Starting out as a medical aid doctor and novelist – working in Africa, the Pacific and elsewhere - John has written films and TV shows in almost every genre: Thrillers such as Hotel Mumbai (2018), action/adventure (Master and Commander 2003), family drama (The Patriarch 2016, Wolf Totem 2015), historical biopics (Creation 2009), and big-budget animation such as Happy Feet (2006) and Walking with Dinosaurs (2013). 

His films have thrice been nominated for Academy Awards. Master and Commander was nominated for Best Film and Happy Feet won Best Animation. Tanna (2015) was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. In addition to adapting all seven episodes of Boy Swallow’s Universe, John’s most recent screenplays – all co-written – are Monkey Man, (2023) a revenge movie, based on the myth of Hanuman, starring and directed by Dev Patel, plus Lee, (2024) about war correspondent Lee Miller, with Kate Winslet in the lead role, and The Return (2024) about the return of Odysseus to Ithaca, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche