John Cusack Biography (2)

John Cusack is currently in production on The Runaway Jury with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman and will next be seen in James Mangold's thriller Identity. Cusack recently teamed with Spike Jonze on the acclaimed Being John Malkovich, and has also earned accolades for Stephen Frears' The Grifters, John Sayles' Eight Men Out, Cameron Crowe's Say Anything..., Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing and recently, Frears' high-energy hit High Fidelity, which Cusack co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay from the Nick Hornby novel and also earned him a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination.

Cusack, along with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis, is partnered in New Crime Productions, the first production of which was Grosse Pointe Blank, co-written by Cusack, who starred with Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, and Cusack's sister Joan. New Crime's next project (executive-produced by Cusack), for HBO, was The Jack Bull, scripted by Cusack's father Dick, and starring Cusack, John Goodman and L.Q. Jones. Most recently, New Crime produced Never Get Outta The Boat, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Cusack's recent roles also include Serendipity, and America's Sweethearts as well as Pushing Tin, Terrence Malick's Academy Award-nominated The Thin Red Line and Cradle Will Rock as Nelson Rockefeller. His other screen credits include the animated feature Anastasia; making cameo appearances in The Player and Bob Roberts; and starring in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Con Air, City Hall, Bullets Over Broadway, Shadows and Fog, The Road to Wellville, Money for Nothing, True Colors, Tapeheads and Fat Man and Little Boy.

In addition to his film work, Cusack founded the New Crime Theatre Company, which, like Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, is one of the nation's foremost avant-garde theater companies. Cusack has directed four plays with New Crime, including Alagazam... After the Dog Years and Methusalem, the latter earning him a Jeff citation for Best Director from Chicago's famed Joseph Jefferson Awards. That production also won awards for Best Original Music and Best Costume Design. Cusack also directed a stage production of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

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