Happy 70th Birthday, Michael Tolkin! Born today in 1950 as Michael L. Tolkin, this American novelist, screenwriter, producer and film director has had an award-winning career.
Tolkin was born to a Romanian and Ukrainian Jewish family in New York City, New York. He was the son of American studio executive and film industry lawyer Edith (née Leibovitch), and the late American television comedy writer Mel Tolkin.
Mel was best known as head writer of NBC's ninety-minute live American black and white television variety sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows (1950–1954) during the Golden Age of Television.
Tolkin later attended Beverly Hills High School. This would be the same high school that many celebrities had attended or would later attend.
These included Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Nicolas Cage, Lenny Kravitz, David Schwimmer, Jonathan Silverman, Gina Gershon, Rhonda Fleming, Jackie Cooper, Rob Reiner, 'Antonio Sabato. Jr.', Pauly Shore, Betty White, Corbin Bernsen, Elizabeth Daily, Albert Brooks and Crispin Glover had attended.
Years later, Tolkin matriculated and eventually graduated in 1974 with a B.A. from Middlebury College as an alma mater. This university is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont.
In the early 1990s, Tolkin wrote and directed the film for which he is best known: the 1991 American drama/mystery independent film 'The Rapture'. It had been shot in Los Angeles, California over six weeks.
The film follows Sharon (Mimi Rogers), a telephone operator who escapes the drudgery of her everyday life by trolling bars with her lover, Vic (Patrick Bauchau), and looking for couples to swing with.
However, after having an epiphany while in bed with a stranger, she becomes a born-again Christian and soon joins a sect that believes Judgment Day is near.
Sharon later settles down, becoming a dedicated wife and mother, but her unflinching faith eventually leads to shocking behavior.
Prior to Rogers' involvement with the film, Sissy Spacek, Meg Ryan, and Rachel Ward passed on taking the role of Sharon.
Tolkin had noted that Rogers' Scientology beliefs played no bearing on her casting: "Mimi's background in Scientology played no role in my casting her, nor did I see it as a problem — we never even discussed it." Rogers added that "my own religious views didn't affect my approach to the picture at all."
In another interview, though, she noted that the role was easier by way of not having a traditional view of Jesus.
She said: "I don't, for example, have a Jesus Christ definition of God... and I have no views on heaven or hell. To me they're alien concepts. If I were a practicing Christian or a Jew, with all the hang-ups of those religions, I don't think I could have done Sharon justice."
On a budget of $3 million, 'The Rapture' only grossed $1.3 million at the box office, the film premiered at the 16th Toronto International Film Festival in September of that same year.
Rogers later won praise for her performance, with the Los Angeles Times calling it an "astonishingly stunning performance." Entertainment Weekly also noted that Rogers "delivers a subtle and complex performance."
Roger Ebert gave 'The Rapture' 4/4 stars and praised Tolkin for avoiding the "pious banalities" of most religious movies, instead "examining the logic of the final judgment as radically and uncompromisingly as he can."
An audacious film about faith, 'The Rapture' is a contemporary fantasy that keeps its feet unnervingly planted in reality even as reality starts to collapse.
Tolkin later written numerous screenplays. His most notable one includes writing for Robert Altman. Most notably, this was for his 1992 American satirical black comedy drama/mystery satire film 'The Player'.
Tolkin had adapted the film from his own eponymous 1988 allegorical satire fiction book, of which delivered a biting satire of Hollywood greed. This was embodied by the book's main character, a studio executive named Griffin Mill.
The following year, for Altman's 'The Player', Tolkin received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture. However, he didn't win. This occurred at the 50th Golden Globe Awards in late January 1993.
Two months later, Tolkin was nominated an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. However, he didn't win. This occurred at the 65th AcademyAwards in late March 1993.
In the late 2000s, Tolkin wrote the long-belated sequel to his 1988 novel with his 2006 allegorical literary fiction novel The Return of the Player.
In the first book, film executive Griffin Mill got away with murder. Now Mill is back, down to his last $6 million, and broke.
His second wife wants to leave him. His first wife still loves him. His children hate him, and believing that the end of the world is happening, he wants to save them all.
With one last desperate plan to save his life, Mill quits the studio and convinces an almost billionaire that he has the road map and the mettle to make them both achieve savage wealth.
In The Return of the Player, Tolkin again delivers a brilliant, incise portrait of power, wealth, and family in contemporary society gone out of control with greed and excess.
Three years after writing The Return of the Player, Tolkin co-wrote Rob Marshall's ('Chicago') 2009 British/American musical/romance drama film 'Nine'. This was along with Anthony Minghella ('The English Patient').
According to Tolkin's personal life, he currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, American psychologist and author Wendy Mogel, and their two daughters.
Among his other screenwriting credits, Tolkin is known for co-writing 'Deep Impact' (1998), and 'Changing Lanes' (2002).
Tolkin gives a good interview. While clearly an adept Hollywood player, he casually peppers his conversations with allusions to serious literature, philosophy, cultural criticism, art cinema, and American film history.
Tolkin's film projects similarly reveal his status as a rare commodity in today's movie industry--a feeling intellectual. As a screenwriter, he pens tough-minded social satires without sacrificing compassion for his characters.
Tolkin's worldview reflects a profound and rather refreshing ambivalence. He refuses to scapegoat potentially easy targets because he views all of us as accomplices in society's shortcomings.
This journalist turned novelist turned screenwriter eventually began to flex his muscles as a writer-director in several unconventional Hollywood films of the early 1990s.
All of Tolkin's stories to date have been set in Los Angeles, a city as central to his vision as New York is to Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese.
Tolkin has been active from 1979–present.
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