Howard A. Rodman

Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, author and educator. He is the former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts,[1] alumni of Telluride Association Summer Program[2] and an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs.[3]

Howard A. Rodman
Occupationscreenwriter
author
educator
Known forSavage Grace
August
Joe Gould's Secret (film)
Destiny Express
The Great Eastern

He is the son of screenwriter Howard Rodman (1920–1985).

Career

In his 20s and early 30s Rodman was a typist, a legal proofreader, a mail-room clerk, a union organizer (for the Committee of Interns and Residents) and the guitarist for various lower-Manhattan post-punk bands (Made in USA, Arsenal, Soul Sharks).[4][5] Starting as editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun,[6] Rodman has published scores of articles in venues including The New York Times,[7] The Los Angeles Times,[8] Los Angeles Magazine,[9] and the Village Voice (for which he was a monthly columnist).[10]

His adaptations of Jim Thompson, David Goodis et al. for Showtime's Fallen Angels anthology series[11] were directed by Steven Soderbergh and Tom Cruise. Rodman then wrote Joe Gould's Secret, which opened the 2000 Sundance festival and was subsequently released by October/USA Films. Rodman's original screenplay F. was selected by Premiere Magazine as one of Hollywood's Ten Best Unproduced Screenplays.[12] Other films include Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, and August, with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie—both of which had their US premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. They were released in 2008 from IFC and First Look, respectively. Rodman's screenplay for Savage Grace was nominated for a Spirit Award in the Best Screenplay category.

Destiny Express

'Destiny Express' was published in January 1990 by Atheneum Books. [13]

'Destiny Express' is an historical romance. Set in Berlin in March 1933, it explores the stark choices faced by the German filmmaking community — chief among them legendary director Fritz Lang (M.; Metropolis), and his acclaimed wife and collaborator, Thea von Harbou. Lang was famously offered the position of head of the Reich's film industry by Josef Goebbels, and fled on the next train to Paris; von Harbou stayed, and made films for the Nazis. Destiny Express is thus the story of the end of a marriage, set in one of history's most crucial junctures. Other historical figures — Bertolt Brecht, Billy Wilder among them — play significant roles in the novel's intertwined narratives.

The Great Eastern

The novel The Great Eastern by Howard A. Rodman was published[14] on June 4, 2019, by Melville House Publishing.

In March 2019, the film rights to The Great Eastern were acquired by the UK film company Great Point Media, and Rodman was commissioned to write the screen adaptation.[15]

Reviews
  • Brian Evenson (July 15, 2019). "Past and Pastiche in Howard A. Rodman's "The Great Eastern"". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  • Paul Burke (June 15, 2019). ""The Great Eastern" by Howard A. Rodman". NB Magazine.
  • Jay Gabler (July 17, 2019). "Howard Rodman's "The Great Eastern" Pits Ahab Against Nemo". The Tangential.

Other activities

He founded and chairs the Writers Guild Independent Writers Caucus.[16] He has chaired FilmIndependent's Spirit Awards feature film jury[17] as well as the USC Scripter Awards.[18] He is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities;[19] a member of the executive committee of the writers' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences;[20] a former trustee of the Writers Guild Foundation;[21] vice-chair of the Committee on the Professional Status of Writers;[22] and serves on several nonprofit boards, among them the Franco-American Cultural Fund,[23] and Cornell in Hollywood.[24] He is an alumnus of the Seed Fund Board of the Liberty Hill Foundation,[25] and a former editor of The Bill of Rights Journal.[26]

Howard is also on Los Angeles committee of PEN America[27]. PEN International stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.[28]

He is a member of the National Film Preservation Board, which advises Librarian of Congress on the annual selection of films to the National Film Registry. It also advises on national film preservation planning policy.[29]

Howard is a member of The Quill and Dagger Society, founded at Cornell University in 1893.[30]

Working with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles[31], USC[32], and the Writers Guild[33], Rodman has conducted public conversations with such writers as Tom Wolfe[34], Ricky Jay, Jeannette Seaver, Vince Gilligan, Geoff Dyer, and Lady Antonia Fraser.[35][36]

In November 2019, he was a member of the jury[37] at the Cannes 1939 Film Festival in Orléans France.[38]

Howard Rodman also contributes to the Los Angeles Review of Books[39]. His latest articles include 'After Hours Capitalism: On Tom Lutz’s “Born Slippy”'[40] a review of Tom Lutz’s “Born Slippy”[41], published by Repeater Books and 'On the 192nd Anniversary of the Birth of Jules Verne'.

Howard contributed to Black Clock literary magazine, published semi-annually by CalArts in association with its MFA Writing Program. Howard's work was published in issues 4[42], 5[43], 10[44], 13[45], 19[46], 20[47], 21[48].

