Arash Amel

Arash Amel (Persian: آرش عامل‎) (born 1976) is a screenwriter and film producer.

Arash Amel
Amel in 2016
Born1976 (age 43–44)
Aberystwyth, Wales
OccupationScreenwriter, producer
RelativesAli Amel (brother)

Personal life

Amel was born in Aberystwyth, Wales in 1976, but spent several years in Iran before emigrating to the UK as a child. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles, California.[1]

He was named one of Screen International's British Stars of Tomorrow in 2013.[2]

He was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie[3] for Grace of Monaco in 2015.[4][5]

Feature Films

A Private War

Amel wrote and co-produced A Private War, the American biographical drama of slain war journalist Marie Colvin, starring Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan. The film was directed by Matthew Heineman. Amel was first announced on the project on April 13, 2013, adapting the 2012 article "Marie Colvin’s Private War" in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner.[6][7][8]

The film had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2018, as well as screen at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 4, 2018, and the Woodstock Film Festival on October 14, 2018.[9][10][11] The film was released on November 2, 2018, in limited release, before expanding wide on November 16, 2018.[12] It has an approval rating of 89% based on 91 reviews, and the average score is 7.3/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads "A Private War honors its real-life subject with a sober appraisal of the sacrifices required of journalists on the front lines - and career-best work by Rosamund Pike."[13]

Grace of Monaco

Amel wrote and produced the controversial Princess Grace period drama Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth and Frank Langella, and directed by Olivier Dahan. The script was listed in the 2011 Black List of the most liked Hollywood screenplays written in that year.[14] The film opened the Cannes Film Festival 2014, where it was heavily criticised.[15] Harvey Weinstein, whose company owns the distribution rights to Grace of Monaco, was absent from the Cannes premier of the movie. Weinstein was said to have been doing charity work with his wife Georgina Chapman.[16] Weinstein stated that the director's cut of the film was missing a key scene that would address the "legitimate concerns" raised by the royal family over the depiction in Dahan's film.[17] In January 2015, Harvey Weinstein clarified the events leading to his conflict with the director, praising the screenplay and indicating that the US release will be a "Writer's Cut", restoring the movie to the spirit of the screenplay The Weinstein Company signed on for, which he compared to The King's Speech. He said, "The writer, Arash Amel, called me and said, what happened to my script. It’s like welcome to Hollywood. Writers don’t have any say, but we decided to pair him up with a team of people and see what he could do about restoring the movie to the way it looked when he wrote it. He did a wonderful job." [18] Though Amel never publicly took a side in the long-running feud over final cut, he refused to attend the film's official photo call and press conference at the Cannes Film Festival for the director's cut being screened.[19][20][21]

Amel's script was also criticised by the Royal Family of Monaco for being "farcical" and was said to "bore no relation to reality." The Prince's Palace released a statement stating, "The Princely Family does not in any way wish to be associated with this film which reflects no reality and regrets that its history has been misappropriated for purely commercial purposes." [22] Mark Kermode in The Guardian wrote, "The biggest problem is Arash Amel's script, which asks us to side with tax evaders and gamblers (Monaco did indeed incur a French blockade for tax-sheltering their billionaires), and to imagine that there is something beautiful and noble about allowing companies to shirk their revenue responsibilities. (Presumably the forthcoming DVD will be heavily promoted on Amazon?)".[23] Kermode's review of Olivier Dahan's film was directly rebutted in a long defense of the movie by critic Brad Stevens in the British Film Institute's film magazine Sight & Sound, stating "The critical condescension that met Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco biopic shows tastemakers still struggling with ‘feminine’ cinema." [24]

Other work

Amel is adapting for the screen and producing Chris Greenhalgh's epic love story Seducing Ingrid Bergman, in partnership with Uday Chopra and YRF Entertainment.[25] The novel was published in the UK in 2012 and in the US in 2014. Amel's adaptation was listed in the 2014 Hollywood Black List of the most liked screenplays.[26] The film is to be directed by James Mangold.[27]

Amel also penned the Jackie Chan, John Cena film, Project X-Traction which is expected to be released summer 2020 in China.

On August 14, 2013, Universal Pictures announced its acquisition of Amel's science fiction screenplay Soldiers of the Sun as the beginning of a new action franchise starring Vin Diesel.[28] The project will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Vin Diesel, and Samantha Vincent. Universal subsequently set Amel to adapt Robert Ludlum's The Parsifal Mosaic for Zhang Yimou to direct, with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer producing.[29]

His previous credit is the Aaron Eckhart thriller Erased, which opened to mostly bad reviews.[30] Amel also wote the sequel to I Am Legend for Warner Bros.[31] Akiva Goldsman announced in 2014 that the sequel had been scrapped and the studio is rebooting the franchise.[32][33]

Other Media

Amel created the BOOM! Studios comic book series Butterfly, co-written by Marguerite Bennet with artwork by Antonio Fuso.[34] It was launched in September 2014 to positive reviews, and was subsequently acquired by Channel 4 to be adapted into a television series. [35][36]

