Daniel Waters (screenwriter)

American screenwriter and film director

Daniel Waters

Waters at the 2008 Screenwriting Expo

Born|  (1962-11-10) November 10, 1962 (age 62)

Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

Occupation(s)| Screenwriter, film director
Relatives| Mark Waters (brother)

Daniel Waters (born November 10, 1962) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is the older brother of director Mark Waters.

## Early life

[edit]

Waters was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in South Bend, Indiana.[1] In high school, Waters wrote a popular column titled "Troubled Waters" for his high school newspaper, where he wrote fictitious stories about his real-life classmates--not unlike the writing that appeared in his screenplay for Heathers.[2] He then wrote, directed and starred alongside Larry Karaszewski in a local sketch comedy titled Beyond Our Control in the early 1980s.[1] Waters moved to Montreal where he graduated from McGill University. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, and was the manager of a video store.[1]

## Screenwriting credits

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Waters came to prominence in 1988 for writing the black comedy Heathers,[2] for which he received a 1990 Edgar Award.[1] Heathers was an attempt for him to write of the true nature of teenagers and high-school society. Heathers was not a box-office hit for Waters when it was released, but the movie has become a cult classic.[3][4] Waters won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture.

Over the next four years, Waters served as co-writer on the comedy The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, wrote the sequel Batman Returns, and then wrote the films Hudson Hawk (for which he re-teamed with Heathers director Michael Lehmann) and Demolition Man.[5] He received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay for both Hudson Hawk and Ford Fairlane. In 1995, he authored the first draft of the Catwoman solo movie. The story about Selina moving to a Vegas-like city called 'Oasisburg' and fighting parodies of male superheroes failed to resonate with Tim Burton or anyone at Warner.

## Turn as a director

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In 2001, Waters made his directorial debut with Happy Campers,[6] another teen comedy in a black vein that, after a long delay, was released straight to DVD.[7] His follow-up, Sex and Death 101, a hybrid of science fiction, dark comedy, and romantic thriller, won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival.[8] It was released theatrically on April 4, 2008, in New York and Los Angeles. The film re-teamed Waters with Heathers star Winona Ryder.[9]

## Filmography

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### As writer

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Year  | Title  | Director  | Notes

|
|
|

1989  | Heathers | Michael Lehmann |
1990  | The Adventures of Ford Fairlane | Renny Harlin | Credited with James Cappe and David Arnott
1991  | Hudson Hawk | Michael Lehmann  | Credited with Steven E. de Souza
1992  | Batman Returns | Tim Burton | Credited with Wesley Strick
1993  | Demolition Man | Marco Brambilla | Credited with Robert Reneau and Peter M. Lenkov
2001  | Happy Campers | Self  |
2007  | Sex and Death 101 |
2014  | Vampire Academy | Mark Waters |

## References

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1. ^ a b c d Umland, Samuel J. (2015). The Tim Burton Encyclopedia. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-0-8108-9201-9.
2. ^ a b "Film; 'Heathers': Light Look at a Dark Topic". The New York Times. March 26, 1989.
3. ^ Mills, Sarah (August 9, 2018). "Cult movie 'Heathers' about U.S. high school set for re-release". Reuters.
4. ^ Fry, Naomi (March 27, 2019). "Heathers Blew Up the High-School Comedy". The New Yorker.
5. ^ Cullum, Paul (April 2, 2008). "How very". Los Angeles Times.
6. ^ McCarthy, Todd (February 23, 2001). "Happy Campers". Variety.
7. ^ Rosenblatt, Josh (April 11, 2008). "Movie Review: Sex and Death 101". Austin Chronicle.
8. ^ Nechak, Paula (April 11, 2008). "'101' Doesn't Teach Us Anything New". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
9. ^ Weinberg, Scott (June 2, 2006). "Heathers Creators Reteam for Indie Sex". Rotten Tomatoes.

## External links

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* Daniel Waters at IMDb
* Daniel Waters at the American Film Institute Catalog

Awards for Daniel Waters

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Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay

1940s|

* John Paxton (1946)
* Anthony Veiller (1947)
* John Paxton (1948)
* Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman, and Quentin Reynolds (1949)

1950s|

* Mel Dinelli and Cornell Woolrich (1950)
* Ben Maddow (1951)
* Michael Wilson (1952)
* Michael Wilson and Otto Lang (1953)
* Sydney Boehm (1954)
* John Michael Hayes (1955)
* Joseph Hayes (1956)
* Reginald Rose (1958)
* Nathan E. Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith (1959)

