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Aaron Benjamin Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin in July 2005
Aaron Sorkin in July 2005
Born (1961-06-09) June 9, 1961 (age 63)
United States New York, NY, USA
OccupationScreenwriter
Producer
Playwright
NationalityAmerican
SpouseJulia Bingham (1996-2001)

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter, producer and playwright. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre in 1983, Sorkin spent much of the 1980s in New York as a struggling, largely unemployed actor.[1] He found his passion in writing plays however, and quickly established himself as a young promising playwright. His stageplay A Few Good Men caught the attention of Hollywood producer David Brown, who bought the film rights before the play even premiered.[2]

Castle Rock Entertainment hired Sorkin to adapt A Few Good Men for the big screen. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, became a box office success. Sorkin spent the early 1990s writing two other screenplays at Castle Rock for the films Malice and The American President. In the mid-1990s he worked as a script doctor on films such as Schindler's List and Bulworth. His television career began in 1998, when he created the TV comedy series Sports Night for the ABC network. Sports Night's second season was its last, and in 1999 overlapped with the debut of Sorkin's next TV series, the multiple Emmy-award-winning political drama The West Wing, this time for the NBC network. In 2006, after a three year hiatus, he returned to television with a dramedy called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about the backstage drama at a late night sketch comedy show, once again for the NBC network. His most recent feature film screenplay is Charlie Wilson's War, which is set to open in movie theaters on Christmas day 2007.[3]

After more than a decade away from the theatre, Sorkin returned to adapt for the stage his screenplay The Farnsworth Invention, which started a workshop run at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2007. He has battled with a cocaine addiction for many years, but after a highly publicized arrest he received treatment in a drug diversion program and rid himself of the drug dependence. In television, Sorkin is known as a controlling writer, who rarely shares the job of penning the teleplays with other writers. His writing staff are more likely to do research and come up with stories for him to tell. His trademark is writing rapid-fire dialogue and extended soliloquies, and in television, this penchant is complemented by frequent collaborator Thomas Schlamme's characteristic visual technique called the "Walk and Talk".

Early years

Sorkin was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Jewish parents. He was raised in the wealthy suburb of Scarsdale, New York.[4] Sorkin's mother was a school teacher and his father a lawyer; he had an older sister and brother who both went on to become lawyers.[5] Sorkin took an early interest in acting. Before he reached his teenage years, his parents regularly took him to the theatre to see shows such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and That Championship Season.[6] At that age, Sorkin did not always comprehend the plot of the plays; nevertheless he enjoyed the sound of the dialogue.[7]

Sorkin attended Scarsdale High School and became involved in his high school drama and theatre club. In eighth grade he played General Bullmoose in the musical Li'l Abner.[1]

In 1979 Sorkin attended Syracuse University. In his freshman year he failed a class that was a core requirement. It was a devastating setback because he wanted to be an actor, and the Drama department did not allow students to take the stage until they completed all the core freshman classes. He returned in his sophomore year determined to do better, and graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre.[8]

"I don't want to analyze myself or anything, but I think, in fact I know this to be true, that I enter the world through what I write. I grew up believing, and continue to believe, that I am a screw-up, that growing up with my family and friends, I had nothing to offer in any conversation. But when I started writing, suddenly there was something that I brought to the party that was at a high-enough level."
— Aaron Sorkin, on becoming a writer.[5]

Unemployed actor, promising playwright

After graduation, Sorkin moved to New York City where he worked odd jobs ranging from delivering singing telegrams,[1] driving a limousine, touring Alabama with the children’s theatre company Traveling Playhouse,[5] handing out fliers promoting a hunting-and-fishing show,[1] to bartending on Broadway at theatres such as the Palace Theatre.[9] One weekend, while house sitting at a friend's place he found an IBM Selectric typewriter, started typing, and "felt a phenomenal confidence and a kind of joy that [he] had never experienced before in [his] life."[5]

He continued writing and eventually put together his first play Removing All Doubt which he sent to his old theatre teacher, Arthur Storch, who was impressed. In 1984, at 23, his first play Removing All Doubt was being staged for drama students at his alma mater, Syracuse University.[10] After that, he wrote Hidden in this Picture which debuted off-off-Broadway at Steve Olsen's West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar in New York City in 1988. The contents of his first two plays got him a theatrical agent.[11] Producer John A. McQuiggan saw the production of Hidden in this Picture and commissioned Sorkin to turn the one-act into a full-length play called Making Movies.[10][12] His reputation as a playwright was quickly gaining stature on the New York theatre scene.

