Ed Solomon

For other people named Edward Solomon, see Edward Solomon (disambiguation).

Ed Solomon
Born	Edward James Solomon (1960-09-15) September 15, 1960 (age 64) Saratoga, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, director, producer
Spouse	Cynthia Cleese ​ ​ (m. 1995;div. 2011)​
Children	2

Edward James Solomon (born September 15, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing the screenplays to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), Men in Black (1997), and Now You See Me (2013).

Career

Solomon grew up in suburban Boston, until his family moved to California. He went to UCLA and majored in Economics while beginning his career as a joke writer, stand-up comedian, and playwright. ^[1] While still in college, he was a staff writer for Laverne & Shirley – making him (at the time) the youngest member of the Writers Guild of America. He then spent three years writing the cult Showtime TV series, It's Garry Shandling's Show , before venturing into feature films in the 1980s. He helped create and co-write the critically acclaimed comedies Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (with Chris Matheson). Solomon also worked on a number of hit franchise films, including Men in Black , Charlie's Angels , and the Now You See Me films.

Solomon worked on an early version of a Universal The Invisible Man remake, ^[2] with Johnny Depp. In March 2016 he completed production on Mosaic , a 12-hour long-form TV project for HBO in collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh. ^[3] This production would mark the first in a series of collaborations with Soderbergh, including the neo-noir film No Sudden Move in 2021, and more recently, the crime series Full Circle , which premiered July 13, 2023. ^[4]

Personal life

He married Cynthia Cleese, daughter of Connie Booth and John Cleese, in 1995. ^{[5] [6]} They have two children and divorced in 2011.

Solomon is Jewish. ^[7]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Writer	Producer	Director
1989	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure	Yes	No	Stephen Herek
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey	Yes	Co-producer	Peter Hewitt
1992	Leaving Normal	Yes	Associate	Edward Zwick
	Mom and Dad Save the World	Story	No	Greg Beeman
1993	Super Mario Bros.	Yes	No	Rocky Morton Annabel Jankel
1997	Men in Black	Yes	No	Barry Sonnenfeld
2000	What Planet Are You From?	Yes	No	Mike Nichols
	Charlie's Angels	Yes	No	McG
2003	The In-Laws	Yes	No	Andrew Fleming
	Levity	Yes	Yes	Himself
2009	Imagine That	Yes	Yes	Karey Kirkpatrick
2013	Now You See Me	Yes	No	Louis Leterrier
	Rapture-Palooza	No	Yes	Paul Middleditch
2016	Now You See Me 2	Yes	Executive	Jon M. Chu
2020	Bill & Ted Face the Music	Yes	Yes	Dean Parisot
2021	No Sudden Move	Yes	No	Steven Soderbergh
TBA	The Christophers	Yes	TBA

Acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure	Stupid Waiter
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey	"Stupid" Seance Member
1992	Leaving Normal	Jerk in Bar	As Edward Solomon
	Mom and Dad Save the World	Destroyer #13
2010	Barry Munday	Doctor #2
2020	Bill & Ted Face the Music	Stupid Demon

Other credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise	Soundtrack	Lyrics: "No on Fifteen"
2000	The Prime Gig	Special thanks
	X-Men	Uncredited revision
2005	Paradise Now	Special thanks
2008	Choke

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1982–1983	Laverne & Shirley	No	Yes	No	3 episodes
1986–1989	It's Garry Shandling's Show	No	Yes	No	8 episodes; Also script consultant
1990	The Dave Thomas Comedy Show	No	Yes	No
1992	Arresting Behavior	Yes	No	No
1999	The Unbelievables	Yes	Yes	Yes	Television pilot
2017–2018	Mosaic	No	Yes	No
2023	Full Circle	No	Yes	Yes

References

1. Siegel, Tatiana (August 27, 2020). "Ed Solomon's Excellent Hollywood Adventure". The Hollywood Reporter.
2. Kit, Borys (February 9, 2016). "Johnny Depp to Star in Universal's "Invisible Man" Reboot". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
3. Jagernauth, Kevin (September 24, 2015). "Steven Soderbergh To Direct 'Mosaic' Film For HBO With Garrett Hedlund And Sharon Stone". Indiewire. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
4. Otterson, Joe (June 17, 2021). "Steven Soderbergh, Ed Solomon Re-Team for HBO Max Limited Series 'Full Circle' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved May 26, 2022.
5. Cate, Hans ten (February 12, 1997). "NEWS 1997_02_12 – John Cleese Shoots Daughter Cynthia". Daily Llama. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
6. "THE SOCIAL SCENE – A Cleese Wedding Held Away From the 'Fawlty' Line / British comedian's daughter marries in the Napa Valley". SFGate. September 18, 1995. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
7. "Screenwriter Ed Solomon's Excellent Adventure". Jewish Journal. March 14, 2018.

External links

• Ed Solomon at IMDb