Screenwriter Profile: Frank Darabont

The Writer:

Frank Darabont has been consistently successful in this industry for the last 30 years. His scripts tend toward monster movies (often based on Stephen King novels), with such credits as The Blob, The Mist, Frankenstein, and the upcoming Godzilla movie. But he is also the creative force behind such films as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Mr. Darabont is also the creator of the excessively popular The Walking Dead television series. He has been nominated for an Academy Award three times. (Listen to this clip for Mr. Darabont’s thoughts on how to succeed as a writer.)

Screenwriter Profile: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio

The Writers:

Writing team Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio are the highest grossing screenwriters of all time. They’ve written a number of films for Disney including Shrek, Aladdin, and The Pirates of the Caribbean films. These guys are in their early fifties, and it looks like they have decades more of amazing stories in front of them.

Screenwriter Profile: Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah

The Writers:

Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Karen McCullah are the powerhouse duo behind some of the biggest  “chick flicks” of the last fifteen years. Several of their films, however, have transcended the diminutive term and established themselves as gender-stereotype-surpassing cultural phenomenons. True, you’d be hard-pressed to find a man who will admit that Legally Blonde is his favorite film, but you’d have an even harder time finding a guy who didn’t secretly love every second of it. Smith and McCullah are the creative powers behind such hits as 10 Things I Hate About You and The Ugly Truth.

Screenwriter Profile: William Goldman

The Writer:

William Goldman gave a great interview in which he talks about how little talent he had as a young writer trying to sell short stories. He was rejected countless times and had to take other kinds of work along the way, but his persistence paid off when he started writing scripts and became one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters of all time. He is the creative force behind such films as The Princess Bride, Maverick, Heat, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Screenwriter Profile: Stanley Kubrick

The Writer:

Stanley Kubrick is widely considered one of the best writers and directors of all time and is particularly respected for his ability to master an obscenely wide range of film genres. His films range from suspense (The Shining) to science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey) to comedy (Dr. Strangelove). James Cameron has said of Kubrick, “I remember going with a great sense of anticipation to each new Stanley Kubrick film and thinking, ‘Can he pull it off and amaze me again?’ And he always did. The lesson I learnt from Kubrick was, ‘Never do the same thing twice’.”

Screenwriter Profile: Joe Eszterhas

The Writer:

Joe Eszterhas is one of the most financially successful screenwriters of all time. After a bidding war, his script for Basic Instinct sold for $3 million, a record at the time — not to mention, a record he had already set and broken a few times already. He comes from the hay day of spec script sales, and he made a whole lot of dough off of his scripts for Flashdance, Music Box, and Showgirls, to name a few. 

Screenwriter Profile: Ben Hecht

The Writer:

Ben Hecht won the first ever Oscar given for screenwriting (at the time the category was called “Best Original Story”) in 1927 for his gangster drama Underworld. He has one of the longest lists of credits I’ve ever seen on IMDB, including writing credits on such classics as Gone with the Wind, the original Scarface (here’s the script for the 1983 version), the original Some Like It Hot (the 1958 version), and the play which His Girl Friday is based on. What follows is a partial listing of his impressive credits as both scribe and script doctor.

Screenwriter Profile: Diablo Cody

The Writer:

Diablo Cody has proven herself as one of the most sought-after female screenwriters working in Hollywood today. The one-time stripper has said, “Stripping toughened my hide, but exposing myself as a writer has been a lot more brutal.” A columnist, blogger, author, and screenwriter, Diablo (which is her pen name) is responsible for such off-beat hits as Juno, Young Adult, and The United States of Tara, which she created.

Screenwriter Profile: Melissa Mathison

The Writer:

Melissa Mathison is the creative mind behind such acclaimed films as The Black Stallion, E.T the Extra-Terrestrial, and Kundun. An activist, good friend of the Dalai Lama, and one of the more noted female screenwriters in the business, Melissa has made her mark in film, television, and print.

Screenwriter Profile: Charlie Kaufman

 

The Writer:

Charlie Kaufman is one of my screenwriting heroes. People either hate his movies or love them, and I fall into the latter category. His stories and style exhibit a rare genius not often seen in big screen cinema. He’s one of the few writers who gets to break all the rules — something you’re only allowed to do if you’re a genius. Some of his most well known films include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, and Adaptation. He was nominated for an Oscar for all three and won for Eternal Sunshine.

Read this great interview with Charlie or watch this wonderful Master Class for more about his writing.