A Few Good Men

Sorkin got the inspiration to write his next play, a courtroom drama called A Few Good Men, from a phone conversation with his sister Deborah, who had graduated from Boston University Law School and signed up for a 3-year stint with the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps. She was going to Guantanamo Bay to defend a group of marines who came close to killing a fellow marine in a hazing ordered by a superior officer. Sorkin took that information and wrote much of his story on cocktail napkins while bartending at the Palace Theatre on Broadway.[13]

In 1988 Sorkin sold the film rights for his play A Few Good Men to producer David Brown before it even premiered, for a deal possibly worth a sum well into six-figures.[14][15] Brown had read an article in The New York Times about Sorkin's one-act play Hidden in this Picture and found out Sorkin also had a play called A Few Good Men that was having off-Broadway readings.[2] Brown produced A Few Good Men on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre. It starred Tom Hulce and was directed by Don Scardino. After opening in late 1989, it ran for 497 performances.[16]

Sorkin continued writing Making Movies and in 1990 it debuted off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre, produced by John A. McQuiggan and directed by Don Scardino.[12] Meanwhile, David Brown was producing a few projects at TriStar Pictures and tried to interest them in making A Few Good Men into a film but his proposal was declined due to the lack of star actor involvement. Brown later got a call from Alan Horn at Castle Rock Entertainment who was anxious to make the film. Rob Reiner, a producing partner at Castle Rock, opted to direct it.[2]

Screenwriting career

Working at Castle Rock Entertainment

Sorkin worked for many years at Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. at their offices off the Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. These were formative years in which he wrote the scripts for A Few Good Men, Malice, and The American President. While working at Castle Rock, between 1991 and 1995, he made friends with colleagues such as William Goldman and Rob Reiner, and met his future wife, Julia Bingham, who was one of the entertainment lawyers.

The screenplay for A Few Good Men was still in an unsatisfactory early draft when he started working at Castle Rock. Sorkin had purchased a book about screenplay format and was learning the craft.[11] William Goldman who occasionally worked at Castle Rock became his mentor, helping him to adapt his stageplay into a screenplay.[17]

In the meantime, William Goldman approached Sorkin with a premise he wanted fleshed out, which would later become the screenplay for Malice. Goldman oversaw the project as creative consultant and Sorkin wrote the first two drafts of Malice. Subsequently, Sorkin had to leave the project to finish up the screenplay for A Few Good Men.[18] Rob Reiner directed A Few Good Men, which starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, and Kevin Bacon, and was produced by David Brown. The film was a box office success.

In Sorkin's absence, screenwriter Scott Frank had been hired to write drafts three and four of the Malice screenplay. Sorkin returned after having delivered on his commitments to A Few Good Men and wrote the final shooting script for Malice.[18] Harold Becker then directed Malice, a medical thriller, with actors Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin playing lead roles.

Sorkin's next screenplay was The American President and once again he collaborated with William Goldman, contributing as a consultant, and Rob Reiner, working as the director and one of the producers.[7] It took Sorkin a few years to write the screenplay, due to an increasing consumption of freebase cocaine which he started using in New York. He eventually turned in an oversized 385-page screenplay for The American President, ultimately whittled down to a standard shooting script.[19] The film was made and shown in North American movie theaters in late 1995.

Worldwide, the three films grossed about $400 million for Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc.[19] Afterwards, with Sorkin having developed a full-fledged addiction to freebase cocaine, he was advised by his then-girlfriend Julia Bingham to enter rehab. Rob Reiner had spoken to Julia Bingham of his own concerns for Sorkin. In late 1995 Sorkin entered rehab for cocaine addiction at the Hazelden Institute in Minnesota. Five months later, on April 13, 1996, Sorkin married Bingham;[4] they divorced in 2005.

