Boaz Yakin ( he, בועז יכין, born June 20, 1966) is an Israeli-American

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

, and

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He has written screenplays to films like ''The Rookie'', ''Fresh'', '' A Price Above Rubies'', ''Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'', and ''Now You See Me'', and has directed the 2000 sports drama '' Remember the Titans'' and the 2012

Jason Statham Jason Statham (; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, hardboiled, gritty, or violent. Statham began practising Chinese martial arts, kickbox ...

action film ''Safe''. As a producer he has collaborated frequently with filmmaker Eli Roth and served as executive producer for the first two entries in the ''Hostel'' franchise.

Early life

Yakin was born in

. Both his parents are Israeli-born, and met in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

while studying

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Messa ...

with

Marcel Marceau Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...

.Biography of Boaz Yakin
in allrovi.com His father's family are of

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

( Syrian-Jewish and Egyptian-Jewish) descent, and his mother's family is of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

( Polish-Jewish) descent. He attended the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...

, where he was classmates in 1983 with actor

Jon Cryer Jonathan Niven Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor, writer, director and producer. Born into a show business family, he made his motion picture debut as a teenage photographer in the 1984 romantic comedy '' No Small Affair''; his br ...

. He studied filmmaking at

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

then at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

and made his first deal for a screenplay at age 19.

Career

After finishing school, Yakin worked in the film industry, developing projects for several companies, and saw his first screenplay reach the screen in 1989, when '' The Punisher'', a vehicle for Dolph Lundgren, was released. Yakin's next screenplay was '' The Rookie'', starring

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' D ...

and

Charlie Sheen Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Platoon'' (1986), ''Wall Street'' (1987), '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' The Rookie'' (1990), '' The Th ...

. Wanting to take on more personal material, Yakin drew from his experiences growing up in New York's inner city for his next screenplay, '' Fresh''. Yakin opted to direct his screenplay for ''Fresh'' himself. The film won critical acclaim, earning the Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1994

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

. Yakin went back to his youth for inspiration on his next project. His experience with the Chassidic community informed his screenplay for '' A Price Above Rubies''. Yakin rebounded with his next assignment, which was his first film that he directed but did not write; '' Remember the Titans'' was a major box office success, and moved him to the upper tier of bankable Hollywood talents. His

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

drama '' Death in Love'' debuted in January 2008. Yakin describes it as a movie about the failure of the family and inability to change your past.Davis, Barry
"Sometimes you have to invest yourself"
''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper ...

'', July 16, 2008. He was a member of the US Dramatic Jury at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. In 2010, it was announced that Yakin would direct ''Sympathy for the Devil'', with Samuel L. Jackson and

Josh Duhamel Joshua David Duhamel (; born November 14, 1972) is an American actor and former fashion model. After various modeling work, he made his acting debut as Leo du Pres on the ABC daytime soap opera ''All My Children'' and later starred as Danny Mc ...

in the cast. The project was still in development as of 2014. Yakin's family film ''

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

'' was released by Warner Bros. and MGM on June 26, 2015. His 2020 film, ''Aviva,'' was set to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, but was released publicly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personal life

Yakin was married to Israeli

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

director Alma Har'el. The couple divorced in 2012.

Filmography

Producer only * ''

2001 Maniacs ''2001 Maniacs'' is a 2005 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Sullivan and starring Robert Englund, Lin Shaye, Jay Gillespie, Dylan Edrington, and Matthew Carey. It is a remake of the 1964 film ''Two Thousand Maniacs!'' written and dire ...

'' (2001) * ''

Bombay Beach Bombay Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California, United States. It is located on the Salton Sea, west-southwest of Frink and is the lowest community in the United States, located below sea level. The population wa ...

'' (2011) (Documentary) Executive producer only * '' Hostel'' (2005) * '' Hostel: Part II'' (2007)

Books

*''Marathon'', a graphic novel illustrated by Joe Infurnari, First Second, 2012 *''Jerusalem'', a graphic novel illustrated by Nick Bertozzi, First Second, 2013

References

External links

All-Movie Guide entry for Boaz Yakin
*
About Boaz Yakin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yakin, Boaz 1966 births American male screenwriters American Sephardic Jews Living people Tisch School of the Arts alumni Writers from New York City Jewish American screenwriters American people of Israeli descent American people of Egyptian-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Syrian-Jewish descent City College of New York alumni Film directors from New York City Screenwriters from New York (state) Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli Sephardi Jews Israeli Mizrahi Jews The Bronx High School of Science alumni Jewish film people