Steven Zaillian

Steven Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an Armenian-American screenwriter, film director, film editor, producer, and founder of Film Rites, a film production company. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Schindler's List and he has been nominated two times for Awakenings and Gangs of New York. The Times called him "the most artful and subtle screenwriter Hollywood has had since Robert Towne." Zaillian was born in Fresno, California, the son of Jim Zaillian, a radio news reporter. He attended Sonoma State University, graduated from San Francisco State University and lives in Los Angeles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Steven Zaillian, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

RIPLEY

A grifter in 1960s New York is hired to convince a wealthy man's son to return home from Italy and begins a life of deceit, fraud and murder.

Release Date:2024-04-04

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:8

Vote Count:263

Those Who Wish Me Dead

A young boy finds himself pursued by two assassins in the Montana wilderness, with a survival expert determined to protect him, and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.

Release Date:2021-05-05

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:1667

The Irishman

Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.

Release Date:2019-11-01

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:6909

My Dinner with Hervé

An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.

Release Date:2018-10-20

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:120

Red Sparrow

Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Dominika emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, she meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.

Release Date:2018-02-28

Department:Production

Job:Producer

Vote Count:6025

The Current War

Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.

Release Date:2018-02-01

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:1079

The Night Of

After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.

Release Date:2016-07-10

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Episode Count:8

Vote Count:1098

Exodus: Gods and Kings

The defiant leader Moses rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.

Release Date:2014-12-03

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:4577

Life Itself

The surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert (1942-2013): his early days as a freewheeling bachelor and Pulitzer Prize winner, his famously contentious partnership with Gene Siskel, his life-altering marriage, and his brave and transcendent battle with cancer.

Release Date:2014-07-04

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:347

The Cold Light of Day

After his family is kidnapped during their sailing trip in Spain, a young Wall Street trader is confronted by the people responsible: intelligence agents looking to recover a mysterious briefcase.

Release Date:2012-04-04

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:911

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Men Who Hate Women

Cast and crew discuss the success of the novel, transitioning it to film and condensing it for the medium, and gender dynamics in Sweden.

Release Date:2012-03-20

Character:Self

Vote Count:2

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Characters - Salander, Blomkvist and Vanger

Cast and crew, including Mara, discuss her casting.

Release Date:2012-03-20

Character:Self

Vote Count:1

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

Release Date:2011-12-14

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:7055

Moneyball

The story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball team on a budget, by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Release Date:2011-09-23

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:5230

Welcome to the Rileys

Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orleans on a business trip. Compelled by urgencies he doesn’t understand, he insinuates himself into the life of an underage hooker, becoming her platonic guardian.

Release Date:2010-10-29

Department:Production

Job:Executive Producer

Vote Count:400

The Cove

The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.

Release Date:2009-07-31

Department:Crew

Job:Thanks

Vote Count:605

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.

Release Date:2008-01-14

Department:Crew

Job:Thanks

Vote Count:257

American Gangster

Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Partly based on a true story.

Release Date:2007-11-02

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:5521

All the King's Men

The story of an idealist's rise to power in the world of Louisiana politics and the corruption that leads to his ultimate downfall. Based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Penn Warren, loosely based on the story of real-life politician Huey Long.

Release Date:2006-09-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:307

The Interpreter

After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.

Release Date:2005-04-08

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:1450

Gangs of New York

In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.

Release Date:2002-12-14

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:6699

Hannibal

After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling, who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.

Release Date:2001-02-08

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:4785

A Civil Action

Jan Schlickmann is a cynical lawyer who goes out to 'get rid of' a case, only to find out it is potentially worth millions. The case becomes his obsession, to the extent that he is willing to give up everything—including his career and his clients' goals—in order to continue the case against all odds.

Release Date:1998-12-25

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:443

Mission: Impossible

When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

Release Date:1996-05-22

Department:Writing

Job:Story

Vote Count:9028

Clear and Present Danger

Agent Jack Ryan becomes acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA when Admiral Greer is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on his yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As former CIA agent John Clark is sent to Colombia to kill drug cartel kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible.

Release Date:1994-08-03

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:1523

Schindler's List

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Release Date:1993-12-15

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:16168

Searching for Bobby Fischer

A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.

Release Date:1993-08-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:573

Jack the Bear

Story of the relationships between two sons and their father, who moves the family to California and becomes a tv horror show host after the death of his wife.

Release Date:1993-04-02

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:55

Awakenings

Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.

Release Date:1990-12-04

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:2580

The Falcon and the Snowman

The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

Release Date:1985-01-25

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:161

Below the Belt

A close-up look at the turbulent world of women's professional wrestling as a New York City waitress decides to become a professional wrestler.

Release Date:1980-12-01

Department:Editing

Job:Editor

Vote Count:3

Starhops

After the owner of a failing drive-in restaurant sells his establishment, two waitresses and a French chef try to turn it around.

Release Date:1978-03-02

Department:Editing

Job:Editor

Vote Count:8

Kingdom of the Spiders

Investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of farm animals, vet Rack Hansen discovers that his town lies in the path of hordes of migrating tarantulas. Before he can take action, the streets are overrun by killer spiders, trapping a small group of townsfolk in a remote hotel.

Release Date:1977-08-24

Department:Editing

Job:Editor

Vote Count:119

Breaker! Breaker!

Truck driver searches for his brother, who has disappeared in a town run by a corrupt judge.

Release Date:1977-04-01

Department:Editing

Job:Editor

Vote Count:81