Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia (born 1972) is an American writer and novelist, known for works such as *Matchstick Men*, adapted into a film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Nicolas Cage, and the *Anonymous Rex* series, which was adapted in 2004 for the SciFi Channel. He also co-wrote the 2010 film *Repo Men* with Garrett Lerner, based on his novel *The Repossession Mambo*. He is the creator and showrunner of the non-linear Netflix heist series *Kaleidoscope*.

Garcia attended Cornell University, where he studied English and film, before transferring to the University of Southern California during his junior year. His first novel, *Anonymous Rex*, was published in 1999. The second novel in the *Rex* series, *Casual Rex*, was released in 2001 and served as a prequel to *Anonymous Rex*, a detail not indicated on the book's flap. The inclusion of characters who were deceased in *Anonymous Rex* confused many readers, who mistakenly assumed *Casual Rex* was a sequel. In 2002, Random House published *Matchstick Men*, a novel distinct from Garcia's earlier work. Warner Brothers had already acquired the film rights and secured Ridley Scott as director, with Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman in the lead roles. The film, released in September 2003, received positive reviews but performed only moderately at the box office.

2004 was a productive year for Garcia. His third *Rex* novel, *Hot And Sweaty Rex*, was published early in the year, and in June, HarperCollins/ReganBooks released *Cassandra French's Finishing School For Boys*, a satirical take on the chick-lit genre.

Also in 2004, the SciFi Channel aired a two-hour TV-movie pilot for *Anonymous Rex*, which was based on *Casual Rex* but retained the title of the original book. The pilot received negative feedback from critics and fans alike and was not developed into a series.

In June 2009, it was announced that Jude Law and Forest Whitaker would star in *Repo Men*, a film co-written by Garcia and Garrett Lerner. The movie was based on Garcia's 2009 original paperback novel *The Repossession Mambo*, published by HarperCollins.

In 2015, Garcia produced the horror film *The Autopsy of Jane Doe*.

On January 1, 2023, Netflix released *Kaleidoscope*, a non-linear heist thriller for which Garcia served as showrunner and creator. This marked his second collaboration with Ridley Scott, who is an executive producer on the series. Within the first six months of its release, *Kaleidoscope* reached over 252,000,000 hours viewed and ranked as the 12th most-watched program on Netflix.