1960s|

* Ernest Lehman (1960)
* Joseph Stefano (1961)
* William Archibald and Truman Capote (1962)
* Peter Stone (1964)
* Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller (1965)
* Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper (1966)
* William Goldman (1967)
* Stirling Silliphant (1968)
* Harry Kleiner and Alan Trustman (1969)

1970s|

* Costa Gavras and Jorge Semprún (1970)
* Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro (1971)
* Ernest Tidyman (1972)
* Anthony Shaffer (1973)
* Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim (1974)
* Robert Towne (1975)
* David Rayfiel and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (1976)
* Ernest Lehman (1977)
* Robert Benton (1978)
* William Goldman (1979)

1980s|

* Michael Crichton (1980)
* Joseph Wambaugh (1981)
* Jeffrey Alan Fiskin (1982)
* Barrie Keeffe (1983)
* Dennis Potter (1984)
* Charles Fuller (1985)
* William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace (1986)
* E. Max Frye (1987)
* Jim Kouf (1988)
* Errol Morris (1989)

1990s|

* Daniel Waters (1990)
* Donald E. Westlake (1991)
* Ted Tally (1992)
* Michael Tolkin (1993)
* Ebbe Roe Smith (1994)
* Quentin Tarantino (1995)
* Christopher McQuarrie (1996)
* Billy Bob Thornton (1997)
* Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (1998)
* Scott Frank and Elmore Leonard (1999)

2000s|

* Guy Ritchie (2000)
* Stephen Gaghan and Simon Moore (2001)
* Christopher Nolan (2002)
* Bill Condon (2003)
* Steven Knight (2004)
* Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Sébastien Japrisot (2005)
* Stephen Gaghan and Robert Baer (2006)
* William Monahan (2007)
* Tony Gilroy (2008)
* Martin McDonagh (2009)

* v
* t
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Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay

1980s|

* Bronte Woodard and Allan Carr – Can't Stop the Music (1980)
* Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, Tracy Hotchner, and Robert Getchell – Mommie Dearest (1981)
* Robin Moore and Laird Koenig – Inchon (1982)
* John Kershaw, Shawn Randall, and Ellen Shephard – The Lonely Lady (1983)
* John Derek – Bolero (1984)
* Sylvester Stallone, James Cameron, and Kevin Jarre – Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
* Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz – Howard the Duck (1986)
* Jonathan Reynolds and Bill Cosby – Leonard Part 6 (1987)
* Heywood Gould – Cocktail (1988)
* Eddie Murphy – Harlem Nights (1989)

1990s|

* Daniel Waters, James Cappe, and David Arnott – The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
* Steven E. de Souza, Daniel Waters, Bruce Willis, and Robert Kraft – Hudson Hawk (1991)
* Blake Snyder, William Osborne, and William Davies – Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)
* Amy Holden Jones – Indecent Proposal (1993)
* Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein, Steven E. de Souza, and various others – The Flintstones (1994)
* Joe Eszterhas – Showgirls (1995)
* Andrew Bergman – Striptease (1996)
* Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland – The Postman (1997)
* Joe Eszterhas – An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998)
* Jim Thomas, John Thomas, S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, and Peter S. Seaman – Wild Wild West (1999)

2000s|

* Corey Mandell and J. David Shapiro – Battlefield Earth (2000)
* Tom Green and Derek Harvie – Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
* George Lucas and Jonathan Hales – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
* Martin Brest – Gigli (2003)
* Theresa Rebeck, John Brancato, Michael Ferris, and John Rogers – Catwoman (2004)
* Jenny McCarthy – Dirty Love (2005)
* Leora Barish and Henry Bean – Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
* Jeffrey Hammond – I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
* Mike Myers and Graham Gordy – The Love Guru (2008)
* Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

2010s|

* M. Night Shyamalan – The Last Airbender (2010)
* Steve Koren, Adam Sandler, and Ben Zook – Jack and Jill (2011)
* David Caspe – That's My Boy (2012)
* Steve Baker, Ricky Blitt, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Jonas Wittenmark – Movie 43 (2013)
* Darren Doane and Cheston Hervey – Saving Christmas (2014)
* Kelly Marcel – Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
* Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
* Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, and Mike White – The Emoji Movie (2017)
* Niall Leonard – Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
* Lee Hall and Tom Hooper – Cats (2019)

2020s|

* Tomasz Klimala, Barbara Białowąs, Tomasz Mandes, and Blanka Lipińska – 365 Days (2020/21)
* Joe DiPietro and David Bryan – Diana: The Musical (2021)
* Andrew Dominik – Blonde (2022)
* Rhys Frake-Waterfield – Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)

Authority control databases

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