John Wells Filmography

Awaken the Dragon

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The Shield's executive producer Kurt Sutter is set to write and direct an update of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon with Awaken the Dragon, a modern film noir picture that follows an FBI agent as he infiltrates the world of underground fight clubs while tracking a Shaolin monk. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Read More

Savage Grace

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Hugh Dancy, Elena Anaya

Synopsis: Adapted from the nonfiction book by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson, Tom Kalin's Savage Grace recounts the true crime tale of the death of Barbara Baekeland. Stephen Dillane stars as Brooks Baekeland, the son of the man who invented Bakelite, one of the early forms of plastic. As the family Read More

Then She Found Me

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Ben Shenkman

Synopsis: Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt makes her feature directorial debut with this adaptation of Elinor Lipman's best-selling novel about a Philadelphia schoolteacher (Hunt) whose long-lost birth mother (Bette Midler) reappears at the very moment her daughter is careening into a midlife Read More

Motherhood

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver

Synopsis: Uma Thurman, Minnie Driver, and Anthony Edwards star in writer/director Katherine Dieckmann's slice of life indie about hapless mother of two's attempt to prepare for her daughter's rapidly-approaching sixth birthday party. Along the way, the harried mother is forced to contend with a monumental Read More

I'm Not There

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere

Synopsis: Director Todd Haynes' unconventional biopic of the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan features different actors playing the part of the Minnesota native at various stages of his remarkable career. Among the actors playing the singer are Cate Blanchett, who portrays the man during his Don't Look Back Read More

An American Crime

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Catherine Keener, Ellen Page, James Franco, Bradley Whitford, Ari Graynor

Synopsis: The true story of a young girl held captive by her insane caretaker comes to life in this disturbing film from Ella Enchanted director Tommy O'Haver. Hard Candy's Ellen Page stars as Sylvia Likens a teenager who, along with her sister, is left to live temporarily with seemigly-mild-mannered Read More

An Evening With John Wells

Actors: John Wells

Infamous

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels

Synopsis: Douglas McGrath's Infamous represents the second major biopic about the avant-garde belletrist Truman Capote to be released within a year. It thus tells roughly the same story as Bennett Miller's earlier Capote, recounting the events that belied the writer's six-year authorship of the seminal Read More

The Notorious Bettie Page

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Gretchen Mol, Christopher Bauer, Jared Harris, Sarah Paulson, Cara Seymour

Synopsis: Celebrated and vilified in equal measure, the pinup goddess Bettie Page inspired a legion of followers -- and an indecency scandal -- by appearing in a series of nude, sado-masochistic, and/or revealing magazine spreads in the 1950s. An era later, writer/director Mary Harron casts a knowing eye Read More

Nearing Grace

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Gregory Smith, Jordana Brewster, Ashley Johnson, David Moscow, Chad Faust

Synopsis: A teenage boy tries to hold his family together while the girl of his dreams drives him to distraction in this coming-of-age comedy drama. It's 1978, and Henry Nearing (Gregory Smith) and his family are in a state of flux. Henry's mother has died, and now his father, Shep (David Morse), is trying Read More

The Evidence [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Orlando Jones, Rob Estes, Martin Landau, Anita Briem

Synopsis: The gimmick of the ABC procedural drama The Evidence was established at the beginning of each hour-long episode. It was explained via a videotaped police log that a murder had been committed, and that several clues were left behind by the unknown killer. As the camera froze on each clue, the Read More

Smith [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Amy Smart, Johnny Lee Miller

Synopsis: Executive-produced by ER and West Wing veteran John Wells, the weekly serialized drama series Smith focused on a group of highly skilled professional thieves, who covered their tracks by living normal, above-suspicion lives between heists. There was actually no character named "Smith"; this was Read More

Doom

Crew: Producer

Actors: Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Razaaq Adoti, The Rock, Deobia Oparei

Synopsis: One of the most popular and influential video games ever makes its way to the big screen in this sci-fi thriller. A coalition of Earth's scientific and military interests have established a research colony called Olduvai on the planet Mars, but one day all communication from the outpost stops and Read More

Duma

Crew: Producer

Actors: Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker, Campbell Scott, Hope Davis

Synopsis: Carroll Ballard, director of The Black Stallion and Never Cry Wolf, presents another story of an unusual relationship between humans and animals in this drama. Xan (Alexander Michaletos) is a young boy who lives with his father and mother (Campbell Scott and Hope Davis) on a ranch in Kenya. One Read More

Jonny Zero [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Franky G., GQ, Brennan Hesser, Christopher Bauer, Ritchie Coster

Mrs. Harris

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Frances Fisher, Annette Bening, Ben Kingsley

