A Steven Zaillian retrospective continues this week at the Bay Theater.
Photo: Netflix
Pacific Palisades resident Steven Zailian’s work is being featured in a film retrospective hosted at the Bay Theater, 1035 Swarthmore Avenue.
Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth, in a New York Times profile, called Zailian as “one of the two or three best screenwriters in town.”
Zailian wrote the scripts for Schindler’s List (for which he won the Academy Award), and received Oscar nominates for Awakenings, Gangs of New York, Moneyball and The Irishman.
He directed Searching for Bobby Fischer and A Civil Action.
In a 2009 Austin Chronicle story, he spoke about success: “If you talk to five different writers or five different directors, their stories are going to be different. When I had written three scripts and nothing had happened with them, I got really discouraged. And then one day, the phone rang out of the blue. Something can happen when you least expect it. I don’t think it matters anymore [where you live]. I think the trick is always getting the right person to read your script.”
Playing this week at the Bay is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (April 8), Awakenings (April 9), The Irishman (April 10) and American Gangster (April 11).
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) accepts an invitation to surreptitiously investigate a forty-year-old unsolved murder on behalf of the victim’s uncle, Swedish industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer). Meanwhile, tattooed hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), hired to investigate Blomkvist, discovers the truth behind the conspiracy that led to his fall from grace. Thrown together by fate, the unlikely duo uncovers a secret history of murder and sexual abuse festering beneath the veneer of Sweden’s industrial past, all the while drawing closer to a quiet evil waiting to engulf them both.
AWAKENINGS
A doctor experiments with a drug that may restore life to his patients who have been catatonic for years. Starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.
THE IRISHMAN
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
AMERICAN GANGSTER
Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe is an honest cop battling drugs and police corruption in 1970s New York. The main focus of his investigation is a huge heroin empire built by a charismatic black drug dealer (Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington) who imports enormous amounts of top-grade heroin from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Working from a powerful screenplay by Academy Award-winning writer Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), Academy Award-nominated director Ridley Scott helms a taut and gritty crime drama featuring powerhouse performances from its heavyweight leading men. Based on a true story.
Food is available at the Bay Theater and one resident wrote that “it is great and cheaper than any of the nearby restaurants and their tacos are excellent.” For tickets: click here.