Tag Archives: playwright

The Producers

IMDB Rating: 6.60
11876 votes

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 Storyline
New York, 1959. Max Bialystock was once the king of Broadway, but now all his shows close on opening night. Things turn around when he's visited by the neurotic accountant Leo Bloom, who proposes a scheme tailor-made for producers who can only make flops: raise far more money than you need, then make sure the show is despised. No one will be interested in it, so you can pocket the surplus. To this end, they produce a musical called Springtime for Hitler written by escaped Nazi Franz Liebken. Then they get the insanely flamboyant Roger De Bris to direct. Finally, they hire as a lead actress the loopy Swedish bombshell Ulla (whose last name has over 15 syllables). As opening night draws near, what can go wrong? Well, there's no accounting for taste...
Actors
Max BialystockNathan Lane
Leo BloomMatthew Broderick
UllaUma Thurman
Also posted in 2005, Comedy, High IMDB rating, Musical | Comments (0)

Lolita

IMDB Rating: 7.70
16753 votes

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 Storyline
Humbert Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman's 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.
Actors
Prof. Humbert Humbert/NarratorJames Mason
Charlotte Haze/HumbertShelley Winters
Dolores 'Lolita' Haze/Mrs. Richard SchillerSue Lyon
Also posted in 1962, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (0)

King Kong

IMDB Rating: 7.80
77047 votes

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 Storyline
Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a young and beautiful actress Ann Darrow from the world of vaudeville who finds herself lost in depression-era New York and her luck changes when she meets an over-ambitious filmmaker Carl Denham who brings her on an exploratory expedition to a remote island where she finds compassion and the true meaning of humanity with an ape Kong. The beauty and the beast finally meet their fate back in the city of New York where the filmmaker takes and displays the ape in quest of his fame by commercial exploitation which ultimately leads to catastrophe for everyone including a playwright Jack Driscoll who falls in love with Ann and plays an unlikely hero by trying to save her from Kong and her destiny.
Actors
Ann DarrowNaomi Watts
Carl DenhamJack Black
Jack DriscollAdrien Brody
Also posted in 2005, Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, High IMDB rating, Thriller | Comments (0)

The Libertine

IMDB Rating: 6.50
6930 votes

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 Storyline
In 1660, with the return of Charles II to the English throne, theater, the visual arts, science and sexual intercourse flourish. Thirteen years later, in the middle of political and economical problems, Charles II asks the return of his friend John Wilmot, aka the second Earl of Rochester, from the exile to London. John is a morally corrupt, drunkard and sexually active cynical poet, and the King asks him to prepare a play for the French ambassador to make him pleased. John meets the aspirant actress Elizabeth Barry in the playhouse and decides to make her a great star. He falls in love for her, and she becomes his mistress; during the presentation to the Frenchman, he falls in disgrace in the court. When he was thirty-three years old, he was dying of syphilis associated to alcoholism and he converted to a religious man.
Actors
RochesterJohnny Depp
Elizabeth BarrySamantha Morton
King Charles IIJohn Malkovich
Also posted in 2004, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

Something’s Gotta Give

IMDB Rating: 6.80
19328 votes

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 Storyline
Harry Langer (Nicholson) is an aged music industry exec with a fondness for younger women like Marin (Peet), his latest trophy girlfriend. Things get a little awkward when Harry suffers a heart attack at the home of Marin's mother Erica (Keaton). Left in the care of Erica and his doctor (Reeves), a love triangle starts to take shape.
Actors
Harry SanbornJack Nicholson
Erica Jane BarryDiane Keaton
Dr. Julian MercerKeanu Reeves
Also posted in 2003, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (1)

The Laramie Project

IMDB Rating: 7.20
2485 votes

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 Storyline
'Moisés Kaufman' (qv) and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of 'Matthew Shepard (I)' (qv). This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of "Angels in America" a year after Shephard's death.
Actors
Romaine PattersonChristina Ricci
Doc O'ConnerSteve Buscemi
Sherry JohnsonLaura Linney
Also posted in 2002, Crime, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

Moulin Rouge!

IMDB Rating: 7.70
69224 votes

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 Storyline
Christian, a young wannabe Bohemian poet living in 1899 Paris, defies his father by joining the colorfully diverse clique inhabiting the dark, fantastical underworld of Paris' now legendary Moulin Rouge. In this seedy but glamorous haven of sex, drugs and newly-discovered electricity, the poet-innocent finds himself plunged into a passionate but ultimately tragic love affair with Satine, the club's highest paid star and the city's most famous courtesan. Their romance is played out against the infamous club - a meeting place of high life and low, where slumming aristocrats and the fashionably rich mingled with workers, artists, Bohemians, actresses and courtesans.
Actors
SatineNicole Kidman
ChristianEwan McGregor
Toulouse-LautrecJohn Leguizamo
Also posted in 2001, Drama, High IMDB rating, Musical, Romance | Comments (22)

How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog

IMDB Rating: 7.10
1346 votes

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 Storyline
Shy, chain-smoking, insomniac Peter McGowan is an L.A. playwright with a string of hits that preceded his current ten years of failed productions. His mother-in-law is sinking into senility, a stranger is meandering the neighborhood claiming to be him, neighbors have a new dog that barks all night; his wife wants to have a child, and he does not: he's become impotent. He's working on a new play when a single mom moves in next door with her 8-year-old daughter. His wife immediately invites the girl into the McGowan household. Will this child stir Peter's paternal feelings? Will she also help him get his dialogue right? And what of his doppelganger and the neighbor's dog?
Actors
Peter McGowanKenneth Branagh
Melanie McGowanRobin Wright Penn
Amy WalshSuzi Hofrichter
Also posted in 2000, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating | Comments (0)

Shakespeare in Love

IMDB Rating: 7.40
54953 votes

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 Storyline
Romantic comedy set in London in the late 16th century: Young playwright William Shakespeare struggles with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter". A great fan of Shakespeare's plays is young, wealthy Viola who is about to be married to the cold-hearted Lord Wessex, but constantly dreams of becoming an actress. Women were not allowed to act on stage at that time (female roles were played by men, too), but dressed up as a boy, Viola successfully auditions for the part of Romeo. Soon she and William are caught in a forbidden romance that provides rich inspiration for his play.
Actors
Philip HensloweGeoffrey Rush
Hugh FennymanTom Wilkinson
LambertSteve O'Donnell
Also posted in 1998, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (0)

Lolita

IMDB Rating: 7.60
14681 votes

from $1.99

 Storyline
Humbert Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman's 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.
Actors
Prof. Humbert Humbert/NarratorJames Mason
Charlotte Haze/HumbertShelley Winters
Dolores 'Lolita' Haze/Mrs. Richard SchillerSue Lyon
Also posted in 1962, Comedy, Drama, High IMDB rating, Romance | Comments (0)