Synopsis: The sensationalistic murder of diet guru Dr. Herman Tarnower is explored in this stylized take on the tabloid cover story from first-time director Phyllis Nagy. As the inventor of the popular "Scarsdale Diet," Dr. Herman Tarnower (Ben Kingsley) became an overnight success during the peak of the Read More

A Dirty Shame

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak, Suzanne Shepherd

Synopsis: America's leading titan of bad taste, John Waters, returns to X-rated territory (well, actually NC-17-rated territory, but you get the idea) for this wildly over-the-top comedy. Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) is a wife and mother living in Baltimore who, along with her husband Vaughn (Chris Read More

A Home at the End of the World

Crew: Producer

Actors: Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy Spacek

Synopsis: Directed by Michael Mayer and based on The Hours author Michael Cunningham's novel of the same name, A Home at the End of the World chronicles the 1980s reunion of childhood best friends Bobby (Colin Farrell) and Jonathan (Dallas Roberts). Where they were once best pals -- and teenage lovers -- in Read More

The Company

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco, Barbara Robertson, William Dick, Joffrey Ballet

Synopsis: Robert Altman directs the musical drama The Company from an original story by actress Neve Campbell, based on her own experiences with The National Ballet of Canada. At the center of the ensemble cast is the young dancer Ry (Campbell), a rising star with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. She Read More

Party Monster

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloë Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, Justin Hagan

Synopsis: After profiling Monica Lewinsky, Billy Haynes, and Tammy Faye Bakker, documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato make their feature debut with this true-life tale of the rapid climb and lurid demise of a flamboyant young club promoter in late-'80s/early-'90s Manhattan. Based on James St. Read More

Camp

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Daniel Letterle, Joanna Chilcoat, Robin De Jesus, Tiffany Taylor, Sasha Allen

Synopsis: Tony-nominated actor Todd Graff makes his directorial debut with the musical comedy Camp, featuring an ensemble cast of newcomers. Guitarist Vlad (Daniel Letterle) attends Camp Ovation, the summer theater camp for budding actors, dancers, and musicians. Finding himself to be one of the only hetero Read More

The Good Thief

Crew: Producer

Actors: Nick Nolte, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Tchéky Karyo, Saïd Taghmaoui, Gérard Darmon

Synopsis: Loosely based on Jean-Pierre Melville's French film noir Bob le Flambeur, this heist film from director Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire, The Crying Game) stars Nick Nolte as Bob, an aging American thief living in the French city of Nice. Addicted to both heroin and gambling, Bob is in the Read More

ER: Kisangani

Crew: Teleplay By

Actors: Simon Elise Girard, Pragna Desai

Synopsis: Carter (Noah Wyle) takes temporary leave of both the ER and his girlfriend, Abby (Maura Tierney), and flies to the Congo, there to join a Doctors Without Borders mission wherein Kovac (Goran Visnjic) is treating patients in a backward nation undergoing a bloody revolution. It is quite a culture Read More

Far from Heaven

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis

Synopsis: Maverick director Todd Haynes embraces the look and feel of classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s in this period drama. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Frank (Dennis Quaid), are a seemingly perfect couple; living in a handsome suburban neighborhood in Hartford, CT, in 1957 Read More

White Oleander

Crew: Producer

Actors: Alison Lohman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright Penn, Renée Zellweger, Billy Connolly

Synopsis: The Oprah Book Club best-seller by Janet Fitch makes it to the big screen in this adaptation from British director Peter Kosminsky. White Oleander recounts the traumatic adolescence of Astrid Magnusson (Alison Lohman), who finds herself an orphan after her short-fused, enigmatic artist mother Read More

ER: Secrets and Lies

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: ER meets The Breakfast Club in this offbeat episode. Abby (Maura Tierney), Carter (Noah Wyle), Lewis (Sherry Stringfield), Kovac (Goran Visnjic), and Gallant (Sharif Atkins) playfully violate hospital policy when they rummage though the kinky contents of a bag owned by a professional dominatrix (Patricia Thielemann Read More

ER: On the Beach

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: This episode takes place before the events of the previous episode "The Letter," in which the staff of the ER was informed of the death of Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards). Spending his final days in Hawaii, where he had been brought up, Mark hopes to mend fences with his estranged daughter Rachel (Hallee Hirsh Read More

Presidio Med [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Dana Delany, Paul Blackthorne, Anna Deavere Smith, Sasha Alexander, Oded Fehr

Synopsis: The title of the CBS doctor drama referred to the fictional Presidio Medical Group of San Francisco. Distinguishing this effort from all other forcep-and-scalpel weeklies was the fact that the staff of Presidio Med was virtually all-female, save for a brace of "token" handsome hunks. Still, in Read More

