William Monahan

Dramatist, director and novelist William Monahan entered screenwriting by adapting his own satirical novel Light House: A Trifle (Penguin Putnam, published by classics imprint Odyssey Editions) for Warner Bros. His first produced screenplay, Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott, has been universally hailed as a masterpiece since the release of the director's cut of the film.

His second produced screenplay, The Departed, earned four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. As an essayist and literary journalist, Monahan was the lead writer for New York Press in the period of its success in the 1990s, an editor and columnist at the legendary Spy and other magazines, and a reviewer at BookForum. He was awarded a Pushcart Prize for short fiction in the same year that he became a professional screenwriter.

Monahan's 2010 debut as writer-director, London Boulevard, starring Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone and David Thewlis, was shot on location in London and released domestically in 2011 by IFC following an international release. His screenplay The Gambler, directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring Mark Wahlberg, was released by Paramount on Christmas Day 2014.

He completed Vengeance, a modern Western to star Charlize Theron, produced by Theron, Monahan, and Megan Ellison, and has returned to historical with a new adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Becket. He also completed the Boston-set thriller The Throwaways under his first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. Mojave, from his original screenplay, is his second picture as writer and director.

Tribeca Film