Paul Webb (Author)

Paul Webb (actually Paul Corcoran ; * 1947 ) is a British playwright and screenwriter .

Life

Webb worked as a teacher in Reading in the 1970s and then as a communications consultant in the petroleum industry for 15 years . He quit his job to become a writer in the 1990s and wrote his first play Four Nights in Knaresborough . The historical drama is about the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket instead of arresting him in 1170 and premiered in November 1999 at the Tricycle Theater in London . Directed by Richard Wilson , the four knights were portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller , Martin Marquez , James Purefoy and Christopher Fulford .

After Harvey Weinstein acquired the film rights to Four Nights in Knaresborough , he hired Webb to write the film adaptation. After Four Knights for Weinstein, which was to be filmed at times under the direction of Paul McGuigan , a version of the script Lincoln was created for Steven Spielberg and the script Spanish Assassins for the British production company Company Pictures .

Webb then wrote a screenplay for Christian Colson's Celador Films about Martin Luther King's efforts to persuade President Lyndon B. Johnson to take legislative steps to end racial discrimination in elections, the subsequent protest marches from Selma to Montgomery , Alabama in March 1965, and adoption of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965. The finished script Selma landed at number 29 on the 2007 Black List , a list of the unproduced scripts most valued in Hollywood studios and production companies. A few weeks earlier, all three of Webb's previously completed scripts ( Four Knights , Spanish Assassins , Selma ) were listed in a comparable British list.

After Selma , the screenplay Litvinenko was created in 2008 for director Michael Mann , which is about Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in 2006, and the power struggles of Russian oligarchs. Other script projects were Gorbachev for HBO Films , in which the fall of the Soviet Union is portrayed from Gorbachev's perspective , and an adaptation of Marcus Sedgwick's youthful book Revolver .

Webb's first actually filmed script was finally Selma : after a long development phase, Ava DuVernay was won over to direct the project in 2013 . Although DuVernay completely rewrote the script, and specifically the third act , Webb insisted on sole credit for the script, which led to a falling out with the director. Selma premiered in November 2014 and received an Oscar nomination for best picture in 2015 . The script was nominated for the Satellite Award , among others .

Web links

• Paul Webb in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Agency page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://variety.com/2008/film/news/paul-webb-1117987703/
2. ↑ http://theatricalia.com/play/azx/four-nights-in-knaresborough/production/pw9
3. ↑ http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/theatre-four-nights-in-knaresborough-tricycle-theatre-london-1.262971
4. ↑ http://www.screendaily.com/twc-signs-mcguigan-to-direct-four-knights/4027640.article
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ http://variety.com/2007/scene/news/uks-best-unproduced-movies-on-list-1117975282/
7. ↑ http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/tom-hanks-leonardo-dicaprio-developing-gorbachev-project-hbo-films-84121/
8. ↑ http://www.thewrap.com/selma-screenplay-controversy-why-director-ava-duvernay-was-denied-credit/
9. ↑ http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2015/01/03/ava-duvernay-march-direct-selma/aYNxrN3gPjhbalF4QEnO7M/story.html