Geoffrey S. Fletcher | |
---|---|
Born | Geoffrey Shawn Fletcher October 4, 1970 New London, Connecticut, U.S. |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film director |
Geoffrey Shawn Fletcher (born October 4, 1970) is an American screenwriter and film director. Fletcher is best known for being the screenwriter of Precious , for which he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, becoming the first African American to receive an Academy Award for writing. [1] In September 2010, Fletcher began shooting Violet & Daisy in New York City based on his original script as his directorial debut. [2] It was released in a limited theatrical run in June 2013.
Fletcher was born in New London, Connecticut, one of three children of Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. and Bettye R. Fletcher. Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. and Todd Fletcher are his brothers. Fletcher attended Waterford High School in Waterford, Connecticut prior to completing his secondary education at Choate Rosemary Hall. Fletcher graduated from Harvard College where he concentrated in psychology and from NYU's Tisch School where he earned a Master of Fine Arts. His student film Magic Markers, which he wrote and directed, was shown at festivals [3] and caught the attention of director John Singleton. [4]
Fletcher worked in a variety of temporary staff positions for years as he wrote and directed his own films. Eventually he was appointed an adjunct professor at Tisch and also at Columbia. In 2006, producer Lee Daniels viewed Magic Markers and asked Fletcher to adapt the book Push by Sapphire which became the film Precious. [4] Daniels, well known to be "passionately dedicated" to artists "serious about their craft," [5] considered several writers before choosing Fletcher according to a Variety article that included Fletcher among the "Ten Screenwriters to Watch." [6] Fletcher is represented by his agents Bill Weinstein, Nicky Mohebbi, and Manal Hamad of Verve and by the law firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, and Brown.
On February 16, 2010, director Doug Liman and Fletcher announced that they would be collaborating on a film re-creation of the 1971 Attica state prison rebellion. [7] Fletcher said in a statement "Working with a remarkable director in Doug Liman whose family history binds him personally to this project, I hope to create opportunities for re-examination of this dramatic crossroad in our nation's history while contributing to the current dialogue on the value of protecting everyone's rights." [8] [9]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Precious | No | Yes | No |
2011 | Violet & Daisy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2018 | Trial by Fire | No | Yes | No |
The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, musicals, short stories, TV series, and other films and film characters. All sequels are also considered adaptations by this standard, being based on the story and characters of the original film.
Adaptation is a 2002 American comedy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. It features an ensemble cast led by Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, with Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston and Maggie Gyllenhaal in supporting roles.
James Francis Ivory is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was a principal in Merchant Ivory Productions along with Indian film producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The trio is known for making film adaptations of stories by authors such as E.M. Forster and Henry James. Their body of work is celebrated for its elegance, sophistication, literary fidelity, strong performances, complex themes, and rich characters.
William J. Monahan is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was The Departed, a film that earned him a Writers Guild of America Award and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sheldon Turner is a screenwriter and producer. His produced credits as a screenwriter include The Longest Yard (2005), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Up in the Air (2009) and X-Men: First Class (2011). He is an alum of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Eric R. Roth is an American screenwriter. He has been nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay: Forrest Gump (1994), The Insider (1999), Munich (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), A Star Is Born (2018), and Dune (2021) — winning for Forrest Gump; he also earned a Best Picture nomination for producing Mank (2020). Roth also worked on the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated films Ali (2001), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).
Chris Terrio is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2012 film Argo, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay of 2012 and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a BAFTA, and the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this work.
The African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) is the world's largest group of Black film critics that gives various annual awards for excellence in film and television. It was founded in 2003 in New York City. In 2023 Variety stated that since it started, "the organization’s purpose was clear: to amplify Black voices in film criticism and arts entertainment journalism from across the African Diaspora."
Nick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nicholas Hern in 1988.
Hossein Amini is an Iranian-born British screenwriter and film director who has worked as a screenwriter since the early 1990s. He was nominated for numerous awards for the 1997 film The Wings of the Dove, including an Academy Award for Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay. He also won a "Best Adapted Screenplay" award from the Austin Film Critics Association for his screenplay adaptation of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011), based on the novel by James Sallis. For his directorial debut, he both wrote and directed The Two Faces of January, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel.
Mark Boal is an American journalist, screenwriter, and film producer. Boal initially worked as a journalist, writing for outlets like Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Salon, and Playboy. Boal's 2004 article "Death and Dishonor" was adapted for the film In the Valley of Elah, which Boal also co-wrote.
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, or simply Precious, is a 2009 American drama film, directed and co-produced by Lee Daniels. Its script was written by Geoffrey S. Fletcher, adapted from the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film stars Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique, alongside Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, and Lenny Kravitz. This marked the acting debut of Sidibe, who portrays a young woman struggling against poverty and abuse. Filming took place in New York City from October to November 2007.
Harriet Frank Jr. was an American screenwriter and producer. Working with her husband Irving Ravetch, Frank received many awards during her career, including the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Writers Guild of America Award, and several nominations.
This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, Adapted or Original. Geoffrey Fletcher and John Ridley are the only Black Reel Award Screenwriting winners to win Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The 8th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards were given on December 7, 2009.
Graham Moore is an American screenwriter, author and director known for his 2010 novel The Sherlockian, as well as his screenplay for the historical film The Imitation Game, which topped the 2011 Black List for screenplays and won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Kemp Powers is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his play One Night in Miami and the 2020 film adaptation of the same name, as well as for co-directing the animated films Soul (2020) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). His screenplay for One Night in Miami... earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the 93rd Academy Awards, while his work on Soul made him the first African-American to co-direct a Disney animated feature.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)