James Schamus
James Allan Schamus ( born September 7, 1959 in California) is an American film producer and screenwriter.
Life
James Schamus gained his first experience in the film industry in collaboration with the still unknown film producer Christine Vachon, with which he participated in 1988 in the creation of the television channel Independent Television Service ( ITVS ). At the same time he worked as a so-called script doctor at New Line Cinema, where Schamus friend of Ted Hope. Both founded the New York Film Good Machine production in January 1991. The sales manager of Miramax, David Linde, in 1994 a third partner and the company expanded to filmmakers and financiers.
The first feature film of the company was sliding Hands ( 1992), the Schamus developed with the immigrant Taiwanese Ang Lee. The following community work The Wedding Banquet was awarded in 1993 with the Golden Bear and an Oscar nomination. Many of Lee's directorial work has been co-produced by Schamus. Also, most script templates were supplied by him. Together created Schamus and Lee films Eat Drink Man Woman ( 1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, which won the Nebula Award for " Best Screenplay " 2001), Hulk (2003) and Lust, Caution (2007). Schamus was awarded for his screenplay for The Ice Storm on the film festival of Cannes in 1997 and won for Brokeback Mountain ( 2005) several producer prices.
The reputation as the most important producer of the indie movement made itself Schamus additionally by Poison ( 1991) In the Soup (1992 ), What Happened was ... (1994) and The Brothers McMullen (1995 ), all at the Sundance Film Festival were awarded the prize for " Best Picture". Good Machine also produced award-winning films such as Safe (1995 ) Walking and Talking (1996 ), The Myth (1997) and In the Bedroom ( 2001).
In June 2002, Good Machine from Universal was purchased and merged with USA Films to Focus Features.
Schamus also taught at Berkeley, Chicago and at Columbia University as a professor of film history. He is married and has one daughter.
Schamus is the President of the International Jury of the Berlinale 2014.