William Osborne (writer)

English barrister, screenwriter, author

William Osborne (born 1960) is an English barrister, screenwriter, author, and company director.

He lived in Hollywood from the 1980s to 2001, after which he returned to England and began writing children’s fiction.

## Early life[edit]

Osborne was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, then at Robert Louis Stevenson School, Pebble Beach, California, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied law and was Vice President of the Cambridge Footlights, and finally at the Middle Temple, from where he was called to the bar.[1][2]

## Career[edit]

Shortly after beginning his career as a barrister, Osborne moved to Hollywood with a friend, William Davies, and began to write film scripts. Their only preparation for this new career was to buy a book called Screenplay and read it five times.[1] Osborne became a member of the Writers Guild of America West and has written for more than sixty films, including GoldenEye (1995).[3]

He has been a director of Loveb Films since 2012.[4]

In 2001, Osborne married the film producer Debra Hayward,[5] and they have four children.[6] He returned from California to marry Hayward, and they later moved from London to Glandford, Norfolk, with Osborne taking up writing children’s fiction.[3] His recreations include cold water swimming, Lego, and driving a beach buggy.

## Filmography as writer[edit]

* Student Exchange (TV movie, 1987)
* Twins (1988)[1]
* Short Time (1990)
* Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)
* The Real McCoy (1993)
* Ghost in the Machine (1993)[1]
* Bermuda Grace (TV movie, 1994)
* Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995)
* GoldenEye (1995)[3]
* What Rats Won't Do (1998)
* Chilly Dogs (2001)
* The Scorpion King (2002)[1]
* Fat Slags (2004)
* Thunderbirds (2004)

## Novels[edit]

* Hitler’s Angel (Chicken House: 2012)[1]
* Winter’s Bullet (Chicken House: 2014)[1]
* Jupiter's Fire (2019)[7]

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g "INTERVIEW: William Osborne", norwichfilmfestival.co.uk, accessed 17 February 2021
2. ^ 'Cambridge Tripos results', Times, 3 July 1982, p. 10.
3. ^ a b c Rowan Mantell, "Couple’s amazing film-making odyssey brings them to Norfolk", Eastern Daily Press, 31 October 2014, accessed 17 February 2021
4. ^ "William OSBORNE", company-information.service.gov.uk, accessed 19 February 2021
5. ^ "William H Osborne" in England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005: "Name: William H Osborne / Registration Date: 2001 [Sep 2001] / Registration District: Camden, Greater London / Spouse: Debra Hayward / Volume Number: 250 / Page Number: 424 / Entry Number: 027"
6. ^ Debra Hayward: Heaven knows we were Les Misérables making this movie, Evening Standard, 29 January 2013, accessed 17 February 2021
7. ^ Interview with Screenwriter William Osborne, Author of Jupiter’s Fire (#YA Historical Fiction), beckiewrites.com, accessed 17 February 2021

## External links[edit]

* William Osborne, IMDb

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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)

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