The Big Time

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: The hectic early days of live television are spoofed in this irreverent made-for-cable movie. The story is told from the viewpoint of Audrey Drummond (Christina Hendricks), a naïve young script girl hired by the newly formed Empire Television Network in 1948. Among Audrey's colleagues are the Read More

ER: A Walk in the Woods

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: Back from maternity leave, Chen (Ming-Na) returns to the ER just as the staff is confronting a somewhat startling case of the measles. In other developments, Benton (Eriq La Salle) offers to act as mentor for African-American medical student William White (Keith Robinson) -- until he finds out the Read More

Citizen Baines [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: James Cromwell, Embeth Davidtz, Jane Adams, Jacinda Barrett, Paul McCrane

Synopsis: James Cromwell starred on this weekly, hour-long drama series as veteran politician Elliott Baines. After three successful terms as senator, Baines is cast adrift when a fourth-term bid comes a cropper. Knowing no other life but politics, the widowed Baines returns home to Seattle, there to Read More

ER: The Visit

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: Sally Field makes the first of several appearances in the Emmy-winning role of Maggie Wyczenski, the bipolar mother of ER nurse Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney). Off her medication, a hyper Maggie tries to pay a visit to Abby -- who refuses to see her. Meanwhile, Kovac (Goran Visnjic) looks into a Read More

ER: Such Sweet Sorrow

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: After briefly reviving a young mother (Rachel Singer) dying of cancer so that the woman can bid goodbye to her family, head nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) suddenly realizes that her own life is figuratively slipping away. Determined to live the rest of her existence to the fullest Read More

Third Watch [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer, Show Creator

The West Wing [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Debuting September 22, 1999, NBC's multi-award-winning The West Wing was America's first truly successful political drama series. Producer Aaron Sorkin had allegedly created the property to make fuller use of the White House interior sets built for his 1999 theatrical film, The American President. Read More

The West Wing: Pilot

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Lisa Edelstein, Allison Smith, NiCole Robinson, F. William Parker

Synopsis: The inaugural episode of The West Wing finds the staff concerned with Cuban refugees, and the fact that President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) has injured himself riding a bicycle. Rumors are swirling that Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) will be fired due to heated remarks he made Read More

ER: The Storm, Part 1

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: In this first episode of a two-part story, Ross' (George Clooney) maverick behavior catches up with him when his unauthorized treatment of ALD patient Ricky Abbott (Kyle Chambers) has fatal consequences. This tragedy has long-reaching consequences for others in the ER, beginning with the closing Read More

ER: The Storm, Part 2

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: In this Emmy-winning concluding episode of a two-part story, Ross (George Clooney) suffers the consequences for his part in the death of ALD patient Ricky Abbott. Also detrimentally affected are Carol (Julianna Margulies) , who assisted Ross in treating Ricky, and his superiors Greene (Anthony Edwards Read More

ER: The Peace of Wild Things

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: By now convinced that her friend Dr. Lawrence (Alan Alda) is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, Weaver (Laura Innes) dolefully conspires with Greene (Anthony Edwards) to force Lawrence to face his problem. A nursing-home fire brings in a multitude of patients and heap of trouble for Carter (Noah Wyle Read More

ER: Carter's Choice

Crew: Director, Teleplay By

Synopsis: The hospital's blood supply runs out during a devastating blizzard, forcing the doctors to make literal life and death decisions. Should Carter (Noah Wyle) try to save the life of a seriously wounded serial rapist, or should the blood go to someone more "deserving"? Elsewhere, Carol (Julianna Margulies Read More

Trinity

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Jill Clayburgh, John Spencer, Tate Donovan, Justin Louis, Sam Trammell

Synopsis: In this TV family drama series set in NYC's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Eileen McCallister (Jill Clayburgh) is the matriarch who oversees the working-class Irish-Catholic McCallister clan, along with her husband Simon McCallister (John Spencer). The focus is on their five grown children -- priest Read More

ER: Faith

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: Pomerantz (Jami Gertz) refuses to put a woman with Down's syndrome on a heart-transplant list; Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Doyle (Jorja Fox) try to persuade her to change her mind. Now that he is of legal age, Jad Houston (Chad Lindberg), suffering from terminal cystic fibrosis, insists upon Read More

The Peacemaker

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iures, Alexander Baluev, Rene Medvesek

Synopsis: The first motion picture produced by DreamWorks SKG, The Peacemaker (1997) was a spy thriller that married the exotic locations and derring-do of James Bond with the high-tech obsession and post-Cold War politics of Tom Clancy. Greedy Russian military officers crash two trains into each other, the Read More

ER: Fathers and Sons

Crew: Teleplay By

Actors: Patti Allison, Bonnie Bartlett

Synopsis: In a departure from the usual ER format, Ross (George Clooney) and Greene (Anthony Edwards) head to California, where Ross must handle the particulars surrounding the death of his ne'er-do-well father. The two doctors briefly stop over in San Diego, where Greene visits his retired parents (Bonnie Bartlett Read More