Script doctor for hire

Sorkin did uncredited script work on several films in the 90s. He did a polish of the script for Schindler's List at Steven Spielberg's invitation.[20][19] He wrote some quips for Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage in The Rock.[21] He worked on Excess Baggage, a comedy about a girl who stages her own kidnapping to get her father's attention.[22] He was hired by Warren Beatty to work on the script for Bulworth, as well as another of Beatty's projects called Oceans of Storms which was never made.[23][24] He rewrote some of Will Smith's scenes in Enemy of the State.[21]

Sports Night

Main article: Sports Night

Sorkin came up with the idea to write about the behind-the-scenes happenings on a sports show while he was living in a room in the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles writing the screenplay for The American President. He would work late, with the TV tuned into ESPN, watching continuous replays of SportsCenter.[25] The show inspired him to try to write a feature film about a sports show but he was unable to structure the story for film, so instead he turned his idea into a TV comedy series.[26][27] Sports Night was produced by Disney and debuted on the Disney-owned ABC network in the fall of 1998.[28]

Sorkin fought with the ABC network during the first season over the use of a laugh track and a live studio audience. The laugh track was widely decried as jarring and the "most unconvincing laugh track you've ever heard."[29][30] The use of the laugh track was gradually dialed down until it was eventually gone at the end of the first season.[31] Sorkin was triumphant in the second season when ABC agreed to his demands, unburdening the crew of the difficulties of staging a scene for a live audience and leaving the cast with more time to rehearse.[28]

Once you do shoot in front of a live audience, you have no choice but to use the laugh track. Oftentimes [enhancing the laughs] is the right thing to do. Sometimes you do need a cymbal crash. Other times, it alienates me.

Sorkin wrote 40 out of a total of 45 produced teleplays for Sports Night over two seasons. The show never found an audience so ABC canceled it. Sorkin entertained but did not accept offers to bring the show to another network, as he also had The West Wing to work on at that point and the deals were contingent on his involvement.[25]

The West Wing

Main article: The West Wing (TV series)

Sorkin is best known for his political TV drama, The West Wing, starring Martin Sheen as the President of the United States. Sorkin initially got The West Wing going with leftover dialogue from his bloated 385-page screenplay for The American President. The opportunity to do the TV series presented itself in 1997 when Sorkin, at the urging of his agent, got together with producer John Wells for lunch at the Pinot Bistro, a French restaurant on Ventura Boulevard.[19] Sorkin came unprepared and, in a panic, pitched the idea of doing a show about the senior staff of the White House. He recounted to Wells his experiences visiting the White House while doing research for The American President and they talked about public service and the passion of the people who serve. Wells took the concept and pitched it to the NBC network, but was told to wait because the facts behind the Lewinsky scandal were breaking and there was concern that an audience wouldn't be able to take a show about the White House seriously.[32] A year later, a few other networks started showing an interest in The West Wing and so under mounting pressure NBC greenlit the series. The pilot debuted in the fall of 1999 produced by Warner Bros. TV.[33]

"Stockard had done an episode of the show as the First Lady ... She took me out to lunch and said she really liked doing the show and wanted to do more and started asking me questions like, “Who do you think this character is?” And those aren’t questions I can answer. [As a writer] I can only answer, what do they want?"
— Aaron Sorkin, on creating characters.[34]

The West Wing was honored with 9 Emmy Awards for its debut season, making the show a record holder for most Emmys won by a series in a single season. The Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series was awarded to each of the first four West Wing seasons. As a writer, Sorkin received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (The West Wing). In addition, he received numerous nominations and awards at the Television Critics Association Awards, the Producers Guild of America Golden Laurel Awards, the Humanitas Prize Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards.

