Richard Friedenberg is an Americanscreenwriter andfilm director. He wrote the screenplay forA River Runs Through It (1992), starringBrad Pitt, for which he was nominated for anAcademy Award, and the screenplay for theHallmark Hall of Fame television filmPromise (1986), starringJames Garner andJames Woods, for which he won anEmmy Award. He also wrote the screenplay forDying Young starringJulia Roberts and wrote and directedThe Education of Little Tree (1997).^[1]

In the mid-1970s, Friedenberg directedThe Adventures of Frontier Fremont andThe Life and Times of Grizzly Adams for the Utah-based production companySchick Sunn Classic Pictures, famed for four-walling their films instead of distributing them conventionally. In 1978, he directed the TV movieThe Deerslayer, an adaptation of the James Fenimore Cooper novel, for the same company. Notably, it was the screen debut of 20-year-oldMadeleine Stowe, who later played the female lead in a more respectable Cooper adaptation,Michael Mann'sThe Last of the Mohicans.

Still working for Schick Sunn, Friedenberg directed the kitschy cult classic "documentary"The Bermuda Triangle, based onCharles Berlitz's 1974 book.

In 1986, two years before the release of the strikingly similarRain Man, Friedenberg wrote theHallmark Hall of Fame entryPromise, in which a carefree salesman takes charge of his epileptic, schizophrenic brother in the wake of a parent's death. Friedenberg won an Emmy for his screenplay.

In the late 1980s,Robert Redford approached Friedenberg to adaptNorman Maclean's memoirA River Runs Through It. Upon reading the wispy book, Friedenberg lamented "it was not a movie." In his preface to the published screenplay, Friedenberg details his research into the facts of Maclean's life and that of his brother Paul (played in the movie byBrad Pitt). Friedenberg used the supplemental information to enhance the original narrative, which was deemed too spare for a feature film.^[2]

In 2018, Friedenberg wrote (withKen Hixon) the screenplay forUnbroken: Path to Redemption, the faith-based follow-up toAngelina Jolie's secular-skewingUnbroken (2014). The sequel was adapted from the same source material as the original film but featured none of the main cast.

• Richard Friedenberg atIMDb

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