Filmography

Feature films
Year Title Contribution Notes
2012 Erased Writer
2014 Grace of Monaco Writer, Producer
2018 The Titan Writer, Producer
2018 A Private War Writer, Co-Producer Based on "Marie Colvin's Private War" by Marie Brenner
2021 Project X-Traction Writer
2021 Outside the Wire (film) Producer
TBA Seducing Ingrid Bergman Writer Based on the novel by Chris Greenhalgh
TBA Starman Writer Remake of the 1984 film
gollark: Can you not just adjust the font size in settings?
gollark: I got a Pixel 3a because they are cheap and seemingly among the least bad phones around (which I can actually afford). The market is *highly* accursed.
gollark: It's probably to try and make people buy "pixel buds" or something.
gollark: Apparently because buyers of those 'want flexibility' or something, while those who pay much more obviously do not.
gollark: Funnily enough, Google put a headphone jack on the Pixel 3a (a lower end cut down model) and not the Pixel 3.

References
  1. "Interview: Arash Amel". Go Into The Story. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  2. "Screen unveils 2013 Stars of Tomorrow: Brits in LA". Screen International. 2013-11-06. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  3. "Arash Amel". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  4. "Nicole Kidman's 'Grace Of Monaco' Goes From Cannes Calamity To Emmy Contender". Deadline Hollywood. 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
  5. "Grace of Monaco". Emmys. 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
  6. Galuppo, Mia (November 21, 2017). "Tom Hollander Joins Rosamund Pike in 'A Private War'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  7. N'Duka, Amanda (November 21, 2017). "Tom Hollander Enlists In 'A Private War'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  8. Mudano, Mike (January 18, 2018). "Stanley Tucci Joins Rosamund Pike in Forthcoming Biopic A Private War". Paste. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  9. ‘Galveston’ Removed From Toronto Film Festival Lineup; ‘A Private War’ Takes Its Slot
  10. McNary, Dave (August 22, 2018). "Rosamund Pike's 'A Private War' to Open Mill Valley Film Festival". Variety. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  12. McNary, Dave (May 8, 2018). "Rosamund Pike's 'A Private War' Gets Awards-Season November Release". Variety. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  13. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_private_war
  14. Sperling, Nicole (2011-12-13). "A 'Black List' that's a career boost". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  15. "Grace of Monaco, first look Cannes review: Nicole Kidman excels in fairy tale film". The Independent. 2014-05-14. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  16. Shehori, Steven (2014-05-14). "Harvey Weinstein Explains His Absence From 'Grace Of Monaco' Screening At Cannes". ET Canada. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  17. "Cannes: Harvey Weinstein Defends Actions On Grace Kelly Movie, Says Monaco Royal Family Has A "Legitimate Problem" With The Film". Deadline Hollywood. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
  18. "Harvey Weinstein On 'The Imitation Game,' Best Picture Dissing, Sony Hack, Netflix And Quentin Tarantino". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  19. "'Grace of Monaco' Drama: Will Harvey Weinstein Walk the Cannes Carpet?". The Hollywood Reporter. 2014-05-13. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
  20. "'Grace of Monaco' writer says he sees both sides of princess debate". Los Angeles Times. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
  21. "Cannes: Harvey Weinstein Defends Actions On Grace Kelly Movie, Says Monaco Royal Family Has A "Legitimate Problem" With The Film". Deadline Hollywood. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
  22. "Monaco royals label Grace Kelly film a 'farce'". Reuters. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  23. Kermode, Mark (2014-07-07). "Grace of Monaco review – not Nicole Kidman's finest hour". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  24. "'Embracing Grace". Sight & Sound. 2014-12-12. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
  25. "'Grace Of Monaco' Team Sets Epic Love Story Between Ingrid Bergman And War Photog Robert Capa". Deadline Hollywood. 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  26. Bloom, David (December 15, 2014). "'Catherine The Great' Leads The Blacklist 2014: Full List — Update". Deadline Hollywood.
  27. Fleming, Mike (June 19, 2015). "James Mangold In Talks To Helm Arash Amel-Scripted Pic On Ingrid Bergman-Robert Capa Romance". Deadline Hollywood.
  28. "Vin Diesel Teams with 'Grace of Monaco' Writer for 'Soldiers of the Sun' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2013-08-21.
  29. Zeitchik, Steve (June 19, 2014). "'Grace of Monaco' scribe teams with Zhang Yimou for 'Parsifal Mosaic'". Los Angeles Times.
  30. "Erased". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  31. "'I Am Legend 2' Proceeding With Will Smith and Akiva Goldsman Producing, Arash Amel Writing". The Hollywood Reporter. 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
  32. Orange, B. Alan (2014-02-12). "'I Am Legend 2' Will Never Happen; Story Details Revealed". Movieweb. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  33. Fleming, Mike (2014-10-01). "Warner Bros Connects With iPhone Salesman/Scribe's Pitch For 'I Am Legend' Reboot". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  34. "'Butterfly' keeps spycraft all in the family". USA Today. 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  35. "Channel 4 Picks Up Arash Amel's 'Butterfly'; BOOM! Studios To Exec Produce With 42 And Automatik". Deadline Hollywood. 2015-10-27. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  36. "'Butterfly' - Comic Series Review Roundup". Comic Book Roundup. 2014-12-20. Archived from the original on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
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