Steve Kloves | |
|---|---|
| Born | Stephen Keith Kloves March 18, 1960 Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1984–present |
Stephen Keith Kloves[1] (born March 18, 1960) is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He wrote and directed the 1989 film The Fabulous Baker Boys and is mainly known for his screenplay adaptations of novels, especially for all but one of the Harry Potter films (the exception being Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and for Wonder Boys, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Life and career
Kloves, born in Austin, Texas, grew up in Sunnyvale, California,[2] where he graduated from Fremont High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles but dropped out when he was not admitted into the film school in his third year.[2] As an unpaid intern for a Hollywood agent, he gained attention for a screenplay he wrote called Swings. This led to a meeting where he successfully pitched Racing with the Moon (1984).[2]
His first experience with professional screenwriting left him wanting more interaction with the actors so that the characters would stay true to his vision.[2] Kloves wrote The Fabulous Baker Boys and also intended it to be his directorial debut. After years of trying to sell the project in Hollywood, the film finally got off the ground and was released in 1989.[2] The Fabulous Baker Boys did reasonably well and was critically acclaimed, but his next shot as writer/director for Flesh and Bone in 1993 fared poorly at the box office. Kloves then stopped writing for three years.[2]
Realizing that he had to return to writing to support his family, he began adapting Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys into a screenplay.[2] Kloves was offered the chance to direct but he declined, preferring to direct only his own original work.[2] This was his first try at adapting another work to film.[2] His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award after the film's release in 2000.
Warner Bros. sent Kloves a list of novels that the company was considering to adapt as films. The listing included the first Harry Potter novel, which intrigued him despite his usual indifference to these catalogs.[2] He went on to write the screenplays for the first four films in the series. However, he turned down writing the fifth film, stating that "The fourth film, Goblet of Fire, was really hard to do. I wrote on it for two years. But it’s not that simple and I don't know that I'll ever fully understand why I didn't do it."[3] After Michael Goldenberg wrote the screenplay for the fifth film, Kloves then returned to write the sixth, seventh and eighth installments.
In 2011, Kloves was attached to work on a film adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Since 2016, Kloves produced the Fantastic Beasts films, a spinoff prequel series to the main Harry Potter series. Kloves co-wrote the third installment with J.K. Rowling.[4]
Kloves produced the Andy Serkis-directed movie, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. His daughter, Callie, wrote the screenplay.[5]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Racing with the Moon | No | Yes | No |
| 1989 | The Fabulous Baker Boys | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1993 | Flesh and Bone | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2000 | Wonder Boys | No | Yes | No |
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | No | Yes | No |
| 2002 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | No | Yes | No |
| 2004 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | No | Yes | No |
| 2005 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | No | Yes | No |
| 2009 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | No | Yes | No |
| 2010 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | No | Yes | No |
| 2011 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | No | Yes | No |
| 2012 | The Amazing Spider-Man | No | Yes | No |
| 2016 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | No | No | Yes |
| 2018 | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | No | No | Yes |
| Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle | No | No | Yes | |
| 2022 | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore | No | Yes | Yes |
| TBA | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Yes | Yes | No |
Special thanks
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (2008)
- Alpha (2018)
Awards and nominations
References
- ↑ Van Gelder, Lawrence (2009). "Movies: AboutSteve Kloves". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 23, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sragow, Michael (February 24, 2000). "A wizard of Hollywood!". Salon.com. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2009. Interview with Steve Kloves.
- ↑ Martin, Denise (June 17, 2009). "'Harry Potter' countdown: Steve Kloves on a 'haunting moment' in 'Half-Blood Prince'". Retrieved January 14, 2016.
- ↑ "The third Fantastic Beasts film confirms new details including cast members and location | Wizarding World". www.wizardingworld.com. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
- ↑ "Callie Kloves". IMDb.