Shane Salerno (born November 27, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and Chief Creative Officer of The Story Factory. His writing credits include the films Avatar: The Way of Water, Armageddon, Savages, Shaft, and the TV series Hawaii Five-0. He was chosen by director James Cameron to co-write the four sequels to Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water (released in 2022), Avatar: The Seed Bearer (2025), Avatar: The Tulkun Rider (2029), and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa (2031). He spent ten years writing, producing, financing, and directing the documentary Salinger, and co-writing with David Shields the companion book which became a New York Times bestseller.
As a screenwriter, Salerno has collaborated with James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Michael Bay, William Friedkin, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, John Singleton, Jan de Bont, and Ridley Scott, He has sold pitches, spec screenplays, fiction and non-fiction books, feature film documentaries, television pilots, television documentaries, and foreign book deals reaching eight figures. All-told, films he has either written or co-written have resulted in six movies premiering at number one at the box office, and have grossed over three billion dollars (not including the upcoming Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider, and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa).
Salerno is also the founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Story Factory, a production company and literary agency for novelists, which produces films and TV series based on literary properties, including the Showtime miniseries The Comey Rule in 2020, for which Jeff Daniels and Brendan Gleeson were both nominated for Golden Globes. Through his company The Story Factory, Salerno has been principally involved in the creation and publication of some of the most critically acclaimed books of the last decade, including 27 books that hit 53 different New York Times bestseller lists (with six books hitting #1 on ten lists), six New York Times Critics’ Choice Selections for Best Book of the Year with additional Best of the Year selections by more than 200 publications around the world, as well as multiple literary awards and nominations. The Story Factory's most recent book, Heat 2, written by four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann and Edgar winner Meg Gardiner debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Surrounding the 2020 presidential election, Salerno partnered with Don Winslow to champion Democratic candidates and causes and to fight back against Donald Trump and his agenda. Together they launched Don Winslow Films and began creating their own political videos for social media, highlighting the corruption of Trump and his administration. On October 13, 2020, Don Winslow Films released a video critical of Trump prior to his campaign event in Pennsylvania. The video features Bruce Springsteen's song "Streets of Philadelphia" and has been viewed more than 10 million times. According to a January 4, 2021 Los Angeles Times article, Don Winslow Films videos had garnered over 135 million views at that time. As of April 2022, the total is now over 250 million views.
Early life and education
Shane Salerno was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1972. He attended 10 schools in 12 years, including St. John's College High School, a military academy in Washington, D.C. where he was co-captain of the football team and the only write-in class president since the school was founded in 1851. At San Dieguito High School in Encinitas, California, he was editor of the school newspaper, played varsity football, and was voted most likely to succeed.
Salerno has repeatedly cited the influence of filmmaker Michael Mann and the TV show Miami Vice, which Mann created and produced. His first formative cinematic memory from childhood was watching Mann's movie Thief when he was eight years old. He wrote two films for Mann in 2000 and 2012 and dedicated his documentary film Salinger to him in 2013. As a literary agent, Salerno now currently represents Michael Mann Books, Mann's publishing imprint at HarperCollins.
Teenage filmmaker
Salerno first made national headlines as a high school senior when he wrote, produced and directed the award-winning documentary film Sundown: The Future of Children and Drugs. The film had its world premiere on Larry King Live in September 1991. Larry King ended the interview by saying "And Shane Salerno, one has a feeling we are going to be hearing about you. I have this feeling." Sundown won several "Best Documentary of the Year" honors and Salerno was honored in separate ceremonies in houses of the United States Congress.
