From Highlands to Hollywood: The Wilmington native behind 'Creed III'

Wilmington native Zach Baylin may have lost at last year's Academy Awards, but he's still winning.

About a year after the Tatnall School graduate and "King Richard" screenwriter lost the Best Original Screenplay award to Kenneth Branagh ("Belfast"), Baylin is already back with a new major hit: "Creed III."

Nearly a month after the release of Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut, which was co-written by Baylin, the $75 million film has grossed more than $245 million at the box office and sparked whispers about a possible Oscar nomination.

"Michael had really ambitious goals from the beginning," Baylin, 43, said of the "Rocky" spinoff in a promotional video tied to the film's release. "He's a huge anime fan and a real cinephile and he really wanted to try and push the kind of story you could tell within this franchise."

Added Baylin, who was involved in the project early in its development: "From the very beginning he was talking about bringing in these elements of noir and thriller and a bit of anime into it that was going to make it feel very distinct and his own. That was very exciting to figure out how far you could push the boundaries of what a 'Creed' movie was."

For the now-Los Angeles-based writer, back-to-back winners mean plenty more work in Hollywood.

After 'King' & 'Creed,' a need for speed

His next film, "Gran Turismo,” directed by Oscar-nominated Neill Blomkamp ("District 9"), is slated for a summer release on Aug. 11.

The film, which Baylin co-wrote, is named after the popular PlayStation racing simulation video game and tracks the true story of a teen who went from being a standout "Gran Turismo" game player to becoming an actual race car driver.

It stars Archie Madekwe ("See," "Midsommar") as driver Jann Mardenborough, "Stranger Things" and "Black Widow" star David Harbour as his coach and Orlando Bloom as a motorsports executive.

A sneak peek trailer for the film was released two months ago, showing plenty of revving car engines and behind-the-scenes glimpses at how they captured the high-octane race scenes.

Marley, 'The Crow' and a new Netflix series next?

Yet another film co-written by Baylin is tentatively scheduled for a release sometime next year, and it is all about a one-time Delaware resident, who also just happens to be the biggest reggae star of all time: Bob Marley.

The still-untitled film from "King Richard" director Reinaldo Marcus Green will star British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, an actor best known for playing Malcom X in the 2020 Regina King-directed Netflix film "One Night In Miami."

According to Baylin's page on IMDb, an online film information database, he has no less than five other projects in the works.

They include a remake of 1994's "The Crow," which starred martial arts king Bruce Lee's son Brandon, who was accidentally shot and killed while filming a scene. Also in the works: a Netflix limited series called "Black Rabbit" co-starring Jason Bateman and Jude Law.

From Highlands to Hopkins to Hollywood

Baylin's road to the movie world started ... on a football field?

Sure, Baylin also participated in Showcase, Tatnall's advanced theater class, but he made his biggest waves catching passes and running back kickoffs for Tatnall football.

He wasn't the only Baylin at Tatnall, a private college preparatory school in Greenville.

Baylin's mother, Sarah, is a retired educator who taught English and history for 16 years at Tatnall before heading the private school's Upper School from 1995 to 2015. His father, Jon, is a clinical psychologist.

After graduating from Tatnall in 1998, Baylin went to John Hopkins University in Baltimore and went on to be a two-time Academic All-America wide receiver for the football team.

At the same time, he stayed focused on the arts as a film and media studies major before moving to New York to begin his career with production assistant jobs. Earlier this month, he was named one of the most influential Delawareans in entertainment by Delaware Online/The News Journal.

"Naively, I thought I'd write something straight out of school and sell a big script and I'd be off to the races," Baylin told Delaware Online/The News Journal in 2021. "But then it took, you know, 15 years."

While fighting to get into the industry, he married fellow Johns Hopkins classmate Kate Susman, and they now have two young children, Mavis and Marlow. The couple have since also co-founded a production company Youngblood Pictures, as well.

Baylin's "King Richard" script is the breakthrough he needed, landing in second place on The Black List in 2018, an annual survey in Hollywood of the most-liked feature film screenplays not yet produced.

Five years later, he's an in-demand screenwriter with an Oscar nomination under his belt and a steady stream of "King Richard" follow-ups coming our way.

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: After 'King Richard,' Zach Baylin jumps in the ring with 'Creed III'