Lem Dobbs (born Anton Lemuel Kitaj; 24 December 1958) is a British-American screenwriter, best known for the films '' Dark City'' (1998) and ''

The Limey ''The Limey'' is a 1999 American crime film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Lem Dobbs. The film features Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Nicky Katt, and Peter Fonda. The plot concerns an English career ...

'' (1999). He was born in

Oxford, England Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, and is the son of the painter

R. B. Kitaj Ronald Brooks Kitaj (; October 29, 1932 – October 21, 2007) was an American artist who spent much of his life in England. Life He was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, United States. His Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne ...

. The pen name "Dobbs" was taken from the character played by Humphrey Bogart in '' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' (1948).

Career

Dobbs's earliest work in the film industry was as a child actor in '' The Boy Who Turned Yellow'' (1972), a short film that was the last collaboration between director

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

and the screenwriter/producer

Emeric Pressburger Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaborat ...

. In 1979, Dobbs wrote ''Edward Ford'', an original screenplay that remains unproduced. Critic Matthew Dessem has called the script "famously brilliant, famously unproduced", and asserts that "most of Hollywood" agrees it is a "masterpiece". On the basis of another unproduced screenplay, ''The Marvel of the Haunted Castle'', Dobbs was hired to rewrite Diane Thomas's screenplay for ''

Romancing the Stone ''Romancing the Stone'' is a 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Diane Thomas and produced by Michael Douglas, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. The f ...

'' (1984), though his contributions went uncredited. Following that film's success, several films based on Dobbs's screenplays were produced: ''

Hider in the House ''Hider in the House'' is a British children's game show presented by Jason King and Joel Ross (aka JK and Joel). In the programme, a celebrity has to be hidden in a family's house by three children and a parent. If the family has fewer than t ...

'' (1989), '' The Hard Way'' (1991), ''

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...

'' (1991), which Dobbs wrote in the 1970s, and ''

'' (1999). He was also credited as co-writer on '' Dark City'' (1998), '' The Score'' (2001), and '' Haywire'' (2012), an action-thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh (who also directed ''Kafka'' and ''The Limey''). Dobbs has spoken on DVD commentary tracks for his films ''Dark City'' and ''

'', and (as a film historian) for the unrelated "In the French Style" (1963), ''

Von Ryan's Express ''Von Ryan's Express'' is a 1965 World War II adventure film starring Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, and Raffaella Carrà, and directed by Mark Robson. Produced in CinemaScope, the film depicts a group of Allied prisoners of war ( POWs) who cond ...

'' (1965), ''

The Sand Pebbles ''The Sand Pebbles'' is a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat and its crew in 1926. It was the winner of the 1963 Harper Prize for fiction. The book was initially serialized in the ''Saturday Evening Po ...

'' (1966), and '' Double Indemnity'' (1945), the last due to his personal friendship with the director

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...

Filmography

Feature films

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Hollywood: Lem Dobbs
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dobbs, Lem 1958 births British emigrants to the United States American male screenwriters English screenwriters English male screenwriters Living people People from Oxford