ER: One More For the Road

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: As their premature baby son struggles for his life in the ICU, Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Carla (Lisa Nicole Carson) mull over their future. Increasingly paranoid after being beaten by an unknown assailant, Greene (Anthony Edwards) purchases a gun. Anspaugh (John Aylward) is upset that Carter (Noah Wyle Read More

ER: Dead of Winter

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paramedics Shep (Ron Eldard) and Raul (Carlos Gomez) respond to a call from the projects, where an abandoned row house yields 22 youngsters suffering from malnutrition. Though his actions in this crisis are compassionate, Shep nonetheless makes a careless remark which Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Read More

Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Moira Kelly, Martin Sheen, Boyd Kestner, Lenny Von Dohlen

Synopsis: This biographical drama was based on the true story of Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic who devoted much of her life to working with the poor and homeless on New York City's Lower East Side. Born in an Episcopalian household in 1897, Day (played by Moira Kelly) was a free-thinking agnostic in her Read More

ER: Dr. Carter, I Presume

Crew: Teleplay By

Synopsis: In the opening episode of ER's third season, Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) get the results of their HIV tests, forcing Jeanie to make a difficult decision. Carter's inaugural assignment as a first-year intern is to temporarily replace Benton as ER surgical consultant; Carter (Noah Wyle Read More

ER: John Carter, M.D.

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Having completed medical school, Carter (Noah Wyle) invites Benton (Eriq La Salle) to his graduation -- only to miss the festivities himself because he's too busy comforting his patient TC (Gabrielle Boni). Meanwhile, Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), fed up with the bureaucracy and Read More

ER: The Healers

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Paramedics Shep (Ron Eldard) and Raul (Carlos Gomez) are trapped in an apartment fire while trying to rescue three children. Back at the ER, Shep's lover, Carol (Julianna Margulies), anxiously awaits word on his fate as dozens of burn victims pour in. Elsewhere, Ross (George Clooney) accepts his Read More

ER: February Fifth, 1995

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Morganstern (William H. Macy) offers Greene (Anthony Edwards) a permanent position as attending physician -- prompting an unexpected response from Greene's wife, Jenn (Christine Harnos). Elsewhere, a woman with breast cancer demands that she be given a painless death in the ER, while Carol (Julianna Margulies Read More

ER: Welcome Back, Carter!

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: In the opening episode of ER's second season, Carter (Noah Wyle) gets off to a bad start on his first day as new surgical sub-intern by showing up extremely late and woefully unprepared. Also on hand is new third-year student Harper Tracy (Christine Elise), who endures an ordeal by fire thanks to Read More

ER: Everything Old is New Again

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: The wedding of Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) and John Taglieri (Rick Rossovich) is complicated by the fact that bridesmaid Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) is called away to care for the baby of her missing sister, Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite). This minor crisis, however, is supplanted by a Read More

ER: The Birthday Party

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Hicks (CCH Pounder) warns Benton (Eriq La Salle) that he's spending too much time worrying over his ailing mother and not enough time concentrating on his job. Ross (George Clooney) has a violent showdown with an abusive father. The rivalry between Carter (Noah Wyle) and Deb (Ming-Na) intensifies. Read More

The Nightman

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Synopsis: A daughter haunted by the memory of a morbid love affair suspects that the man who once seduced her has returned to kill her after eighteen-years after being convicted and imprisoned for murdering her mother. Mother and daughter have both had a torrid love affair with the same man, and in the end Read More

ER: Chicago Heat

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: A malfunctioning air conditioner and an overload of patients bedevils the ER during a stifling heat wave. In other developments, Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) is thrown off balance by a visit from her young, irresponsible sister, Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite). Carol (Julianna Margulies) is upset by Read More

ER: Day One

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: In the first "official" episode of ER, Ross (George Clooney) tries to save the eight-year-old victim of a drunk driver, and finds time to visit Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), still recovering from her botched suicide attempt (for which Ross holds himself partially responsible). Elsewhere Read More

ER [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Created by novelist Michael Crichton and reportedly based on his own experiences as a medical student, the NBC hospital drama ER debuted September 19, 1994, directly opposite the similar CBS endeavor Chicago Hope. Though many critics thought that Chicago Hope had a better chance for survival than Read More

Nice Girls Don't Explode

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barbara Harris, Michelle Meyrink, William O'Leary, Wallace Shawn, James Nardini

Synopsis: April (Michelle Meyrink) is a hot item who causes her boyfriends to spontaneously combust in the heat of passion in this low-budget comedy. Her childhood sweetheart Andy (William O'Leary) is the one who usually gets burned and doesn't believe the warning given by April's mom (Barbara Harris). The Read More