Aaron Sorkin

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Aaron Sorkin (2008)

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961 in New York City , New York ) is an American screenwriter , producer and director. As the creator and most important author of the television series The West Wing - In the Center of Power , he has received several awards. His screenplay for The Social Network , which was honored on February 27, 2011 with the Oscar in the category Best Adapted Screenplay , also brought him numerous awards .

Life

First steps in the theater

Sorkin, born in Manhattan, is the son of a teacher and a copyright attorney. He actually wanted to become an actor and therefore earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music theater , but was unable to succeed. Instead, he began to write plays, initially only for his old university and off-off theater, but from 1989 onwards on Broadway , where he achieved great success with the military court drama A Few Good Men .

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The film rights to A Few Good Men had already been granted before the premiere and in 1992 the film version with Tom Cruise , Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, which was equally successful at the box office and critically , appeared with A Question of Honor . Sorkin also made his debut as a screenwriter with the script for this film . Directed by Rob Reiner , Sorkin also came to the Castle Rock Entertainment studio , where he worked as a writer and script doctor in the following years . At Castle Rock, Sorkin also met Julia Bingham, who became his wife in 1996. A daughter was born to the couple in 2000, but the marriage broke up in 2003.

The next film based on a script by Sorkin, Malice , a thriller starring Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman , was released in 1993, but it was not a great success. In 1995 Sorkin wrote the screenplay for the comedy film Hello Mr. President . After that he was still involved as a script doctor in films such as The Rock , The Public Enemy No. 1 and Bulworth .

TV Shows

Sorkin's first series started in 1998 with Sports Night . He was also the creator, writer and executive producer of the series broadcast on ABC , which portrayed the goings-on on a sports television show for two seasons. Formally a sitcom, Sorkin did not shy away from addressing socio-political issues.

The next series started in 1999; it turned out to be Sorkin's greatest success to date: The West Wing - In the center of power . Over seven seasons, the series broadcast by NBC showed everyday government life in the White House during the reign of US President Jed Bartlet, portrayed by Martin Sheen . Despite the extremely dialog-heavy, complex and again socio-politically explicit form, the series was not only popular with critics, but also with the audience.

Because of his insistence on writing all West Wing's scripts himself and the resulting delays, as well as recurring drug problems and the like. a. with crack , however, Sorkin came into conflict with the studio. After the fourth season he therefore left the production.

In 2006 he launched the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip . Once again, Sorkin addressed a TV program and described the events in a comedy show similar to the well-known Saturday Night Live format . Studio 60 was received cautiously by both the critics and the audience and was discontinued after the first season.

Return to the cinema

After that setback, Sorkin turned back to cinema in 2007, after nearly a decade of pure television work. His script for Charlie Wilson's War, based on the biography of Congressman Charlie Wilson , was filmed with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in the lead roles. The film was commercially successful, received critical acclaim, and was nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe nomination for Sorkin.

With his next film, The Social Network from 2010, which thematized the history of Facebook and the shattering friendship of the founders, Sorkin was to celebrate his greatest success to date. In addition to numerous other awards, he received an Oscar for the script . In 2011 he co-wrote the screenplay for The Art of Winning - Moneyball , for which he was also awarded.

After that, Sorkin began work on a new series that will be produced and broadcast by HBO . The series, produced together with Alan Poul and Scott Rudin , is called The Newsroom and is about the work of a news presenter in the area of ​​tension between quota and quality. As with Sports Night and Studio 60 , this Sorkins project also focuses on television. The series has been extended for a third and final season.

In 2015 Danny Boyle shot the biography Steve Jobs , the script for which Sorkin wrote based on the biography of the same name by Walter Isaacson .

Awards (selection)

In the course of his career, Sorkin has received four Emmy awards. His script for David Fincher's Facebook drama The Social Network (2010) earned him numerous other film awards, including the National Board of Review Award , the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award , the National Society of Film Critics Award , the Golden Globe Award , the Writers Guild of America Award , the BAFTA Award, and the Oscar . In 2011 he received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for The Art of Winning - Moneyball (with Steven Zaillian ). In addition, they were nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Adapted Screenplay in 2012 together with Stan Chervin .

Filmography

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  • 1998–2000: Sports Night (TV series; creator, author, executive producer)
  • 1999–2006: The West Wing ( The West Wing , television series; creator, writer, executive producer (1999–2003))
  • 2006–2007: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (TV series; creator, writer, executive producer)
  • 2012–2014: The Newsroom (television series; creator, writer, executive producer)

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Plays

  • 1989: A Few Good Men (playwright)
  • 1990: Hidden in this Picture (playwright)
  • 2007: The Farnsworth Invention

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Marcus Kirzynowski: Der Drehbuchgott In: torrent, 1/2012, pp. 38–42

Web links

Commons : Aaron Sorkin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Sorkin, Aaron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sorkin, Aaron Benjamin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter and producer
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, United States