James Schamus
- Production
- September 7, 1959 · Detroit, Michigan, USA
Biography
James Allan Schamus (born September 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989. Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family.He is the son of Clarita (Gershowitz) Karlin and Julian John Schamus and was raised in Los Angeles. He is married to writer Nancy Kricorian, with whom he has two children. His output includes writing or co-writing The Ice Storm, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Hulk (all directed by Ang Lee) and producing Brokeback Mountain and Alone in Berlin. At Focus he oversaw the production and distribution of Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Coraline, and The Kids Are All Right. In addition to his tenure at Columbia University, he has also taught at Yale University and at Rutgers University. He is the author of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud: The Moving Word, published by the University of Washington Press. He earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Schamus made his feature directorial debut with Indignation, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel of the same name. Schamus also wrote the script for the film, which stars Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, and Tracy Letts, and is the story of a Jewish student at an Ohio college in 1951. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions on July 29, 2016. He was president of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. He has also been on the jury of the New York International Children's Film Festival and has served on the editorial boards of Film Quarterly and Cinema Journal, as well as on the board of Creative Capital and the Heyman Centre for the Humanities. Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Rosenbaum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Filmography
- The Boroughs · Writer, Consulting Producer
- Son-in-Law · Producer, Writer
- The Wedding Banquet · Screenplay, Producer
- McVeigh · Executive producer
- We Grown Now · Executive producer
- Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms · Script Consultant
- The King's Daughter · Screenplay
- Attack of the Hollywood Clichés! · Self
- Somos. · Executive producer, Writer
- Driveways · Producer
- The Assistant · Producer
- Frames · Narrator (Voice), Director
- 30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing · Director
- Adam · Producer
- The Tomorrow Man · Producer
- Furlough · Executive producer
- Dayveon · Executive producer
- Casting JonBenet · Producer
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Retrospective
- Indignation · Screenplay, Director
- Junction 48 · Executive producer
- Alone in Berlin · Producer
- Suffragette · Executive producer
- That Film About Money · Producer, Writer
- Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery · Self
- Lost Forever: The Art of Film Preservation · Self
- These Amazing Shadows · Self
- Taking Woodstock · Screenplay, Producer
- A Sense of Character · Self
- A Very Quiet Man · Self
- Lust, Caution · Screenplay, Executive producer
- Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema · Self
- Brokeback Mountain · Producer
- The Making of 'Hulk' · Self
- Evolution of the Hulk · Self
- The Incredible Ang Lee · Self
- Hulk · Producer, Story
- Buffalo Soldiers · Executive producer
- Auto Focus · Executive producer
- A Feast for the Eyes: Ang Lee in Taipei · Self
- Tortilla Soup · Original Film Writer
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · Screenplay, Executive producer
- Love God · Executive producer
- Ride with the Devil · Screenplay, Producer
- Lola and Billy the Kid · Executive producer
- Happiness · Executive producer
- Office Killer · Executive producer
- Wonderland · Executive producer
- The Ice Storm · Producer, Screenplay
- The Myth of Fingerprints · Executive producer
- Arresting Gena · Executive producer
- She's the One · Producer
- Walking and Talking · Producer
- Sense and Sensibility · Co-producer
- The Brothers McMullen · Executive producer
- Roy Cohn/Jack Smith · Producer
- Safe · Executive producer
- What Happened Was... · Executive producer
- Eat Drink Man Woman · Screenplay, Associate Producer
- A Psychic Mom · Coordinating Producer
- The Wedding Banquet · Producer, Writer
- MOTV (My Own TV) · Coordinating Producer
- In the Soup · Associate Producer
- Ambition · Producer
- Thank You and Good Night · Producer
- Surviving Desire · Associate Producer
- Pushing Hands · Writer, Executive producer
- Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier · Executive producer
- I Was on Mars · Line Producer
- Keep It for Yourself
- Poison · Executive producer
- Fatale · Producer
- The Spacesuit · Producer