J. F. Lawton - Mainstream

Mainstream

Lawton moved to the A-list when his script titled Three Thousand, was accepted by the Sundance Institute in the late 1980s. Executives at Touchstone Pictures, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, got interested in getting the movie made. He changed the title to Pretty Woman, and with over $400 million dollars in worldwide box office, the movie became the largest grossing live-action film in Disney history. Directed by Garry Marshall, with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, the film is a story about Vivian Ward, a prostitute who is hired by a wealthy businessman, Edward Lewis, to be at his beck and call for one week while he is in town on business. Although they come from different backgrounds and lifestyles, both end up developing a relationship based more on genuine love than money and convenience. Pretty Woman was a huge success and got Lawton nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award and a British Academy Award for his screenplay. Julia Roberts won a Golden Globe Award for her role and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, giving her worldwide acclaim. The movie also gave stardom to mega producer Arnon Milchan who later went on to produce hits like Under Siege, Natural Born Killers, LA Confidential, The Devil's Advocate, Fight Club, Unfaithful, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, etc.

He then executive produced his next original screenplay, Under Siege, based on his million-dollar spec script Dreadnought. The idea came when Lawton, who had served time in the Coast Guard Reserve, read that the Navy was retiring the USS Missouri (BB-63). Tommy Lee Jones plays William Strannix, a psychopathic ex-CIA agent who leads a group of mercenaries on a takeover of the American battleship on its final voyage to steal its arsenal of nuclear Tomahawk Cruise Missiles. The film also stars Steven Seagal and Gary Busey. Acclaimed by public and critics, the movie broke box office records and a successful sequel followed Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

With Barry Primus, he co-wrote Mistress, a comedy starring Robert De Niro, Danny Aiello, Christopher Walken and Martin Landau. The movie is a tale about a Hollywood screenwriter, Marvin Landisman, whose career is going downhill until he meets a has been hustler-producer who tries to help him get his career back. Starring an all-star cast, Mistress was one of the first films produced by Tribeca Productions, Robert De Niro’s production company, and it was released in the summer of 1992.

Then came The Hunted in 1995, a thriller set in Japan starring Christopher Lambert, John Lone and Joan Chen. Written and directed by Lawton, the movie traces Paul Racine, a computer-chip executive from New York in one of his many business trips to Tokyo. Local authorities and a legendary ninja cult get involved in an electric chase after a crime occurs in a hotel room. The Hunted was released on February 25, 1995 and distributed by Universal Studios. The score, featuring music by the internationally acclaimed Japanese taiko troupe Kodo, was especially requested by Lawton.

For Columbia Pictures he co-wrote Blankman, a film starring and produced by Damon Wayans who plays Darryl, a nerdy, comical ghetto superhero with a pure heart ready to fight criminals in his own style. The film also stars Jason Alexander who previously had worked with Lawton in Pretty Woman and Greg Kinnear in the beginning of his career.

The next film project was Chain Reaction, an action thriller starring Morgan Freeman, Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz. The movie, filmed in Chicago, Illinois, was released on August 2, 1996 and grossed over $60 million dollars worldwide. In 2005, Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz teamed up again for Constantine.

In 2006, Lawton co-wrote for Paramount Pictures a film based on the video game series DOA: Dead or Alive, starring Eric Roberts, Jaime Pressly and Devon Aoki.