Film
Straczynski worked on feature film and television movies. He wrote an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Showtime network, which was nominated for a Writer's Guild of America award, and a Murder, She Wrote movie, Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For, which he produced.
In 2006, Straczynski was hired to write a feature film based on the story of King David for Universal by producers Erwin Stoff and Akiva Goldsman.
Straczynski announced on February 23, 2007 that he had been hired to write the feature film adaptation of Max Brooks's New York Times-bestselling novel World War Z for Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B.
In June 2007, it was announced that Straczynski had written a feature screenplay for the Silver Surfer movie for Fox, the production of which would depend on the success of the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Additionally, he has written a script for Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions and Universal Pictures called They Marched into Sunlight based upon the Pulitzer nominated novel of the same name and an outline by Paul Greengrass, for Greengrass to direct, should it get a greenlight.
In June 2008, Daily Variety named Straczynski one of the top Ten Screenwriters to Watch. They announced Straczynski was writing Lensman for Ron Howard (to whom he had sold a screenplay entitled The Flickering Light), that he was selling another spec, Proving Ground, to Tom Cruise and United Artists.
In 2008, Straczynski wrote a draft of Ninja Assassin for Joel Silver (which he completed in just 53 hours). The film was produced by the Wachowski Brothers and released on November 25, 2009.
In 2008, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment premiered Straczynski's feature thriller Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie. The film was directed by Clint Eastwood, since originally slated director Ron Howard declined due to scheduling conflicts.
Changeling was one of 20 films placed in competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and subsequently received eight nominations for the BAFTA Award, including a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
In October 2008, it was announced that Straczynski was engaged to pen a remake of the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet.
In the fall of 2009, it was reported that Straczynski was writing a movie titled Shattered Union for Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. The screenplay, based on the video game of that name, concerns itself with a present-day American civil war.
Straczynski is credited as "story writer" along with Mark Protosevich for the 2011 film, Thor. He also makes a cameo appearance in the film, his first appearance in a movie and his second appearance as an actor (the first being "Sleeping In Light," the final episode of Babylon 5).
Read more about this topic: J. Michael Straczynski
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“A film is a petrified fountain of thought.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
“If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you’ve got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you’re dumb and blind.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)