Monday, February 7, 2011

Josh Heald, Writer of HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, to Guest on USA Chat February 13, 2011

From deleted scene in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
What better way to sip your tequila than in a hot tub while talking screenwriting?  Your treefort is delighted to have Josh Heald, writer of HOT TUB TIME MACHINE as our guest on Sunday's USA #scriptchat 5pm PST, February 13th.   A special thanks to our past guest Geoff LaTulippe for hooking us up.  Way to spread the love! 

Josh Heald @healdrules was born and raised in Middletown, New Jersey. He was a fat kid. Not the fattest kid. Just a regular old fashioned "you go on ahead and run the mile in gym class... I'm gonna walk it" fat kid. The kind of fat kid who had plenty of time on his hands to watch Three Men and a Baby about a hundred and fifty times. The kind of fat kid who knew he needed something cool to get chicks to make out with him. So he took up the trombone. Because socially speaking, he was an idiot. Thankfully for our hero, at the end of high school, he dropped 60 pounds and eventually made out with a couple of chicks. Nice, right?

While attending the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Josh was Editor-in-Chief of a weekly arts and entertainment publication. Mainly, he tried to use his impressive journalist title to get free stuff like concert tickets and complimentary dinners... and to get chicks to make out with him. He was only moderately successful with the latter, but he's also very picky. I mean, he lost 60 pounds -- the guy's entitled to some decent options now, right? Right. Moving on...

Josh’s first foray into professional comedy was when he briefly worked as a management consultant for Booz-Allen & Hamilton (the comedy stemmed from the fact that this was a ridiculous career choice for an aspiring screenwriter). Josh corrected his course and moved to Los Angeles, where he began churning out material, selling two screenplays to New Line Cinema in 2004. In 2008, he would see his first movie produced (Screen Gems’ Mardi Gras, currently awaiting release). This paved the way for Heald to walk into MGM and pitch Hot Tub Time Machine with a straight face. Bitten by the acting bug, Josh also spent a year in training with Second City, which would come in handy for roles in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo BayMardi Gras, and Hot Tub Time Machine.

Josh is currently developing a half-hour comedy for Fox. His favorite movie is The Karate Kid (the real one) and he hopes to one day own a house with a steam room.

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