In 2001, after wrapping up the second season of The West Wing, Sorkin had a drug relapse, only two months after receiving a Phoenix Rising Award for drug recovery; this became public knowledge when he was arrested at the Burbank Airport for possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, and crack cocaine. He was ordered by a judge to a drug diversion program.[35] His drug addiction was highly publicized, most notably when Saturday Night Live did a parody called "The West Wing" (see Personal life).[36] Sorkin recovered and continued writing The West Wing's scripts with the same devotion.

Sorkin wrote 87 teleplays in all, which amounts to nearly every episode during the show's first four Emmy-winning seasons.[37] Sorkin describes his role in the creative process as "not so much [that of] a showrunner or a producer. I'm really a writer."[25] He admits that this approach can have its drawbacks, saying "Out of 88 [West Wing] episodes that I did we were on time and on budget never, not once."[38] In 2003, at the end of the fourth season, Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme left the show due to internal conflicts at Warner Bros. TV not involving the NBC network, thrusting producer John Wells into an expanded role as showrunner.[39][40]

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Main article: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

In 2003 Sorkin divulged to the American television interviewer Charlie Rose on The Charlie Rose Show that he was developing a TV series based on a late night sketch comedy show like Saturday Night Live.[41][38] In early October 2005 a pilot script dubbed Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip written by Aaron Sorkin for a new TV series from him and producer Thomas Schlamme started circulating around Hollywood and generating interest on the web. A week later, NBC bought from Warner Bros. TV the right to show the TV series on their network for a near record license fee in a bidding war with CBS.[42] The show's name was later changed to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Sorkin described the show as having "autobiographical elements" to it and "characters that are based on actual people" but said that it departs from those beginnings to look at the backstage maneuverings at a late night sketch comedy show.[43] The sets for the show and the show-within-the-show "Studio 60: Live on the Sunset Strip" are located on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California.

In September 2006 the pilot for Studio 60 aired on NBC, directed by Thomas Schlamme. The pilot was critically acclaimed and had high ratings, but Studio 60 experienced a significant drop in audience by mid season. The seething anticipation that preceded the debut was followed up by a large amount of thoughtful and scrupulous criticism in the press, as well as largely negative and feverish analysis in the blogosphere. In January 2007 Sorkin spoke out against the press for focusing too heavily on the ratings slide and for criticism that sources blogs and unemployed comedy writers.[44][45]

Screenplays written in the 21st century

In 2003 Sorkin was writing the screenplay The Farnsworth Invention on spec, meaning he wrote it independently with the hopes of a later sale to a producer or studio.[46] In 2004 it was announced that Thomas Schlamme would direct the completed screenplay about the story of Philo Farnsworth and that New Line Cinema was buying. The story follows Farnsworth's battles with David Sarnoff for the patent for the invention of the television.[47] The film production of The Farnsworth Invention was eventually canceled without explanation.

In 2004 after having just completed the screenplay for The Farnsworth Invention Universal Pictures made a seven-figure deal with Sorkin to adapt "60 Minutes" producer George Crile's nonfiction novel Charlie Wilson's War for Tom Hanks' production company Playtone.[48] Charlie Wilson's War is about the colorful Texas congressman Charlie Wilson who funded the CIA's secret war against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan.[49] Sorkin completed the screenplay and the film is due for release on Christmas day in 2007 starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by Mike Nichols.[3]

Returning to the theatre

A Few Good Men at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2005.

In 2005 Sorkin revised his play A Few Good Men for a revival at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket. It had been over 15 years since he had originally written it. The West End revival opened in the fall of the same year and was directed by David Esbjornson, with Rob Lowe of The West Wing in the lead role.[50]

In June 2004 Sorkin completed a screenplay entitled The Farnsworth Invention based on the story of the boy genius Philo Farnsworth and his legal battle with the head of RCA for the patent for the invention of the television. It was set to be directed by Thomas Schlamme, but for unstated reasons the film production was canceled. In 2005 Sorkin rewrote The Farnsworth Invention as a play.[51] The Abbey Theatre in Dublin signed on to stage a production of the play, and the La Jolla Playhouse in California quickly followed up with plans to stage a production of its own in conjunction with The Abbey. In 2006 The Abbey's new management pulled out of the joint effort.[52] The La Jolla Playhouse pushed on with Steven Spielberg lending his talents as producer and the production opened under La Jolla's signature Page To Stage New Play Development Program which allows Sorkin and director Des McAnuff to develop the play from show to show according to audience reactions and feedback.[53] The play started its run at La Jolla Playhouse on February 20 2007.[54]

