Robin Swicord

Robin Stender Swicord (born October 23, 1952) is an American screenwriter, film director, and playwright, best known for literary adaptations. Her notable screenplays include Little Women, Matilda (1996), Practical Magic (1998), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the latter of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. She wrote and directed the 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club.

Swicord is the wife of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, and the mother of actresses Zoe Kazan and Maya Kazan. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors.

Early life Swicord was born in Columbia, South Carolina, She has a brother, Steven Swicord.

Swicord said she always wrote as a child, and that later as she continued writing in college, became interested in screenplays because they were visual in nature.

She graduated from Florida State University, where she double-majored in English and Theater, with an emphasis on stagecraft. An agent named Merrily Kane who saw one of the plays asked Swicord if she had considered writing for film. Swicord gave her a script called Stock Cars for Christ, which was sold to MGM, a job that required that she move to Los Angeles. Although the project was never produced,

Her directorial debut was the 1993 short film The Red Coat, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film was about her grandmother and starred Theresa Wright and Bridget Fonda.

For the 1994 film Little Women, Swicord conducted intensive research into Louisa May Alcott's personal diaries and family letters in order to recreate the period accurately.

Swicord wrote the screenplay for Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 novel The Jane Austen Book Club and directed the film, which was released in the United States on September 21, 2007. The film was her feature film debut.

For 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, Swicord worked collaboratively with director Rob Marshall to adapt Arthur Golden's novel. Although the project had been with other writers and directors, and there were many previous drafts of the script, Swicord said that she and Marshall started from scratch. Swicord was able to use Golden's original research and unedited manuscripts to construct the screenplay, which won a Golden Satellite Award for best adapted screenplay. The project had been in development by producer Ray Stark for 20 years before she began working on the script. Swicord said that the adaptation was so loose that she felt that her work almost became an original screenplay. The eventual director of the film, David Fincher, hired Eric Roth, who rewrote much of Swicord's script.

Filmography 1980: Cuba Crossing – screenplay/story 1987: The Disney Sunday Movie (TV Series) – writer, 1 episode: "You Ruined My Life" 1989: Shag – screenplay with Lanier Laney & Terry Sweeney 1993: The Red Coat (Short) – writer, director 1994: Little Women (adapted from the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott) – screenplay, co-producer 1995: The Perez Family (adapted from the book The Perez Family by Christine Bell) – screenplay, executive producer 1996: Matilda (adapted with Nicholas Kazan from the book Matilda by Roald Dahl) – screenplay, co-producer 1998: Practical Magic (adapted with Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks from the book Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman) – screenplay, co-producer 2005: Memoirs of a Geisha (adapted from the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden) – screenplay 2007: The Jane Austen Book Club (adapted from the book The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler) – screenplay, director 2008: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (story credit with Eric Roth from the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald) – story 2016: The Promise – screenplay (with Terry George) 2016: Wakefield – Screenplay, director. Based on the short story by E.L. Doctorow. 2019: When They See Us (TV Series) – writer, 2 episodes

Unproduced projects The Rivals – About Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt The Jane Prize – about a family of Jane Austen scholars Swicord, Robin. Criminal Minds. New York: Samuel French, 1984.

Works and publications Peter J. Barton Productions, Alabama, and Alabama Public Library Service. Private Lives: Illiteracy, We Can't Afford It. Tallahassee, FL: Peter J. Barton Productions, 1980. Swicord, Robin. "Pioneer know-how -- Script Girls: Women Screenwriters in Hollywood by Lizzie Francke." Sight and Sound. London: British Film Institute. Volume 5, No. 2. February 1995. Page 36. Swicord, Robin. "Blonde ambition -- All About Eve directed by Joseph Mankiewicz." Sight and Sound. London: British Film Institute. Volume 5, No. 11. November 1995. Page 59. Swicord, Robin. "Scriptwriting from Soup to Nuts." Sight and Sound. London: British Film Institute. Volume 7, No. 11. November 1997. Pages 28–30, 33. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Architects of Dreams: Writers on Writing: Defeating the Blank Page. Beverly Hills, CA: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2001. Academy seminar on August 15, 2001, at Academy Little Theater in Beverly Hills, California. Featured speakers Brian Helgeland and Robin Swicord moderated by Randy Haberkamp. Swicord, Robin. "Under the Skin: Adapting Novels for the Screen." Kranz, David L., and Nancy C. Mellerski. In/Fidelity: Essays on Film Adaptation. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Pub, 2008. Literature/Film Association conference at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 2005.

Leadership positions 2012–present: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governor's Board Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Committee Chair – Writers Branch Board of the Writers Guild Foundation Writers Guild’s Pension and Health Fund Trustee San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film Advisory Board