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/john-collee