Matt Charman | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1979-06-05)5 June 1979 (age 45) West Sussex,England |
| Occupation | Screenwriter,playwright,producer |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Years active | 2004–present |
Matthew Charman (born 5 June 1979) is a British screenwriter, playwright, and producer. He was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his 2015 filmBridge of Spies, directed bySteven Spielberg and co-written withJoel and Ethan Coen. Charman started out writing for theatre, making a breakthrough as writer-in-residence at theNational Theatre inLondon, where then-directorNicholas Hytner described Charman as having "a priceless nose for a story".[1]
Charman was born and raised around the location ofHorsham,West Sussex, England,[2] and his family were from Great House Farm inSouthwater, where his father's side of the family had lived for 180 years.[2] The family moved to the hamlet ofDragon's Green when Charman was 4 years old.[2] Charman attended junior school in Southwater, getting involved in school plays from a young age.[2] Charman continued his interest in drama atcomprehensivesecondary school atForest School, Horsham, getting involved with rehearsals and with stage and lighting equipment.[2] He was involved with the performances ofThe King and I andMy Fair Lady whilst a student of Forest School, Horsham.[2]
Charman studied English literature atUniversity College London. While a student, he frequently snuck into plays and musicals for free during intervals (a practice known as second-acting), and "tried to figure out what happened in the first act".[3] In the mid-2000s, Charman did uncredited script work forRoland Emmerich's films2012 and10,000 BC.
Charman's first play,A Night at the Dogs, won the 2004 Verity Bargate Award[4] for emerging writers and appeared at Soho Theatre. He went on to writeThe Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (2007) andThe Observer (2009), about a UN election observer's intervention in a West African nation's political crisis.[5] Both were produced and staged at theNational Theatre. In 2012, Charman's playRegrets, directed by Carolyn Cantor and starringAnsel Elgort opened at theManhattan Theatre Club inNew York. Set in McCarthy-era America, the play follows four men in a Nevada desert boarding house waiting out the six weeks required for a no-fault divorce.[6]The Machine, directed byJosie Rourke, opened at theManchester International Festival in 2013 and then transferred to thePark Avenue Armory in New York. The play told the story ofGarry Kasparov'sdefeat to IBM’s chess computer Deep Blue in 1997, the first time a computer beat a reigning chess world champion under tournament conditions.[7]
Future theatre projects for Charman include an adaptation ofGood Night, and Good Luck for the stage, and a play forNicholas Hytner's new London Theatre Company.
Charman’s television work includesOur Zoo (2014) for theBBC, which tells the story of the founding ofChester Zoo, famous for having no bars. In 2015, Charman created the three-part police dramaBlack Work, starringSheridan Smith, which aired onITV and was the channel's biggest new drama of the year.[8]
Charman's first feature wasSuite Française (2014) co-written with directorSaul Dibb, starringMichelle Williams,Kristin Scott Thomas andMargot Robbie. His 2015 feature,Bridge of Spies, was directed bySteven Spielberg, co-written by Charman andJoel and Ethan Coen and starredTom Hanks,Mark Rylance, andAmy Ryan. Set in Brooklyn and Berlin, the film tells the story ofJames B. Donovan, an American lawyer who in 1962 negotiated the exchange of Soviet spyRudolf Abel for the captured pilot of a downed U-2 spy plane,Francis Gary Powers, and American studentFrederic Pryor. The film was critically acclaimed, with theNew York Times calling it “a consummate entertainment that sweeps you up with pure cinema.”[9] Charman's script was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at both the 2016 Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. He was also nominated for a WGA award and Critics' Choice award in the same category.Bridge of Spies was a box office hit, grossing $165.5 million worldwide[10] and receiving six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, winning Best Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance's performance as Rudolf Abel.
Charman wrote a second screenplay for Steven Spielberg'sAmblin Partners, based onWalter Cronkite’s 1968 visit toVietnam.[11]
Charman runs his own production company, Binocular which is based in London. He was executive producer onOperation Finale (2018), written by Matthew Orton, about the hunt forAdolf Eichmann. The film was directed byChris Weitz.[12]
Charman is currently executive producer onLiberty, written by Neil Widener and Gavin James, an adaptation of George Koskimaki’s book "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne" forFox 2000 about a key conflict during theBattle of the Bulge.[13] Charman is also executive producing another upcoming film written by Widener and James,Battle of Alcatraz.[14]
Charman's intended directorial feature debut,The Mothership, was cancelled byNetflix.[15]
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