Personal politics

Between the years 1999 and 2007 Sorkin made political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates accumulating to an American dollar total in the low six figures.[55] His TV series The West Wing has been called The Left Wing because of its alleged liberal bias.[56] In 2002 Sorkin assailed NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's TV special about a day in the life of a president, "The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing," comparing it to the act of sending a valentine to President George W. Bush instead of real news reporting.[57] Sorkin's TV series The West Wing aired on the same network, and so at the request of NBC's Entertainment President Jeff Zucker he apologized, but would later say "there should be a difference between what NBC News does and what The West Wing TV series does."[58][59] In 2004 MoveOn's political action committee enlisted Sorkin's writing talents and Rob Reiner's directing abilities to create one of their anti-Bush TV campaign ads.[60]

Controversies

Rick Cleveland writing credit dispute

In 2000 Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland both won an Emmy for writing the episode "In Excelsis Deo". Cleveland had informed Sorkin in an e-mail message that if they won he wanted to say a few words in honor of his father's memory.[61] At the awards ceremony Rick Cleveland was ushered off the stage by Sorkin and wasn't given a chance to make any remarks. The story was based on Cleveland's father, a Korean war veteran who spent the last years of his life on the street.[62] When The New York Times revealed the slight Sorkin attacked Cleveland in a public web forum at Mighty Big TV saying that he gives his writers "Story By" credit on a rotating basis "by way of a gratuity" and that he had thrown out Cleveland's script and started from scratch. Cleveland responded on the web site in the same thread and a war of words briefly carried on.[63] Sorkin later apologized saying he was "dead wrong" and had "reacted too quickly to what [he] felt was an egregiously unfair characterization of the way writers are treated on The West Wing."[64]

Morris v. Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc.

Screenwriters Kyle Morris and William Richert wrote a film treatment as well as a screenplay called The President Elopes which Castle Rock Entertainment bought but never produced. The writers claimed that Aaron Sorkin's script The American President plagiarized their work. They argued their case before a WGA arbitration panel and it was determined that Sorkin had sole writing credit on The American President. Morris and Reichert were not satisfied with the judgment and so they went before a New York Court claiming Sorkin and others conspired to defraud the WGA arbitration panel. The judge threw out all charges.[65]

Personal life

In 1987 Sorkin started experimenting with marijuana and cocaine. He has said that in freebase cocaine he found a drug that gave him relief from certain nervous tensions he deals with on a regular basis.[5] In 1995 he checked into rehab at the Hazelden Institute in Minnesota, on the advice of his then girlfriend and soon to be wife Julia Bingham, to try and beat his addiction to cocaine.[66] In 2001 Sorkin along with colleagues John Spencer and Martin Sheen received the Phoenix Rising Award for their personal victories over substance abuse.[67] Two months later Sorkin relapsed. On April 15, 2001 Sorkin was arrested when guards at a security checkpoint at the Burbank Airport found hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, and crack cocaine in his carry-on bag when a metal crack pipe set off the gate’s metal detector.[10] He was ordered to a drug diversion program.[35] Saturday Night Live parodied the highly publicized event in a comedy sketch called "The West Wing" where the U.S. President played by Darrell Hammond does a "Walk and Talk" through the corridors of the White House while tripping on shrooms, accompanied by host Pierce Brosnan.[36] Sorkin recovered and continued working on The West Wing. Sorkin's wife filed for divorce soon after. There have been no reports of any further relapses.

