Gary Ross

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Gary Ross (born November 3, 1956 in Los Angeles ) is an American director , producer and screenwriter .

biography

Gary Ross is the son of screenwriter Arthur A. Ross (1920-2008). He attended the University of Pennsylvania and was interested in politics as a teenager. In 1972 Ross worked for a congressman. In 1980 he supported Ted Kennedy's presidential campaign and later worked as a speechwriter for well-known politicians such as Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton . After writing two books to no avail , he moved to Hollywood and followed suit with his father, who had made a name for himself as a screenwriter with films like The Great Race Around the World (1965) and Brubaker (1980). In the meantime he worked on a fishing boat, studied drama with Stella Adler and won the American quiz show Tic Tac Dough , which brought him a profit of 50,000 US dollars.

Ross achieved his breakthrough as a screenwriter in 1988 with his fourth script for Penny Marshall's award-winning feature film Big , in which he also appeared as a co-producer. He wrote it together with Anne Spielberg , Steven Spielberg's sister . The role-swapping comedy tells the story of a twelve-year-old who, with the help of a fairground machine, fulfills his wish to have grown up. Although similarly designed films like Endlich wieder 18 or Wie der Vater, so der Sohn (both 1987) had not been able to establish themselves on the US market before, 20th Century Fox took over the direction and distribution and Big became a surprising success with critics and audiences. For the film, which was to serve as a career springboard for leading actor Tom Hanks , Ross received his first Oscar nomination and the Saturn Award . The film also met with a positive response in Germany. Big seems funny and touching at the same time, "it makes us think about a world that is technically highly developed, but threatens to remain emotionally at the level of the Stone Age" , according to the German film service . Four years later, Ross provided the script for Fred Schepisi's comedy Mr. Baseball , in which Tom Selleck is seen as an arrogant baseball professional who is deported to Japan and has to cope with the local sports and cultural style.

Ross was able to build on the success of Big with the script for Ivan Reitman's film Dave (1993) with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver in the leading roles. The satire is about the substitutability of politicians and is about a politically active president double who takes over the office after the stroke of the real US president. Thereupon, contrary to his predecessor, he begins to take the social responsibility of the democratic state seriously. The reward was further nominations for the Oscar and the Writers Guild of America Prize .

After a film script for Daniel Petrie's Lassie film adaptation (1994) and the producer role in Jonathan Lynn's comedy Noch dümmer (1997), Ross made his directorial debut in 1998, the screenplay of which he wrote and also produced. Pleasantville - Too good to be true , starring Tobey Maguire , Reese Witherspoon , William H. Macy , Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels , it centers on two siblings from the 1990s who set in the black and white world of an American Landing 1950s suburban series. The more the two youngsters get involved in the ideal world of the fictional small town of Pleasantville , the more color the parallel world gets, whereupon jealousy, resentment and violence soon find their way. The "mostly clever, sometimes a bit clumsy reckoning with escapism and conservative zeitgeist" has received numerous awards, including three Oscar nominations, while Ross won the Satellite Award for his screenplay. He was also recognized by the Producers Guild of America , the association of American film producers, as the most promising producer.

The high point in Ross' career so far followed in 2003 with the drama Seabiscuit - With the Will to Success , for which the American once again showed himself to be responsible as a director, screenwriter and film producer and again entrusted Toby Maguire with the lead role. The film tells the story of over-aged, bow-legged horse Seabiscuit , which in times of global economic crisis become in the 1930s to the series winner and a symbol of hope. The film grossed more than $ 120 million at the US box office and received two Golden Globe and seven Academy Award nominations , including Best Picture and Screenplay . Alongside well-known filmmakers like Clint Eastwood ( Mystic River ) and Peter Weir ( Master & Commander - To the End of the World ), Ross was nominated for the Directors Guild of America 's directing award. The German trade press, however, reacted splitly to the film. Fritz Göttler ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ) saw a “classic suspense film” , dense and authentic, with great characters and strong tension, while Peter Körte ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) criticized the script as “stereotyped” and accused the film of too much Hollywood pathos and kitsch.

After the success of Seabiscuit , Ross worked almost entirely as a producer. In 2009 he was linked as a screenwriter with a film project about seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong , which Frank Marshall is to direct.

Had a worldwide success Gary Ross in 2012 with the film The Hunger Games - The Hunger Games ( The Hunger Games ), in which he also co-wrote the screenplay. In 2016 he directed Free State of Jones .

Gary Ross is married to Allison Thomas. The marriage produced a daughter and a son. He is the owner of the film production company Larger Than Life Productions , with which he produced the animated film Despereaux - Der kleine Mäushereld (2008), for which he also wrote the screenplay. Sporadically he also appeared in small roles as an actor (including in Dave and Seabiscuit ).

Filmography

Director

script

production

  • 1988: Big (co-producer)
  • 1997: Even Dumber ( Trial and Error )
  • 1998: Pleasantville - Too good to be true ( Pleasantville )
  • 2003: Seabiscuit - With the will to succeed ( Seabiscuit )
  • 2008: Despereaux - The Little Mouse Hero ( The Tale of Despereaux )

Awards (selection)

Oscar

Broadcast Film Critics Association Award

  • 2004: Nominated Best Screenwriter for Seabiscuit

Directors Guild of America

  • 2004: nominated in the category Best Director for Seabiscuit

Golden Raspberry

  • 1995: Worst Screenplay for Flintstones - The Flintstones

Hochi Film Award

  • 2004: Best Foreign Language Film for Seabiscuit

Humanitas Prize

  • 2004: nominated in the category Best Film for Seabiscuit

PGA Awards

  • 1999: Most Promising Film Producer for Pleasantville
  • 2004: Nominated as Best Film Producer for Seabiscuit

Satellite Awards

  • 1999: Best Screenplay and nominated for Best Film (Comedy or Musical) and Best Director for Pleasantville
  • 2004: Nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Seabiscuit

Saturn Award

  • 1989: Best script for Big
  • 1999: Nominated Best Screenwriter for Pleasantville

USC Scripter Award

  • 2004: Best Book / Screenplay for Seabiscuit (together with Mystic River )

Writers Guild of America

  • 1989: nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Big
  • 1994: Paul Selvin Prize and nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Dave
  • 2004: Nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Seabiscuit

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Gary Ross . In: Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006.
  2. ↑ cf. Gary Ross in the All Movie Guide (English)
  3. ↑ cf. Big . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006. - ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1
  4. ↑ cf. Film review by R.-R. Hamacher in the film service 19/1988
  5. ↑ cf. Pleasantville . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006. - ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1
  6. ↑ cf. Göttler, Fritz: Finish der Phantasie  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.sueddeutsche.de   at sueddeutsche.de, September 24, 2003 (accessed on August 23, 2009)
  7. ↑ cf. Körte, Peter: Ridden out of the Depression: "Seabiscuit" by Gary Ross on faz.net, September 25, 2003 (accessed on August 23, 2009)
  8. ↑ cf. Hungermann, Jens: The planet belongs to the cowboy from Texas . In: Welt am Sonntag, July 5, 2009, edition 27/2009, p. 13
personal data
SURNAME Ross, Gary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director, producer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd November 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , United States