J. David Shapiro

J.D. Shapiro
Born	Jake David Shapiro
Other names	JD Shapiro, J.D. Shapiro
Website	http://jdshapiro.com

J. David Shapiro (born March 18, 1969) is a filmmaker and stand-up comedian. He is best known for writing the film "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" and many consider is best work to date "We Married Margo" an independent film he wrote, directed and starred in.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Category	Result
2000	The HBO U.S. Comedy Festival	We Married Margo	Audience Award for Best Film	Won
	Slamdance Film Festival	We Married Margo	Grand Jury Prize	Nominated
2001
The NY Comedy Festival. Offical Selection	Nominated
2001	Won
Pi Phan Film Festival in Korea. Official Selection. Shapiro won Best Actor for his role as Jake	Nominated
2001	Golden Raspberry Award	Battlefield Earth	Worst Screenplay	Won

Early Life

Shapiro grew up in North Jersey and Hell's kitchen. His parents were divorced when he was two. He has three sisters, Karen, Nancy and Pam. Shapiro use to gather his sisters and freinds where he would write, produce, direct and star in plays and short films. He would charge people $.25 cents to see the fim or play and another $.50 cents to get a small bag of popcorn in order to fund his projects.

At times Shapiro was so poor he had to walk across the GW bridge in order to get to school. The first movie he ever entered for an award was in high school, but it ended up not being seen by the teacher selection committee. Students who saw the movie started a grassroots movement, circulated the fim to other students and word of mouth caught on. The selection committee had already made all their choices, so they ended up giving Shapiro an award for "Best Forgotten Film."

Shapiro had the opportunity to attended the NYC School of Performing Arts but when he found out they had no football team he decided to stay put.

Although small in stature, he played football. His first year he was a running back and was terrible. Turns out his Dyslexia caused him to constantly go the other way. His mom talked into going back and playing another year and the coach switched him to defense, were he didn't have to think as much as he had to react. He was moved to roving middle linebacker after a scrimmage with his own team and he took out the fullback, a player that outweighed him by about 75lbs. Shapiro became the co-captain of the defense and led his schools team, The Raiders, to the state championship where they won after Shapiro sacked the opponents QB in the end zone. Although carried off the field in victory, the next day the wrong players picture was put in the paper stating he won the game. The team made it up to Shapiro when they awarded him the MVP. He was also on the chess team. And possibly the only person to ever get into a fist fight with an opposing player during a varsity tennis match.

Shapiro at one time thought about joining the secret service. His Dyslexia and "Independent attitude and unwillingness to follow basic rules" held him back.

Shapiro always had a love for entertaining and after college he packed up his few belongings, including the woman that would eventually be the impetus of his directorial debut, and with $950 he moved to California to peruse the dream of being a filmmaker.

Shapiro first moved to a 500 square foot studio apartment in Westood. He saved $50 a month in rent by becoming the assistant manager, his job being to change light bulbs and empty trash. In 1992 he was looking for a dentist and his sister Pam had hear of Evan Chandler and suggested he go. Once learning that Evan had a patient who used to work for Mel Brooks, Shapiro wrote the spec script, "Robbin' The Hood." It got to Mel who loved it but not the title. So Shapiro changed it to "Robin Hood: Men In Tights." From concept to release was a little over a year.

Feature Writing Credits

"Knights of the Not So Round Table: The Lost Tapes of 524 A.D. [524ad.com]. Shapiro wrote the screenplay and is set to direct. Dan Myrick is executive producing. (2010)

"Daddy's Girl." Optioned by New Line. (2007)

"Working Class Hero." Sold it to Gale Anne Hurd (all the “Terminator” movies). (2004)

"Slavage." Optioned by Gear Head Productions. Dan Myrick (“The Blair Witch Project”) is set to direct and Shapiro set to play the co-lead. (2011)

"Supercops." Co-written with Jimmy Cummings. Based on the book “Supercops." Bought by Nittolo Entertainment. (2000)

"Cupid's Turn." Optioned by Disney. Shapiro is set to produce. (1998)

"Blast Off!" Bought to Interscope Films. (1997)

"Fear." Sold to Miramax. John Travolta signed on to play the lead. (1996)

"Signed, Sealed & Delivered." Co-written with Aaron William Dozier. Bought by Touchstone. Betty Thomas attached to direct. Glenn Close attached to play the lead(1995)

"Solo to Mars" Optioned by Paramount Pictures. (1994)

"The Final Frontier." Optioned by Warner Brothers. (1993)

"Robin Hood: Men In Tights." Sold to 20th Century Fox & Brooksfilms (1992)

"Toy Soldiers." Optioned by Trunk Productions. (1992)

TV & Internet

Untitled: Stan Lee Project. Shapiro, along with Stan Lee (Spider Man, X-Men, Iron Man), and Tony Chargin created and will executive produce this new superhero series. (2010)

"FreakyDeak SkyLark." Shapiro created, wrote directed and executive produced this animated series for NBC. (2007)

"Inside/Out." TV series developed with Paul Rieser’s Nuance Pictures for Shapiro to star in. (2005)

"We Married Margo." Optioned by Big Ticket with Shapiro as Executive Producer and Star. Based on the movie, "We Married Margo." (2004)

Spelling Entertainment. Shapiro had an overall-deal to create and executive produce a one-hour television series. (2003)

20TH Century Fox. Development deal for Shapiro to associate produce a TV series he created called “Man Bites Dog.” (2002)

Acting

"National Lampoon's Pucked." Co-starred with Jon Bon Jovi and Cary Elwes (2006)

"The Strand Venice." Starred in an assemble web series created and executive produced by Dan Myrick (co-creator & co-director of ”The Blair Witch Project”) (2004)

"We Married Margo." Co-starred in the award winning independent film.

"Sunkist Pistachio Nut Commercial." Shapiro created the character. The commercial won Best Commercial in the commercial section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Stand-up Comedy

Shapiro started performing stand-up comedy in 2006. He was made a Paid Regular at The World Famous Comedy Store in record time, having done stand-up for almost a year.

Shapiro has performed all over the country. He is a regular at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and San Diego when in town, and when in New York he is a regular at Standup NY.

As himself

"Women in Film Awards." Shapiro was the first ever MC for the first ever awards ceremony which took place at Sundance.

The Bob & Tom Show.

The Joey Reynolds Show.

The Early Show with Mike & Juliet.

Entertainment Tonight.

Showtime.

CNN's Bizz Buzz.

Cinamax.

MTV.

Comedy Central.

E!.

Movie Talk on PBS.

Trivia

Shapiro appeared in The Osbourns in the Annoying Neighbors episode. He was approcahed to sue the series by attorny Bert Fields because he never agreed to be on the show but decided not to sue.

Shapiro was instrumental in every aspect of production in "Robin Hood: Men In Tights." From casting to locations. Mel Brooks wanted someone else for the part of Achew but Shapiro found Dave Chappell and convinced Brooks to go with him. Shapiro also wrote all the lyrics to the music, including the theme song, "Men In Tights" along with Hummie Mann who wrote all the music.

"We Married Margo" was made in 17 days, on 35mm film and shot for around $230,00. George Lucas liked the film so much he invited Shapiro to Skywalker Ranch and gave him free post-production sound editing. Frank Darabont wanted to turn the movie into a TV series for HBO.

References

http://www.bobandtom.com/show/2009/09/02

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117788587.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=jd+shapiro

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117466683.html?categoryid=1&cs=1&query=jd+shapiro

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117488166.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=jd+shapiro

ttp://www.variety.com/article/VR1117786353.html?categoryid=12&cs=1&query=jd+shapiro

External links

• Official website