In 2006 Dimitra Ekmektsis self-published a memoir about her years working as a call girl in New York and claimed Sorkin was a client during the years in which he enjoyed Broadway success for A Few Good Men.[68][69]

Writing process and characteristics

"For me, the [writing] experience is very much like a date. It's not unusual that I'm really funny here and really smart here and maybe showing some anger over here so she sees maybe I have this dark side. I want it to have been worth it for everyone to sit through it for however long I ask them to."
— Aaron Sorkin, on his writing as characterized by mentor William Goldman.[70]

Sorkin is known for writing memorable lines and fast-paced dialogue, as well as extended soliloquies for prominent characters, such as the "I am God" piece from Malice, the "You can't handle the truth!" piece from A Few Good Men, and the partly Latin tirade against God in The West Wing episode "Two Cathedrals".[71] In television Sorkin's stylemark is the repartee that his characters engage in as they small talk and banter about whimsical events taking place within an episode, and interject obscure popular culture references into conversation.[72] His storytelling strengths lie in exploring the behind-the-scenes situations of workplace settings, such as the JAG Corps., a sports show, the White House, and lately a sketch comedy show.[73]

Although his scripts are lauded for being literate,[18][1] Sorkin has been criticized for often turning in scripts that are overwrought.[74] His mentor William Goldman has commented that normally in visual media speeches are avoided, but that Sorkin has a talent for dialogue and gets away with breaking this rule.[7] Others complain that his use of dialogue is excessive and is cover for weak story arcs in his scripts. Sorkin has admitted that in television he doesn't plan out a season because he thinks that method is ineffectual.[34] He prefers to make it up as he goes along which can lead to bizarre twists and ill-advised plot developments.[19] In television he will have a hand in the writing of every episode, rarely letting another writer earn full credit on a script. He has said that because he writes every episode deadlines for scripts are never met.[38]

Aaron Sorkin at JFK airport

Sorkin first started writing stories on an IBM Selectric typewriter which belonged to a friend of his.[1] He then developed a habit of writing scenes and dialogue on cocktail napkins while working as a bartender on Broadway and was trying his hand at writing plays. He and his roommates had purchased a Macintosh 512K and when he returned home he would empty his pockets of cocktail napkins and type them into the computer, forming a basis from which he wrote many drafts for A Few Good Men.[38] In the 90s he used Apple's notebook computers. In a 2003 introduction video for the 12 and 17 inch PowerBook computers, he praised the features of Apple's notebooks saying he "wrote The American President on what was the first portable Apple computer, [he] wrote the series Sports Night on a G3, and now [writes] The West Wing on a G4." Sorkin has a habit of chainsmoking while he spends countless hours cooped up in his office plotting out his next scripts.[4] He describes his writing process as physical because he will often stand up and speak the dialogue he's developing.[75]

He has made rare non-speaking cameo appearances in some of his works, appearing as a nondescript man at a bar in an episode of Sports Night and the exact same cameo part in the films A Few Good Men and The American President. He also made a cameo appearance as one of the witnesses at the swearing-in of the new president in the final episode of The West Wing though by then he had nothing to do with the show.[76]

Decade-long collaboration with Thomas Schlamme

In early 1998 Aaron Sorkin began a collaboration with Thomas Schlamme when they found they shared common creative ground on the soon to be produced Sports Night.[77][25] Their successful partnership has endured for nearly a decade so far with Aaron Sorkin writing the scripts and Thomas Schlamme exec producing and occasionally directing. They have developed a reputation for producing quality stories with mainstream appeal in a variety of media though they have only worked together in Television.[47] They each contribute an equal amount of effort to the projects they've collaborated on: Sports Night, The West Wing, and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Schlamme creates the look of the shows, works with the other directors who come in when he's not directing, discusses the scripts with Sorkin as soon as they are turned in, makes design and casting decisions, and attends the budget meetings. Sorkin tends to stick strictly to writing the scripts of which he writes almost all of them in their entirety with other writers frequently appearing in the "Story by" credit and occasionally the "Written by" credit.[25]

"You almost never see how anyone travels from point A to point C [in most TV shows]. I wanted the audience to witness every journey these people took. It all had a purpose, even seeing them order lunch. It just seemed to be the proper visual rhythm with which to marry Aaron's words. I got lucky that it worked."
— Thomas Schlamme, on the "Walk and Talk" device.[37]

