Hottest Young Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie

On his way home from the airport to his home in Sydney, Stuart Beattie had a homicidal thought while sitting in the backseat of the taxi. That was 14 years ago when he was 18 years old. He turned his bizarre thought into a script that turned out to be the movie Collateral, starring Tom Cruise. At 32, Beattie said that the script was meant to be for a small independent film but Cruise fell in love with it because it would allow him to play a type of character he has never before played. Cruise's involvement put pressure on the producers to turn it into a major movie.

Success has made Beattie Hollywood’s golden boy. His other screenwriting accomplishment is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, starring Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, a film that made $US 653 million and $A 927 million at the worldwide box office. He recently finished a script, 30 Days of Night, a horror film; and was hired to turn James Siegel’s novel, Derailed into a film starring Jennifer Aniston.

For the past 12 years, Beattie has lived in the U.S. with his American wife, Kim, and can thank that ride in the cab and the offbeat thought that entered his head 14 years ago.

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