Wesley Strick
Wesley Strick | |
|---|---|
 Strick in 2008 | |
| Born | February 11, 1954 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Vassar College University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupations | Screenwriter, film director, producer |
Wesley Strick (born February 11, 1954) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of film and television. He has written films such as True Believer (1989), Arachnophobia (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Wolf (1994), The Saint (1997), and Doom (2005). He is also known for his contributions to the series The Man in the High Castle.
Early life and education
[edit]Strick was born in New York City, New York, the son of Racelle (née Kessler) and Louis Strick.[1] He is Jewish.[2][3] He is a graduate of Vassar College and University of California, Berkeley, where he studied creative writing with the poet Thom Gunn.
Career
[edit]Prior to his Hollywood career, he worked as a rock journalist in New York City, contributing features and reviews to Circus, Creem and Rolling Stone.[4]
As a "script doctor" he has done production polishes on such films as Batman Returns, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2.[5] Strick's screenplay for True Believer was nominated for a 1990 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Motion Picture. Strick won a 1994 Saturn Award (with co-writer Jim Harrison) for his screenplay for the Mike Nichols film Wolf.
Since 1995, Strick has served as a creative advisor at the Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab. Strick wrote the original script for Tim Burton's unproduced Superman Lives, later re-written by Dan Gilroy as a more budget conscious take on Strick's story.[6][7] His first novel, Out There in the Dark, was published by St. Martin's Press in February 2006. His second novel, Whirlybird, is available as a Kindle book on Amazon.com. In 2008, Strick co-wrote the screenplay for a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, starring Jackie Earle Haley and Rooney Mara, directed by Samuel Bayer. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Horror Movie of 2010.
Strick's adaptation of the Belgian thriller Loft, starring James Marsden and Karl Urban, was released by Open Road in January 2015. In summer 2013, Strick wrote and directed a short film, Watching, Waiting, which screened at numerous 2014 film festivals, including Women and Minorities in Media, Black Maria, Sedona and Williamstown. In fall 2015, Strick relocated to London to write on Season 2 of the Amazon drama series (based on the Philip K. Dick novel) The Man in the High Castle. He returned to Los Angeles in 2016 to resume as a writer/co-executive producer on Season 3 (Strick wrote the season opener, mid-season finale and final episode). In early 2018, Strick began work on Season 4.
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]| Year | Title | Functioned as | Director | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Director | Producer | ||||
| 1989 | True Believer | Yes | No | No | Joseph Ruben | |
| 1990 | Arachnophobia | Yes | No | No | Frank Marshall | Co-written with Don Jakoby |
| 1991 | Cape Fear | Yes | No | No | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1992 | Final Analysis | Yes | No | No | Phil Joanou | |
| 1994 | Wolf | Yes | No | No | Mike Nichols | Co-written with Jim Harrison |
| 1995 | The Tie That Binds | No | Yes | No | Himself | |
| 1997 | The Saint | Yes | No | No | Phillip Noyce | Co-written with Jonathan Hensleigh |
| 1998 | Return to Paradise | Yes | No | No | Joseph Ruben | Co-written with Bruce Robinson |
| 2001 | The Glass House | Yes | No | No | Daniel Sackheim | |
| 2005 | Doom | Yes | No | No | Andrzej Bartkowiak | Co-written with David Callaham |
| 2006 | Love Is the Drug | Yes | No | Executive | Elliott Lester | Co-written with Steven Allison |
| 2010 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Yes | No | No | Samuel Bayer | Co-written with Eric Heisserer |
| 2014 | The Loft | Yes | No | Executive | Erik Van Looy | |
Uncredited script revisions
[edit]- Batman Returns (1992)
- Terminal Velocity (1994)
- Face/Off (1997)
- Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Functioned as | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | |||
| 1991 | Eddie Dodd | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| 2001 | Hitched | No | Yes | Yes | No | TV movie |
| 2016–19 | The Man in the High Castle | No | No | Yes | Yes | Writer; 7 episodes Producer; 30 episodes |
| 2020 | Monsterland | No | No | Yes | No | Writer; 1 episode |
| 2023 | Carnival Row | No | No | Yes | Yes | Writer; 1 episode Producer; 10 episodes |
Further reading
[edit]- "Out There in the Dark"; Wesley Strick; Thomas Dunne Books (February 7, 2006); ISBN 0-312-34381-7
References
[edit]- ↑ "Wesley Strick Biography (1954-)".
- ↑ "Anti-Semitism in 'Batman Returns'? Be Serious; Who's Really Divisive?" Strick, Wesley. The New York Times. Published July 20, 1992. Accessed March 6, 2021.
- ↑ "Racelle Larkin" Obituary.. The New York Times. Published October 19, 2008. Accessed March 6, 2021.
- ↑ "Words". Los Angeles Times. February 2, 2006. p. 30-Calendar Weekend. Retrieved September 12, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Clement, Nick (2018-01-10). "Interview: Wesley Strick » We Are Cult". We Are Cult. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
- ↑ Jon Schnepp (2015). The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? (documentary film).
- ↑ Bob Ricken (January 2013). "Proof That Superman Lives Would Have Made Batman & Robin Look Like The Dark Knight". io9.
