Collee was born in 1955 to Isobel Galbraith and Prof J. Gerald Collee CBE, who became professor of microbiology at the
University of Edinburgh. Collee grew up in
Edinburgh, Scotland and in
India. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and began practising medicine in
Cambridge,
Bath, and
Bristol. In his third year of practice, he wrote the medical thriller ''Kingsley's Touch'', which was published in 1984. Collee subsequently worked in emergency medicine at home and abroad in
Gabon,
Madagascar, and
Sri Lanka. with
Guillermo del Toro slated to direct. The movie was later directed by
David Yates.
Creation reunited him with
Paul Bettany and he later executive-produced
The Water Diviner with
Russell Crowe directing.
Tanna was a collaboration with anthropological film-makers Bentley Dean and Martin Butler which was shortlisted for an Oscar in the foreign language category.
Wolf Totem with director
Jean-Jacques Annaud made upwards of $100M at the Chinese box office. After co-writing
Hotel Mumbai, which starred actor
Dev Patel, he collaborated with Patel on the actor's first film as director,
Monkey Man. His most recent films are
Lee (with co-writer
Marion Hume), about war correspondent
Lee Miller, starring
Kate Winslet; and
The Return, taken from
The Odyssey, starring
Ralph Fiennes as
Odysseus and
Juliette Binoche as
Penelope. John Collee was one of four co-founders of the Australian production company Hopscotch Features. He was also, for many years, a board member of the Australian branch of climate activist group
350.org. and, until recently, vice-president of the
Australian Writers Guild ==Filmography==