Charles Leavitt (born 1956) is an American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

best known for writing the 2006 film ''

Blood Diamond Blood diamonds (also called conflict diamonds, brown diamonds, hot diamonds, or red diamonds) are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity. The term is u ...

''.

Life and career

Leavitt's screenwriting career began in 1996 when his screenplay '' The Sun Chaser'' was produced to film by

Michael Cimino Michael Antonio Cimino ( , ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. He achieved fame as the director of ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture and ...

. He wrote the screen adaptation of the

Rodman Philbrick Rodman Philbrick (born January 22, 1951) is an American writer of novels for adults and children. He has written popular children's books such as '' Freak the Mighty'', '' Max the Mighty'', '' The Last Book in the Universe'', and has written othe ...

novel ''

Freak the Mighty ''Freak the Mighty'' is a young adult novel by Rodman Philbrick. Published in 1993, it was followed by the novel '' Max the Mighty'' in 1998. The primary characters are friends Maxwell Kane, a large, developmentally disabled, but kind-hearted bo ...

'' for the screen in 1998. ''

The Mighty ''The Mighty'' is a 1998 American coming of age buddy comedy-drama film directed by Peter Chelsom and written by Charles Leavitt. Based on the book '' Freak the Mighty'' by Rodman Philbrick, it stars Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Gillian ...

'' starred

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress and film producer. Known for primarily playing femmes fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the ...

Gena Rowlands Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (; June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. She was a four-time Emmy, Emmy Award and two-time Golden Globe winner, and ...

Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), '' Kelly's Heroes'' (1970), '' Dilling ...

Kieran Culkin Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

and Elden Henson. The film received two

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual Awards ceremony, award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally ...

for Best Supporting Actress (Sharon Stone) and Best Original Song ("The Mighty"). After writing the script for the 2001 film '' K-PAX'', Leavitt was hired by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

in February 2004 to rewrite an early draft of the film ''

'', then titled ''Okavango''. The story had been stuck in "

development hell Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic ...

" at the studio for years before producers Paula Weinstein and Gillian Gorfil finally decided on the story of a

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

an farmer caught up in the conflict between a White Zimbabwean smuggler and the local diamond mining organization. Leavitt researched the diamond industry to great lengths before he began writing the

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

, explaining that he has "always been a stickler for immersing imselfin research". He wrote the film with the assumption that it would offend the diamond industry, particularly

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

, and so made sure to portray the industry truthfully, aware that he could potentially be sued by De Beers and other powerful mining corporations. Paula Weinstein was impressed by Leavitt's ''Blood Diamond'' draft, but hired writers

Ed Zwick Edward M. Zwick (born October 8, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and epic historical film genres and was awarded an Academy Award, as well as a BAFTA Award, for his work producing ''Shakespeare in Lov ...

and

Marshall Herskovitz Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz (born February 23, 1952) is an American film director, writer, and producer, and currently the President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. Among his productions are ''Traffic'', '' The Last Samurai'', '' ...

to rewrite the script again; by the time he had completed the script, Zwick had become so interested in the story that he agreed to direct the film as well. Leavitt was signed by Warner Bros. in October 2006 to adapt '' Vanity Fair'' editor Doug Stumpf's novel '' Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy'', which the studio had acquired the rights to in mid-2005. He has also since rewritten Scott Williams' original draft of '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...

about

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player

Ernie Davis Ernest R. Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American college football player who was a halfback for the Syracuse Orangemen who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961. He was the award's first black recipient. Davis was selected firs ...

. He wrote the screenplay for '' In the Heart of the Sea'', for

Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

and

Spring Creek A spring creek is a type of free flowing river whose name derives from its origin: an underground Spring (hydrology), spring or set of springs which produces sufficient water to consistently feed a unique river. The water flowing in a spring cree ...

, and has written ''Animal Kingdom''

on spec ''On Spec'' is a digest-sized, perfect-bound, Canadian quarterly magazine publishing stories and poetry in science fiction, fantasy, and allied genres broadly grouped under the "speculative fiction" umbrella. History and profile Based in Edmo ...

. He re-wrote the 2014 film '' Seventh Son'' and the 2016 film ''

Warcraft ''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos ...

''.

Filmography

;Film * '' The Sunchaser'' (1996) * ''

'' (1998) * '' K-PAX'' (2001) * ''

'' (2006) * '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'' (2008) * '' Seventh Son'' (2014) * '' In the Heart of the Sea'' (2015) * ''

'' (2016) *'' Those Who Wish Me Dead'' (2021) ;Television * '' The Jennie Project'' (2001)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leavitt, Charles 1956 births Living people American male screenwriters Writers from Pittsburgh Screenwriters from Pennsylvania