Howard contributed the afterword to "No Room at the Morgue" by Jean-Patrick Manchette - to be published on August 11, 2020 by New York Review Books.[49]

Honors and awards

On October 31, 2013, Rodman was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic.[50]

In February 2018 he was inducted into Final Draft (software)'s Screenwriters Hall of Fame,[51] alongside Robert Towne, Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Nancy Meyers, Paul Schrader, Lawrence Kasdan et al.

Personal life

He was married to the writer and media scholar Anne Friedberg,[52] author of The Virtual Window.[53] until her death in 2009; they have one son, Tristan Rodman. Their house, the 1957 John Lautner "Zahn Residence," has been widely published. Their work with Lautner in restoring it was chronicled in the February 2002 issue of Dwell magazine.[54] In June 2017 he wed the artist and professor Mary Beth Heffernan.

gollark: I sometimes get annoyed about living here given that the UK has many problems, but then I remember that actually quite a lot of countries have terrible governance too and ours is among the less bad.
gollark: Sort of. It's not finalised. Right now you can still travel and trade and wjatnot the same way.
gollark: Although Boris seems to want to mess it up now, at the most inopportune time.
gollark: Technically, we haven't exactly left yet.
gollark: Also several thousand something of diving gear.

References
  1. "USC School of Cinematic Arts Directory Profile".
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride_Association_Summer_Program
  3. "Sundance Institute".
  4. http://cinema.usc.edu/faculty/profile.cfm?id=6619
  5. "Howard A. Rodman". Huffington Post.
  6. "The Cornell Daily Sun". Archived from the original on 2013-01-20.
  7. Rodman, Howard A. (May 27, 1971). "The New York Times".
  8. Rodman, Howard A. (October 17, 2007). "The Los Angeles Times".
  9. "Los Angeles Magazine". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  10. "Variety".
  11. "Fallen Angels".
  12. "BAFTA Events Archive".
  13. https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780689120909
  14. https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/the-great-eastern/
  15. "Howard A. Rodman's Book 'The Great Eastern' to Be Adapted Into Movie". Variety.
  16. "WGAW The Independent Writers Caucus (IWC)". Archived from the original on 2012-10-06.
  17. "Movieweb".
  18. "25th Annual USC Libraries Scripter Award".
  19. "LAIH Fellows, Howard A. Rodman".
  20. "Academy Invites 134 to Membership".
  21. "Writers Guild Foundation Staff & Board".
  22. Handel, Jonathan (August 28, 2011). "The Hollywood Reporter, WGAW 2011 Elections".
  23. "16th Annual City of Lights City of Angels Film Festival".
  24. "Cornell Alumni Magazine".
  25. "Liberty Hill Foundation".
  26. "The Bill of Rights Journal N.E.C.L.C. 25th Anniversary December 1976".
  27. https://pen.org/los-angeles-committee/
  28. https://pen.org/about-us/
  29. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/NFPB_Members_1988-2019.pdf
  30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Quill_and_Dagger_members
  31. https://lfla.org/event/dictionaries-and-the-bending-of-language/
  32. https://cinema.usc.edu/faculty/profile.cfm?id=6619&first=&last=&title=&did=50&referer=%2Ffaculty%2Ffacultydirectory.cfm&startpage=1&startrow=181
  33. https://www.wga.org/the-guild/about-us/history/presidents
  34. https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/e-media/podcasts/aloud/evening-tom-wolfe
  35. https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/e-media/podcasts/aloud/must-you-go-my-life-harold-pinter
  36. https://cinema.usc.edu/faculty/profile.cfm?id=6619&first=&last=&title=&did=50&referer=%2Ffaculty%2Ffacultydirectory.cfm&startpage=1&startrow=181
  37. https://www.festivalcannes1939.com/the-jury
  38. https://www.festivalcannes1939.com/1st-cannes-film-festival-1939
  39. https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/howard-a-rodman
  40. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/after-hours-capitalism-on-tom-lutzs-born-slippy/
  41. https://repeaterbooks.com/product/born-slippy-a-novel/
  42. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1202.htm#BOT
  43. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1202.htm#BOT
  44. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1202.htm#BOT
  45. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1203.htm#TOP
  46. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1204.htm#TOP
  47. https://calarts.edu/about/news-and-events/press-kit/press-releases/black-clock-20
  48. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/t/t1204.htm#TOP
  49. https://www.nyrb.com/products/no-room-at-the-morgue?variant=30292250001545
  50. https://www.deadline.com/2013/10/global-showbiz-briefs-broadchurch-book-the-escape-artist-sales-bassem-youssef-louis-delluc-shortlist-more/
  51. Feinberg, Scoott (January 23, 2018). "Final Draft Awards to Honor 'The Post's' Liz Hannah and Former WGA West Chief Howard Rodman". Hollywood Reporter.
  52. Woo, Elaine (October 14, 2009). "Anne Friedberg dies at 57; professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts". Los Angeles Times.
  53. "The MIT Press: The Virtual Window". Archived from the original on 2012-09-21.
  54. Dwell.
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