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John Briley
American screenwriter (1925–2019) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Richard John Briley[1][2] (June 25, 1925[1][2][3] – December 14, 2019) was an American writer best known for screenplays of biographical films. He won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar at the 55th Academy Awards for Gandhi (1982).[1][4] As well as film scripts, he wrote for television and theatre, and published several novels.[1]
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Briley was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan,[1][2][3] and served in the United States Army Air Forces, 1943–46, reaching the rank of captain.[1] At the University of Michigan, he gained a BA in 1950 and an MA in English 1951.[1] He married Dorothy Louise Reichart in 1950, and they had four children.[2] He worked in public relations for General Motors before rejoining the air force in 1955.[1] He was posted to RAF Northolt airbase at South Ruislip near London, where he was director of orientation activities and started writing.[1]
In 1960, he earned a PhD in Elizabethan drama from the University of Birmingham, left the air force and became a staff writer with MGM-British in Borehamwood.[1] While with the studio, he wrote the script for Children of the Damned (1964), effectively a sequel of Village of the Damned (1960), but objected to the changes made for the finished film.[5] He left MGM in 1964.[1] He also had an uncredited part in the comedy Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965).[1][3][6]
Gandhi
Briley's script for Pope Joan (1972) attracted the interest of Richard Attenborough, although Attenborough was ultimately not involved in that project,[7] and the film was critically panned.[8] Several scripts for Attenborough's Gandhi project had been rejected, and Robert Bolt was scheduled to rewrite his own earlier draft when he suffered a stroke.[7] Attenborough then turned to Briley.[7] Briley shifted the focus of the narrative away from the point of view of the British in India to that of the Indian independence movement.[7] He originally opposed Ben Kingsley in the title role, favouring John Hurt, but was later glad that Attenborough had cast Kingsley.[7] Briley envisaged more emphasis on the relationship between Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, but Kingsley's towering performance came to dominate the finished film.[7] Briley claims he and Attenborough were personally satisfied with the movie and unconcerned about any critical and commercial success.[7] In the event, Briley's original screenplay won the Oscar and the Golden Globe.[1][4][7] Attenborough later said of Briley, "He's a difficult bugger, a bit of a prima-donna, but the bastard's brilliant".[9]
Later life
In 1985, Briley began developing a musical about Martin Luther King Jr.,[10][11] writing the book and lyrics[10] and acting as co-producer, originally for American Playhouse.[11] He left the project in February 1989 after contract negotiations broke down.[11] A different version opened in London in 1990. Briley attempted to obtain an injunction, claiming he had paid the King family $200,000 in personality rights.[11]
In 1987, Briley again teamed up with Attenborough for Cry Freedom, about the South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.[9] Briley had disagreements with Donald Woods, the journalist whose books formed the basis of the script.[9] Briley viewed the nonviolence of the Black Consciousness Movement as principled, whereas Woods felt it was a tactical decision.[9] Although Woods feared Briley lacked an awareness of the complexities of political debate among black South Africans, those shown a preview of the film felt it was realistic.[9]
In 1993, Briley switched agents from International Creative Management to the William Morris Agency.[12] In 1998, he was a founding partner of "the Film Makers Company", a venture intended to encourage film production in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was planning to relocate to there.[13] He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival in 2000.[14] He died on December 14, 2019, aged 94.[15]
Unproduced scripts
Unproduced scripts on which Briley worked include: adaptations of Henderson the Rain King,[2][16] Mister God, This Is Anna,[2] White Fang,[2] Man's Fate,[17] and his own novel How Sleep the Brave;[2] biopics of Franz Kafka,[16] Genghis Khan – to have been directed by Shin Sang-ok,[16] Robert Hunter (Warriors of the Rainbow) – to have been directed by Renny Harlin,[18][19] Tina Modotti (A Fragile Life),[2][20] Beryl Markham (West with the Night), and Pope John Paul II;[21] The Cross and the Crescent,[1] about Francis of Assisi and the Crusades;[22] and a miniseries about the Italian Renaissance.[23] Briley's adaptation of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible was dropped when Miller's son Robert secured production rights; Arthur Miller himself wrote the screenplay for the 1996 film.[24]
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