For other people named Curtis Hanson, see Curtis Hanson (disambiguation).

Curtis Hanson
Hanson at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Curtis Lee Hanson March 24, 1945 Reno, Nevada, U.S.
Died	September 20, 2016 (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Director producer screenwriter
Years active	1970–2012
Notable work	The Hand That Rocks the Cradle The River Wild L.A. Confidential Wonder Boys 8 Mile In Her Shoes Lucky You Chasing Mavericks

Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His directing work included the psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), the neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997), the comedy Wonder Boys (2000), the hip-hop biopic 8 Mile (2002), the romantic comedy-drama In Her Shoes (2005), and the made-for-television docudrama Too Big to Fail (2011).

Hanson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998, for co-writing L.A. Confidential with Brian Helgeland, with additional nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and for the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.^[1] An active member of the Directors Guild of America, he was a member of the Creative Rights Committee, the President's Committee on Film Preservation, and the Film Foundation.^[2]

Early life

Hanson was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in Los Angeles.^[3] He was the son of Beverly June Curtis, a real estate agent, and Wilbur Hale "Bill" Hanson, a teacher.^[4][5][6] Hanson dropped out of high school, finding work as a freelance photographer and editor for Cinema magazine.^[7]

Film career

Hanson began screenwriting in 1970, when he co-wrote The Dunwich Horror, a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story. Hanson wrote and directed his next feature Sweet Kill starring Tab Hunter in 1973, then in 1978 wrote and produced The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. From the early 1980s into 1990s, Hanson directed a string of comedies and dramas. He directed thrillers, too: many of them deal with people who lose their sense of control or security when facing danger or under threat of death. Some, like the financial executive in Bad Influence and the police officers in L.A. Confidential, unexpectedly walk into violence and disaster.

In the 1990s, Hanson found box-office success with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, and received significant critical acclaim for his 1997 film L.A. Confidential, an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two — Best Adapted Screenplay (a credit Hanson shared with Brian Helgeland), and Best Supporting Actress (for Kim Basinger).^[1] Hanson's later works included In Her Shoes, Wonder Boys, 8 Mile, and Lucky You.

Hanson said that he was heavily influenced by the directors Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray. In an interview with the New York Times in 2000, Hanson stated that Ray's film In a Lonely Place was among many that he watched in preparation for the filming of L.A. Confidential.^[8] In 8 Mile, Kim Basinger's character watches Elia Kazan's Pinky on television. The film is about a mixed-race girl who passes as white; the reference to it in Hanson's film functions as an homage to the themes of racial mixing and boundary-crossing that are features of much of his work.

In 2011, Hanson made Too Big to Fail, based on the 2009 Andrew Ross Sorkin book of the same name about the beginnings of the financial crisis of 2007–2010. The film, produced by Hanson's production company Deuce Three Productions for HBO, featured among its cast William Hurt as Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, and Cynthia Nixon as his liaison to the press; James Woods as Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers; and Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke.^[9] His last film was Chasing Mavericks in 2012, but he was unable to finish the film due to ill health. Michael Apted replaced him as director during the final days of shooting.^[10]

Death

Hanson later retired from film work and was reported to have frontotemporal dementia. He died of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills home at the age of 71.^[7]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Notes
1970	The Dunwich Horror	No	No	Yes	Co-writer with Henry Rosenbaum & Ronald Silkosky
1972	Sweet Kill	Yes	Yes	Yes	Directorial debut
1974	God Bless Dr. Shagetz	Yes	No	No	Unfinished film[11] Footage later used in Evil Town
1977	The Little Dragons	Yes	Yes	No
1978	The Silent Partner	No	Associate	Yes
1982	White Dog	No	No	Yes	Co-writer with Samuel Fuller
1983	Losin' It	Yes	No	No
	Never Cry Wolf	No	No	Yes	Co-writer with Sam Hamm & Richard Kletter
1987	The Bedroom Window	Yes	No	Yes
1990	Bad Influence	Yes	No	No	Nominated- Critics Award (Deauville Film Festival)
1992	The Hand that Rocks the Cradle	Yes	No	No	Grand Prix (Festival du Film Policier de Cognac) Audience Award (Festival du Film Policier de Cognac)
1994	The River Wild	Yes	No	No
1997	L.A. Confidential	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-writer with Brian Helgeland Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay USC Scripter Award WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated- Palme d'Or Nominated- Academy Award for Best Picture Nominated- Academy Award for Best Director Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Film Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay Nominated- DGA Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film Nominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Director Nominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay Nominated- PGA Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Film Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Director
2000	Wonder Boys	Yes	Yes	No
2002	8 Mile	Yes	Yes	No	Nominated- European Screen International Award
2005	In Her Shoes	Yes	Yes	No
2007	Lucky You	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-writer with Eric Roth
2011	The Big Year	No	Yes	No
2012	Chasing Mavericks	Yes	Yes	No	Co-director with Michael Apted

Also cameo appearance (as 'Orlean's Husband') in Adaptation (2002).

Television

Year	Title	Director	Executive Producer	Writer	Notes
1986	The Children of Times Square	Yes	No	Yes	Television film
2002	Greg the Bunny	Yes	No	No	Episode 'Piddler on the Roof'
2010	Three Rivers	No	Yes	No	Episode 'Win-Loss'
2011	Too Big to Fail	Yes	Yes	No	Television film Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Movie Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie
2014	Hoke	No	Yes	No	Television film

Music video

• Things Have Changed for Bob Dylan (2000).

References

External links

• Curtis Hanson at IMDb
• Curtis Hanson on Facebook
• Frontotemporal Degeneration association