His writing credits include the films Avatar: The Way of Water, Armageddon, Savages, Shaft, and the TV series Hawaii Five-0.

He went to the movies all the time—“theaters were kind of like a babysitter”—and cites two films as fundamental that he saw as a child—the blockbuster The Empire Strikes Back and crime thriller, Thief, Michael Mann’s feature debut.

[22] In 1998, working with director John Singleton and writer Richard Price, Salerno wrote the story and screenplay for the 2000 movie Shaft.

In February 2000, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann announced his next project after Ali would likely be a "fact-based film about the drug trade in the U.S. and Mexico," written by Salerno.

[25][26] In 2001–02, Salerno returned to television by co-creating (with crime novelist Don Winslow) the NBC series UC: Undercover.

[30] The New York Times, credited Salerno and the film's directors with making a more "watchable" movie than the first Alien vs Predator and said "the story is fairly generic try-to-get-away stuff, but it’s decently rendered.

New Line's original script was written by Alten, but the studio feared it too closely resembled Jurassic Park and they brought in Salerno to do a rewrite.

[31] In 2009, Salerno was reported on being attached License to Steal, a pitch sold for "seven figures upfront" to Paramount Pictures and Kurtzman-Orci Productions,[32] and a remake of Fantastic Voyage with James Cameron.

Roger Ebert gave the film 31/2 stars (out of 4), saying, "A return to form for Stone’s darker side, Savages generates ruthless energy.

[citation needed] In 2016, Salerno brokered the seven-figure film rights deal to Don Winslow’s Cartel Trilogy, which will be titled The Border.

[38] But in 2019, due to the sprawling nature of the story and world therein, FX Networks acquired the rights from their sister studio to turn the novels into a TV series.

[40] In 2017, Salerno and Winslow teamed up again to write the cartel-themed narrative for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands video game for Ubisoft.

[45][46] In 2018, Salerno was instrumental in selling the film rights to former FBI Director James Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty.

The project – retitled The Comey Rule – eventually landed at Showtime with Salerno and The Story Factory Executive Producing and acclaimed screenwriter Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, Shattered Glass) adapting the book and directing the two-night limited series.

[49] Salerno spent ten years on his documentary Salinger, a project that he researched, wrote, produced, directed, and financed.

The movie includes interviews with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, and Tom Wolfe.

[59] Writer Production rewrite Contributing writer Salerno is the founder of The Story Factory, an entertainment company that currently represents authors, including Don Winslow, the Michael Crichton estate, Steve Hamilton, Lou Berney, Meg Gardiner, Marcus Sakey, TJ Newman, John Katzenbach, Adrian McKinty, Reed Farrel Coleman, Bill Beverly, Eric Rickstad, James Phelan, Greg Harden, former US Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund, Charles Pellegrino, Jay Glennie, Scott Von Doviak as well as four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Michael Mann.

Screenwriter and producer Salerno’s foray into literary representation happened during a lunch with his friend and former co-collaborator, Don Winslow.

Despite widespread critical accolades, Winslow was lamenting the state of his career and the difficulty of supporting his family on his meager book advances and was contemplating quitting writing and going back to being a safari guide.

Salerno called back, this time with Don Winslow (who saw similarities to his own writing journey), and the two convinced McKinty to sign with The Story Factory.

The Chain would go on to become a New York Times bestseller, win the Barry and Macavity awards, and was named Best Book of the Year by International Thriller Writers.

Salerno sold the film rights in another seven-figure deal to Universal, with Edgar Wright slated to begin directing the project later in 2022.

Salerno happened to pick up the letter on the top of his pile of mail and was intrigued by her concept for a novel about a pilot whose family is kidnapped and will be killed unless he crashes the plane.

[67] A full list of the seven-figure book-to-film sales negotiated by The Story Factory includes Don Winslow’s Savages (to Universal, with Oliver Stone directing),[68] Shane Salerno’s Salinger (to PBS for the 200th episode of American Masters, as well as to The Weinstein Company for theatrical release),[50][69] Steve Hamilton’s The Second Life of Nick Mason (to Lionsgate, with Nina Jacobson and Shane Salerno producing[70]), Winslow’s The Cartel (to Twentieth Century Fox, with Ridley Scott directing and producing),[71] Don Winslow’s The Force (again to Fox, with James Mangold directing a script from Scott Frank, for Matt Damon to star in),[72] Don Winslow’s Satori (to Warner Brothers and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, for DiCaprio to star in and produce), Don Winslow’s A Cool Breeze on the Underground (to MRC, for Rian Johnson to executive produce), Meg Gardiner’s UNSUB series to Amazon, Bill Beverly’s Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Gold Dagger-winning novel Dodgers (to FX network), Marcus Sakey’s Afterlife (to Brian Grazer and Ron Howard at Imagine Entertainment),[63] Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance (to Paramount for Will Smith to executive produce and star), Adrian McKinty’s The Chain to Universal (with Edgar Wright directing), TJ Newman’s Falling to Universal, and Adrian McKinty’s upcoming novel The Island to Hulu.