Screenwriter Stephen Susco (“The Grudge”) gravitated toward horror films early in his career, and has no qualms scaring movie goers today.

“I do keep coming back to horror” says Susco, adding a third of his early film scripts were horror-based.

Susco had to write all those scripts before Hollywood came calling. Now, the industry can't stop knocking on his door.

He's hard at work on a number of projects beyond his new film, “Red.” He wrote and will executive produce “High School,” a story of a high school valedictorian who comes up with an interesting scheme to save his academic future after being caught smoking pot. He also wrote “Sanctuary,” about a single mom and her son who hide out from her ex on a haunted island.

Susco may be a fresh face on the scene, but he recently teamed up with Michael Douglas on a pair of projects. First up is a television adaptation of the 1990s thriller “Flatliners.” “He produced the movie,” explains Susco of their initial connection.

“We ended up expanding to a couple of projects. That includes “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film project Susco hoped Douglas would appear in. The Oscar winning actor/producer declined, but offered to help produce the project.

Susco sounds like another David E. Kelley, a screenwriter with so many irons in the fire it’s a wonder he doesn’t burn himself out.

The young screenwriter sees it differently.

“I love writing. The best way to stay creative is to write a lot of projects at once,” he says. “You never know which project will hit, and which one will end up in development hell.“

(Photo: "Red" director Tryvge Allister Diesen, star Brian Cox and screenwriter Stephen Susco)

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