Marc NormanBirth Place: Los Angeles, California, USA Date of Birth: February 10, 1941 Heritage: American Famous for: Writer of 'Shakespeare in Love' (1998) Contact Marc Norman |
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Writer of Shakespeare in Love Background: Academy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Marc Norman achieved the peak of his prominence in the late 1990s with the critically acclaimed comedy/romance “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), directed by John Madden and starring Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow. The film brought Norman, who co-wrote the script with Tom Stoppard and produced the project with Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick, Donna Gigliotti and David Parfitt, numerous awards, including two Oscars, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, a Berlin International Film Festival Award and a Writers Guild of America Award. By this period, Norman had been in the industry for nearly thirty years. Making his debut in the 1970 ABC Movies of the Week, “The Challenge,” the Berkeley alum continued to pen such movies as “Oklahoma Crude” (1973), “Zandy's Bride” (1974), “Breakout” (1975), “The Killer Elite” (1975), “The Aviator” (1985) and “Cutthroat Island” (1995) before finally winning attention with the aforementioned project. Norman has also published novels and books, including “Oklahoma Crude” (1973), “Fool's Errand” (1979) and “What Happens Next: A History of American Screen-writing” (2007).
Childhood and Family: Marc Norman was born on February 10, 1941, in Los Angeles, California. He attended University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in English. It was at Berkeley that March began writing poetry. He stated, “In terms of writing, I started out writing poetry at Berkeley. I never considered being a novelist--I didn't think I was up to it although I've published three since. After blowing off the idea of teaching as a career, I drifted into writing. It seemed to me that being a Hollywood screenwriter was an interesting way to fail.” Marc was married to Dale Moore in 1967. The couple have two children, including Zachary, who gave him idea for script for “Shakespeare in Love.”
Career: An avid reader, Californian native Marc Norman was inspired to write after reading books from such legendary writers as Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens and John Dos Passos, among others, and seeing such movies as “Citizen Kane,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca,” “Red River, “Rules of the Game,” “Amadeus,” “Paths of Glory,” “Bridge on the River Kwai,” and “Lawrence of Arabia.” Starting out writing poetry while a student at Berkeley, Norman eventually made his professional debut as a writer with the made-for-TV film “The Challenge” (1970), one of the first ABC Movies of the Week. An all-out war between the USA and an Asian country that needs only one representative from both sides to engage in a fight, the great small film was jointly directed by George McCowan and Alan Smithee and starred Darren McGavin, Broderick Crawford and Sam Elliott to name a few. Also in that same year, he scripted an episode of the TV series “Mission: Impossible” titled “The Innocent.” Norman went on to co-write (with Walter Black) another ABC “Movie of the Week,” the nail-biting thriller “Five Desperate Women” (1971), about five young women on vacation who discovered themselves haunted by a runaway from a mental hospital. The Californian native, however, did not have his big screen debut until two years later when he scripted “Oklahoma Crude” (1973), a well-acted, outmoded entertainment helmed by the award-winning Stanley Kramer and starring George C. Scott, Faye Dunaway, Jack Palance and John Mills. He also released a novel of the same title later that same year. 1974 saw Norman pen the lumpy Western “Zandy's Bride,” about a Swedish mail-order bride (played by Liv Ullmann) and a pioneer (played Gene Hackman) that he adapted from a novel by Lillian Bos Ross, “The Stranger.” He then lent his writing skills to the 1975 action movies “Breakout” and “The Killer Elite,” which starred Charles Bronson and James Caan, respectively. The projects marked Norman's last produced screenplays for a decade. In 1985, Norman resurfaced with the adventure “The Aviator,” based on the novel by Ernest K Gann. Starring Christopher Reeve and Rosanna Arquette, the George Miller-helmed was a box office disappointment and received mostly negative reviews. After the unsuccessful project, he revisited the small screen with the short-lived CBS police drama “Downtown” (1986-1987), in which he served as creator and supervising producer. Following a suggestion from his college student, Norman began writing a draft about William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theater in the late 1980s. Thanks to the help of his neighbor, the producer/writer Edward Zwick, the idea was eventually purchased by Universal Pictures and after Norman finished his version of “Shakespeare in Love,” the studio recruited Tom Stoppard to “refine” the script. In 1992, it was announced that Zwick would direct the film with Daniel Day-Lewis and Julia Roberts starring in the leads, but the project had to face with postponement following scheduling conflicts. While the script was put on hold, Norman found himself contributing to the screenplay of “Cutthroat Island,” a 1995 action/adventure directed by Renny Harlin and starring Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and Frank Langella. However, the movie was considered a box office flop and won the director a Razzie nomination for Worst Director. It was in 1998 that Norman's script eventually saw the light of day. With John Madden directing at the helm and Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow starring in the roles of Shakespeare and his muse, Viola De Lesseps, respectively, the romantic comedy “Shakespeare in Love” became a huge hit among both audiences and critics alike. For his spectacular writing, Norman received a 1999 Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, sharing with Tom Stoppard, in addition to a Golden Globe, a Writers Guild of America, a Chicago Film Critics Association, a Florida Film Critics Circle, a Southeastern Film Critics Association, a New York Film Critics Circle, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Award in the same category. Also a producer, he jointly nabbed another Oscar for Best Picture, as well as a BAFTA for Best Film and a Golden Satellite for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. Norman also picked up a Silver Berlin Bear for Outstanding Single Achievement at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. After the massive breakthrough, Norman spent mostly outside of the limelight. In 2007, he appeared in the talk-show “Sunday Morning Shootout,” with Josh Brolin. The same year, he also released a book called “What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting,” produced by New York: Harmony Books.
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Marc Norman