One of Schlamme's trademarks is The West Wing's style of continuously tracking in front of characters as they walk side by side while talking at the same time, usually while on their way to a meeting or conference related directly to whatever the discussion is, a visual technique called the "Walk and Talk". Schlamme didn't want to have scene cuts that relocated characters without any explanation of how they got there so he developed the "Walk and Talk" device to work with Sorkin's dialogue.[37] Fans at Television Without Pity have coined the term "pedeconference" to describe the "Walk and Talk" and the term's usage has widened to describe other TV shows.[78]

In 2004 it was announced that Thomas Schlamme would direct Sorkin's script The Farnsworth Invention for New Line Cinema.[47] Schlamme was set to produce the project through his company Shoe Money Productions located on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank but the film production was eventually canceled.[79] The Sorkin-Schlamme collaboration continues on the NBC TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip produced by Shoe Money Productions.

Awards and honors

Main article: List of the honours and awards of Aaron Sorkin

In 1989 Sorkin won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding American Playwright for his stageplay A Few Good Men which was earning rave reviews on Broadway. Three years later the feature film A Few Good Men earned Sorkin a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. The feature film Malice earned him a nomination for an Edgar award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay from the Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 Sorkin was nominated for another Golden Globe award for Best Screenplay for The American President.[47]

Sorkin won three Humanitas Prizes over the years for episodes on Sports Night and The West Wing. He was nominated for 6 Emmys for writing on Sports Night and The West Wing and shared an Emmy with writer Rick Cleveland for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in 2000 for The West Wing episode "In Excelsis Deo". He has also been nominated for WGA awards, TCA awards, and PGA Golden Laurel awards for his writing on Sports Night and The West Wing winning three PGA Golden Laurel awards and one WGA award.

In 2001 Sorkin was named Writer of the Year by the Caucus for TV Producers, Writers and Directors. The same year, he received from his alma mater Syracuse University the George Arents Pioneer Medal.[80]

Family life

Sorkin married Julia Bingham in 1996 and divorced in 2005. They had one daughter, Roxy, born in 2000.[76]

Credits

Television series

Films

Screenplays (unproduced)

Plays

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "In the Spotlight: Script Sensation", Brad Herzog, Syracuse University Magazine, Summer 2001
  2. ^ a b c Prigge, Steven (2004). Movie Moguls Speak: Interviews with Top Film Producers. McFarland & Company. pp. p.12-13. ISBN 978-0786419296. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b Martin A. Grove (2007-01-12). "Holiday weekends will drive 2007 boxoffice". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
  4. ^ a b c Oliver Jones (2001-05-28). "A Troubled Genius". US Weekly. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  5. ^ a b c d e Peter De Jonge (2001-10-28). "Aaron Sorkin Works His Way Through the Crisis". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
  6. ^ Sorkin, Aaron (2000-10-24). (Interview). Interviewed by Charlie Rose http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5052802479550774692. {{cite interview}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c Emma Forrest (2002-05-02). "Words fly down the halls of power". The Age. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
  8. ^ Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes (2001). The Creation of the Future: The Role of the American University. Cornell University Press. pp. p.75-76. ISBN 978-0801439377. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Jay S. Jacobs. "Peter Krause: Helping To Make T.V. Safe For Smart People". Retrieved 2007-01-21.
  10. ^ a b c "Aaron Sorkin Biography". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  11. ^ a b Valerie Weiss, PhD (2003). "Three days, 15 seminars, one great experience". ImagineNews.com. Retrieved 2007-01-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  12. ^ a b c Mel Gussow (1990-03-28). "Review/Theater; 'Making Movies,' a Satire Of the Celluloid World". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
  13. ^ "A Few Good Men London theatre tickets and information". ThisIsTheatre.com. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  14. ^ William A. Henry III (1989-11-27). "Marine Life". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
  15. ^ "Profile: Aaron Sorkin". E! Online. Retrieved 2007-01-23.
  16. ^ Ernio Hernandez (2004-06-18). "Aaron Sorkin Working on A Few Good Men for London and New Play for Dublin's Abbey". Playbill News. Retrieved 2007-01-20.
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