The Color Purple

Background:

Academy Award-nominated Dutch-born screenwriter/director Menno Meyjes started out by writing screenplays for such Steven Spielberg blockbusters as “The Color Purple” (1985), “Empire of the Sun” (1987) and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989). Meanwhile, he also served as screenwriter for the films "Lionheart" (1987), "Sueño del mono loco, El" (1989; aka. "The Mad Monkey," "Twisted Obsession"), "Ricochet" (1991), "Foreign Student" (1994), and "The Siege" (1998).

Following his well-received directional debut in "Max" (2002; starring John Cusack and Noah Taylor), Meyjes has continued to add to his resume by writing and directing "Manolete" (2007; starring Adrien Brody and Penélope Cruz) and "Capa" (2007). He most recently helmed "Martian Child" (2007), a comedy-drama starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet.

Meyjes is currently working on his upcoming film project, "Last Battle Dreamer," a romantic drama set in 9th century England against the backdrop of the Viking invasions that stars Sean Bean, Ryan Phillippe, and Abbie Cornish.

Dutch Born

Childhood and Family:

Menno Meyjes was born in 1954 in Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1972 and studied at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco.

Max Writer/Director

Career:

After sharpening his craft at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco, Menno Meyjes made his debut as teleplay writer in November 1985 episode "The Mission" of the NBC anthology series "Amazing Stories." That same year, he debuted as screenplay writer in Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, "The Color Purple," starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey. He also wrote the lyrics for "Makidada" in the film. His work in the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. He was also nominated for Writers Guild of America's Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and BAFTA's Best Screenplay – Adapted.

Following his first big break, Meyjes wrote the story and screenplay for Academy Award-winner Franklin J. Schaffner's adventure drama "Lionheart" (1987; starring Eric Stoltz and Gabriel Byrne), which is loosely based on the historical Children's Crusade. That same year, he became an uncredited writer for Steven Spielberg's epic war film based on J.G. Ballard's 1984 semi-autobiographical novel, "Empire of the Sun," starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers.

In 1989, Meyjes reteamed with Steven Spielberg to co-write the story (with George Lucas) of his smash hit adventure film starring Harrison Ford, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." He also won a Goya Award for Best Screenplay – Adapted that he shared with Fernando Trueba and Manolo Matji after co-writing Fernando Trueba's mystery/thriller film "Sueño del mono loco, El" (aka. "The Mad Monkey," "Twisted Obsession"), starring Jeff Goldblum and Miranda Richardson.

The early 1990s saw Meyjes co-wrote (with Fred Dekker and Steven E. de Souza) the story of Russell Mulcahy's crime-thriller film, "Ricochet" (1991), starring Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T, Kevin Pollak, and Lindsay Wagner. He then adapted Philippe Labro's novel for Eva Sereny's period drama film "Foreign Student" (1994) and co-wrote (with Lawrence Wright) Edward Zwick's crime/action film "The Siege" (1998), starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening, and Tony Shalhoub.

"One of the things that 'Max' tries to do is deconstruct Hitler and also Nazism, which is exactly as you say. The kind of growth hormones of fascism is fear and envy and rage and frustration and those are emotions that none of us are a stranger to. There are two views you can take. You can take the view that there is never going to be a Hitler again. Well, then you can sort of say I made this rather eccentric period piece. But if you think that there could be that kind of person again, then I think we're onto something, don't you?" Menno Meyjes (on his directional debut film, “Max” (2002)).

In 2002, made his directional debut with "Max," a dramatic film which he also wrote. The semi-historical film that depicts a friendship between an art dealer named Rothman and his student and a young painter, Adolf Hitler, starred by John Cusack and Noah Taylor. His work received an AFI Fest nomination for Grand Jury Prize.

Meyjes said about the film, "What I think that people continue to miss about the humanising of Hitler - which is already linguistically so suspect - is that what I'm laying at his feet is that he committed the greatest evil of all, which was he made a choice to be evil, for his own ambition. If you don't do that, really you can claim extenuating circumstances. You can say, 'Your honour, my client was a monster, so he raged around the Earth for 57 years and that was it.'"

He also explained John Cusack's involvement in the film, "I think creatively he was far more important than... Johnny absolutely helped us by being involved, but it took us two years to get the film mounted so I can't say that people suddenly said, "Oh you've got John Cusack!" It's not like you've got Tom Cruise, you know, where you say, "That's it then, when do we start?" They would say, "Great, so you've got John Cusack, so what? Why don't you go and make another movie with John Cusack and we'll be happy to pay for that." But creatively he was much, much, much more important. My [producer] partner and I, we knew we were just going to stick with it until we got this finance. That was it. We were just going to get this done. Much more importantly was Cusack's contribution creatively. He's a brilliant actor."

Recently, in 2007, Meyjes wrote and directed the romantic drama film "Manolete," starring Adrien Brody and Penélope Cruz, and a war/historical drama film entitled "Capa." He also directed John Cusack and Amanda Peet in his 2007 comedy-drama film about a writer who adopts a strange young boy who believes he is from Mars, "Martian Child," which is based on the award-winning novelette The Martian Child, by science fiction author David Gerrold.

Next, Meyjes will write and direct "Last Battle Dreamer," a romantic drama set in 9th century England against the backdrop of the Viking invasions that stars Sean Bean, Ryan Phillippe, and Abbie Cornish.

Awards:

• Goya: Best Screenplay - Adapted, "Sueño del mono loco, El," 1990 (shared with Fernando Trueba and Manolo Matji)