Lawrence D. Cohen
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Lawrence D. Cohen is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on several adaptations of Stephen King's '' Carrie'', including
Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
's 1976 film and
Kimberly Peirce Kimberly Ane Peirce (born September 8, 1967) is an American filmmaker, best known for her debut feature film, '' Boys Don't Cry'' (1999), which won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hilary Swank's performance. Her second feature, '' Stop-Los ...
's 2013 film.


Career

''Carrie'' was both the first Stephen King novel to be published and the first to be adapted into a feature film. During an interview in 2010, King said he was 26 years old at the time and was paid just $2,500 for the film rights, but added, "I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book." Newspaper column review of a live interview by Christy Arnold of King onstage at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County, Florida, March 20, 2010: "Although the film "Carrie" is dated now, he said he thought it was a good movie. 'I was fortunate to have that happen to my first book.' (He was 26 years old and was paid $2,500, he said.)" Cohen was hired, and scripted the first draft, which had closely followed the novel's intentions. United Artists, the studio behind the film, accepted the second draft but only allocated director De Palma a budget of $1.6 million. Certain scripted scenes were omitted from the final version, due to finance. Several decades later, he would oversee rewrites on the 2013 remake. Following this Cohen scripted a simplified film adaptation of
Peter Straub Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...
's novel '' Ghost Story'' in 1981. He also adapted two other King novels to television miniseries, the 1990 version of '' It'' and the 1993 version of ''
The Tommyknockers ''The Tommyknockers'' is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the i ...
''. In 2001, he wrote an adaptation of the musical '' South Pacific''. Several new scenes, such as Nellie and Emile's first meeting at the officer's club, were added, and a new character was created to serve as Nellie's best friend and confidante. In 2006, he wrote a segment for the TV series '' Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King''. In 1981, Cohen began to work on a musical adaptation of ''Carrie'', which premiered in 1988 on Broadway to negative reviews and closed after only 16 previews and 5 performances. In 2012, the musical was revived Off Broadway for a limited engagement at the
Lucille Lortel Theatre The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unch ...
(with Cohen revising the book).Smith, Tommy. "Resuscitating Carrie," ''Brooklyn Rail'', March 2012
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References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Lawrence D. 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American screenwriters American male screenwriters American film producers American male dramatists and playwrights Living people Year of birth missing (living people)