John Penney

John Penney
Occupation	Screenwriter, producer, director

John Penney is an American film producer, screenwriter and director who has been working in the horror genre for over thirty years. He has created material for, and been involved in, a range of subgenres, including zombie movies (Return of the Living Dead III), classic Creature Features (Amphibious), and supernatural thrillers (Hellgate).

John Penney is the son of science fiction writer Raylyn Moore (née Crabbe) and stepson of writer Ward Moore. Ray Bradbury was an old roommate of Ward Moore, and one of the first people to give Penney writing advice when he was a young man.

Penny attended UCLA where he studied film and received a degree in English.

Penney's first literary agent was H.N. Swanson, the man who represented F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner and many other giants of 20th century literature.

Penney started his career as a film editor, with his first job being an assistant editor on The Dorm That Dripped Blood, a film that became embroiled in the infamous Video Nasties case, after it was banned in the UK. He went on to work on several independent horror productions, including The Power (1984), as well as Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead. It was shortly after this that Penney wrote the screenplay for The Kindred (1987), the process of which made him want to become a full-time writer. It was on The Kindred that Penney worked with Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano. Afterwards he joined the Screenwriting Guild and sold a script to Warner Brothers. This led to working on several projects within the studio system which didn't come to fruition.

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