Mark Fergus

Biography:

Mark Fergus (Director/Co-Writer) was born and raised in Queens, New York, as a first-generation American of Irish heritage. After earning a degree in film from Boston University, he began collaborating with writing partner Hawk Ostby in 1996. Their first joint project was the noir-thriller Consequence, about a disgraced man who takes on his late brother’s identity, only to face devastating repercussions. Produced for HBO Pictures and starring Armand Assante, Rick Schroder, and Lola Glaudini, the film premiered on HBO the following year.

Following that, Fergus and Ostby signed a two-picture deal with Jersey Films and Universal Pictures. Their first project under the deal was an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, which tells the story of a narcotics officer whose crumbling mental state blurs the line between reality and paranoia. They also wrote Manhunt, an action-thriller inspired by The Fugitive and Deliverance, based on real-life events.

The pair went on to pen Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine. The film premiered to widespread praise at the Venice Film Festival and was scheduled for U.S. release on Christmas Day 2006.

Fergus and Ostby also completed two adaptations for director Jon Favreau: John Carter of Mars, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic sci-fi novel, produced by Paramount Pictures; and Iron Man for Marvel Studios, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, with production beginning in early 2007.

At the same time, the duo were working on their next original screenplay, Switch, which Fergus was set to direct. Conceived as a thematic successor to First Snow, the film explores how two strangers are bound together by a single fateful moment that shatters their lives.