McFeely and Markus are the second and the third most successful screenwriters of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts, with a shared total gross of over $12.3 billion.

[8] Markus and McFeely met on the graduate program for creative writing at the University of California, Davis in 1994 and they were inspired to become novelists.

After earning their master's degrees in 1996, they moved to Los Angeles to pursue that career, working at such jobs as receptionist at movie production companies.

[9] Interest generated from the purchased script led HBO Films to commission them to write a biographical drama about actor Peter Sellers.

[3] For The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in 2004, they won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special.