Curated playlist
Screenwriters from New York (state)
- Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
- Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
- Orson WellesOrson Welles burned ten reels of his own Don Quixote film. He felt the 1969 Moon landings made its ending obsolete.
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- Adam SandlerAdam Sandler once made a Western comedy that critics almost universally panned. On the 6th of January 2016, Netflix announced that the film, The Ridiculous 6, had been watched more times in thirty days than any other movie in the service's…
- Kevin SmithKevin Smith maxed out credit cards and sold his comic books to make Clerks. The film raised $27,575 and won at Sundance.
- Elia KazanIn 1952, Elia Kazan gave a congressional committee the names of eight former colleagues.
- Irving ThalbergIrving Thalberg ran MGM's production, yet his name never appeared on screen while he lived.
- Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi sold CBS a show it already owned. CBS had acquired the Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten it.
- Truman CapoteOn the 23rd of August 1984, Truman Capote boarded a flight from New York to Los Angeles with a granny-square baby blanket. A relative he called Sook had made it for him when he was small. Friends said he was seldom without it, even when he…
- Francis Ford CoppolaMarlon Brando won the Godfather role only after a screen test and a reduced fee.
- Ayn RandWhen Ayn Rand died in New York City on the 6th of March 1982, her funeral included a six-foot floral arrangement shaped like a dollar sign. The tribute suited a woman who had turned self-interest into a moral code. She was born Alisa…
- Mel GibsonMel Gibson was paid $400 for his first film role, in Summer City, while he was still a drama student. A short time later, the title role in Mad Max paid him $9000. In the year 2000, Hollywood handed him a record $25 million to star in The…
- Dean DevlinStargate, co-written by Dean Devlin in 1994, was the first movie to have a dedicated website.
- Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
- Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand once filed a lawsuit that sent a crowd of strangers to look at a single photograph. In 2003 she claimed that a website documenting coastal erosion had invaded her privacy. Among its more than 12,000 images, one happened to…
- Charlie KaufmanEvery company rejected Charlie Kaufman's script for Being John Malkovich. Spike Jonze later agreed to direct it.
- Michael CrichtonMichael Crichton once submitted a George Orwell essay as his own and got a B-minus.
- Lena DunhamLena Dunham once filmed herself in a bikini, brushing her teeth in a public fountain at Oberlin College. She posted the video online, and it went viral. The reaction startled her. Pages of comments argued about how fat she was or was not,…
- Joss WhedonJoss Whedon earned more from a web musical than from directing The Avengers.
- David X. CohenDavid X. Cohen has a middle initial that stands for nothing at all. He is an American television writer, and his name appears on episodes of both The Simpsons and Futurama. Those two shows sit at the center of a career that began somewhere…
- James MangoldJames Mangold studied acting because his CalArts teacher urged him to. It gave him a feel for performance.
- Aaron SorkinAaron Sorkin, born in Manhattan on the 9th of June 1961, discovered his calling by accident. One weekend he was house-sitting for a friend, found a typewriter, and started typing. Years later he described the feeling as "a phenomenal…