Zach Dean

Zach Dean is an American screenwriter and film producer, best known for writing the films Deadfall, The Tomorrow War, Fast X, and The Gorge.

Early life Dean is a Michigan native. He earned a master's in writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2005. Before selling his first script, he taught digital film production and screenwriting at Riverdale Country School in The Bronx. In 2005, Dean was on JetBlue Flight 292 from Burbank to New York when the passengers were informed that the plane's landing gear had malfunctioned. As the plane circled around for hours, Dean contemplated his mortality and vowed to write a screenplay about family, which would become the script for Kin (later renamed Deadfall). He wrote the sci-fi action time travel thriller The Tomorrow War (originally titled Ghost Draft), which is directed by Chris McKay and stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J. K. Simmons, and Betty Gilpin. Originally scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures, Amazon Studios acquired the rights to the film in a deal worth approximately $200 million, and release it on Prime Video on July 2, 2021.

Several of his screenplays have made The Black List survey of Hollywood's most-liked unproduced scripts. Beast, about a reformed criminal with a violent past, made the list in 2013. The World War II film Atlantic Wall, with Bradley Cooper attached to star and Gavin O'Connor to direct, made the list in 2015. Voyagers, a biopic for Warner Bros. Pictures which tells the love story of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, was on the 2016 Black List. The Gorge was on the 2020 Black List, and was purchased in 2020 by Skydance. He was later announced to be taking over the screenwriting duties from Christina Hodson and Oren Uziel, until, Dean was replaced by Michael Lesslie in March 2026. Other yet-to-be-produced screenplays include the sci-fi film Canary, which was purchased in 2018 by Imagine Entertainment to be directed by Ron Howard; Methuselah, at Warner Bros., based on the character from the Old Testament; and the action-thriller Layover.

Filmography Year TitleWriterProducer Director 2012 Deadfall Stefan Ruzowitzky 2017 24 Hours to Live Brian Smrz 2021 The Tomorrow War Chris McKay 2023 Fast X Louis Leterrier2025 The Gorge Scott Derrickson Looking Through Water Roberto Sneider 2027 Day Drinker Marc Webb