Screenwriters I Love: Amy Holden Jones

My 2023 #LauraAtTheMovies journey is a list of screenwriters I love and why they inspire me as a writer, competition juror, and fan.

Screenwriter: Amy Holden Jones

Best Known For: The Resident (TV series), Indecent Proposal, Beethoven (and its SEVEN sequels!), Mystic Pizza, The Slumber Party Massacre.

Awards & Nominations: 

1975 AFI National Student Film Festival, first place
1993 Razzie Award, screenplay Indecent Proposal
2019 Sentinel Award, Best Serial Drama

About the writer: Women in film owe this fearless trailblazer a debt of gratitude. She majored in art history at Wellesley College while concurrently taking filmmaking classes at MIT, and her student documentary short won first place at a 1975 film festival where Martin Scorsese happened to be a judge. A year later she was struggling to get her films financed, so she called Scorsese, reminding him of her winning film and asked if she should move to New York. He called her back and offered her a job as his assistant on Taxi Driver! Once they were working together, he told her she was too talented to be an assistant and connected her with another film producer, which led to her becoming an editor for a number of years. She wanted to move on from editing to direct and write screenplays. When Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist delayed production of E.T., she took a huge leap and walked away from editing E.T. to write and direct her first film. There aren't many people who'd have the guts to call Scorsese or turn down Spielberg!

Why I love their work: Her first film, The Slumber Party Massacre, was microbudget even by 70s standards, yet it's become a cult classic for horror fans. She's reinvented herself several times, pivoting from genre to genre, including the successful franchise of eight Beethoven movies and the current hit television series, The Resident. 

I can only hope to have as much grit and talent as this incredible writer/director/producer!

IMDb link: Amy Holden Jones

Thanks for joining me at the movies,

Related links: https://lauracrispdavis.com/blog/screenwriters-i-love-2023-list/