Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and sometime playwright, best known for his work on the campy
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
television series Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
and the political/paranoia movie thrillers The Parallax View
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
(1974) and Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
(1975).
Early work
Semple's writing career started in 1951, as a short storyShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
contributor to magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
and Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
. Semple also tried writing for the theatre and had two plays produced on Broadway, Tonight in Samarkand (1955), a melodrama adapted from the French, and the comedy The Golden Fleecing (1959). The latter was bought by MGM and produced under the title The Honeymoon Machine, starring Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
, following which Semple relocated to Hollywood and established himself as a writer for several television shows, including Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly...
, Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
, and The Rat Patrol
The Rat Patrol
The Rat Patrol is an American television program that aired on ABC during the 1966–1968 seasons. The show follows the exploits of four Allied soldiers who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II...
.
Number One Son
"I wrote a pilot called, Number One Son about Charlie Chan’s son. A story set in San Francisco. I wrote the script which was okay, everybody liked it, which is about all you can expect, and we were thinking about casting and everything then ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
called William Dozier
William Dozier
William Dozier was an American film and television producer and actor.He began in the film industry...
saying, 'This is very embarrassing but word just came down we’re not to do any program with an ethnic lead.' They didn’t want a Chinese person in it. So they said, 'We’re very embarrassed but we owe you one.'"
Batman
While living in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1965, Semple was approached by producer William Dozier
William Dozier
William Dozier was an American film and television producer and actor.He began in the film industry...
to develop a television series for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
based on the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
Batman
Batman (comic book)
Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
. Semple wrote a pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
which was promptly picked up, and the series based on it put on the air, with popular success. Semple wrote the first four episodes. Semple also served as Executive Story Editor, a capacity in which he put his writing imprint on all of the first season's scripts, and at the same time provided the screenplay for the 1966 Batman
Batman (1966 film)
Batman, often promoted as Batman: The Movie, is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was...
feature film version.
Later career
Following Batman, Semple never wrote for television again and his screenwriting jobs took an often serious tone. His script for the critically acclaimed cult filmCult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
Pretty Poison
Pretty Poison (film)
Pretty Poison is a thriller film directed by Noel Black, starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld, about an ex-convict and high school cheerleader who commit a series of crimes....
(1968) won the award of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards as best screenplay of its year. "Fox, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, hated the movie (Pretty Poison
Pretty Poison
Pretty Poison is a Dance group based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Group members are Jade Starling ; Whey Cooler ; and Kaya Pryor .-History:...
). They really hated it. They released it at only one theatre in New York on the upper west side. Just one theatre without any press screening. It happen that–Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
was independently a friend of mine. She called up Joe Morgenstern who was a critic in the Wall Street Journal. She said, 'Joe, there’s a movie that’s so terrible that Fox won’t let us see it and put it out at one theatre. Let’s go see what kind of movie that was. Maybe we can really beat Fox over the head' and they loved the movie. So, naturally, they wildly over-praised it, in my opinion. They started a movement for it..."
He went on to co-write such dramas as Papillon
Papillon (film)
Papillon is a 1973 film based on the best-selling novel by the French convict Henri Charrière.This motion picture was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière , and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega...
(1973) (with Dalton Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...
) and The Drowning Pool
The Drowning Pool (film)
The Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel The Drowning Pool. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a sequel to Harper...
(1975), as well as The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor.
Following Condor, he wrote several movies for producer Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
, including the popular but critically assailed King Kong
King Kong (1976 film)
King Kong is a 1976 American monster movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic film of the same name, about a giant ape that is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition....
-remake (1976); Hurricane (1979), a major box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
flop
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
starring Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
, on which Semple is also credited as Executive Producer; and Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (film)
Flash Gordon is a 1980 British/American science fiction film, based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced and presented by Dino De Laurentiis. It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian...
(1980), again a comic book derivative, done in a deliberately over-the-top style reminiscent of the "Batman" sensibility. As with his Batman, serious comic-book devotees assailed Semple for the allegedly disrespectful approach he took to the printed originals.
After Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
(1983), an "unofficial" James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
series entry which brought Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
briefly back in the role he made iconic, Semple dipped his pen for a final time into the comic book fountain for Sheena
Sheena (film)
Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...
(1984), based on the comic book Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a fictional, American comic book jungle girl heroine, published originally by Fiction House. The female counterpart to Tarzan, Sheena had two things in common with Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Lord: Both possessed the ability to communicate with wild animals and were...
.
Currently, Semple and retired agent and producer Marcia Nasatir review movies on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
as the Reel Geezers.
In September 2008, he was hailed by the Writers Guild of America as a Living Legend. In 2010, the American Cinemateque presented a two-night retrospective of his movies in Santa Monica.
Screenplays
- BatmanBatman (1966 film)Batman, often promoted as Batman: The Movie, is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was...
(1966) - FathomFathom (film)Fathom is a 1967 British spy comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Anthony Franciosa and Raquel Welch. Fathom Harvill is a dental assistant and an American skydiver touring Europe with a U.S. parachute team...
(1967) - Pretty PoisonPretty Poison (film)Pretty Poison is a thriller film directed by Noel Black, starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld, about an ex-convict and high school cheerleader who commit a series of crimes....
(1968) - Daddy's Gone A-HuntingDaddy's Gone A-HuntingDaddy's Gone A-Hunting is a 1925 drama film directed by Frank Borzage based upon a play by Zoe Akins, with adaptation by Kenneth B. Clarke. The film brought together Vitagraph leading lady Alice Joyce and English actor Percy Marmont after his success with If Winter Comes. This is the only film...
(with Larry CohenLarry CohenLawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...
) (1969) - The Sporting ClubThe Sporting ClubThe Sporting Club is the 1969 debut novel of author Thomas McGuane.-Plot summary:The Sporting Club chronicles the friendship and rivalry of Vernor Stanton, an unstable patrician iconoclast, and the protagonist, Stanton's lifelong friend, James Quinn...
(1971) - The Marriage of a Young StockbrokerThe Marriage of a Young StockbrokerThe Marriage of a Young Stockbroker is an American motion picture released by Twentieth Century Fox, and was a comedy romance based upon the novel by Charles Webb...
(1971) - PapillionPapillionPapillion may refer to:*Papillion, Nebraska, U.S.**Papillion-La Vista Public Schools**Papillion-La Vista Senior High School**Papillion Junior High*Papillion Creek, Nebraska, U.S....
(with Dalton TrumboDalton TrumboJames Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...
) (1973) - The Super CopsThe Super CopsThe Super Cops is a 1974 film starring Ron Leibman and David Selby, directed by Gordon Parks. The film is based on the book The Super Cops: The True Story Of The Cops Called Batman and Robin by L.H. Whittemore...
(1974) - The Parallax ViewThe Parallax ViewThe Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
(with David GilerDavid GilerDavid Giler is an American filmmaker who has been active in the motion picture industry since the early 1960s.He started his career as a writer, providing scripts for television programs such as Kraft Suspense Theatre and The Man from U.N.C.L.E....
) (1974) - The Drowning PoolThe Drowning Pool (film)The Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel The Drowning Pool. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a sequel to Harper...
(1975) - Three Days of the CondorThree Days of the CondorThree Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
(with David RayfielDavid RayfielDavid Rayfiel was an American screenwriter and frequent collaborator of director Sydney Pollack . Born in Brooklyn, New York, his father was congressman Leo F. Rayfiel ....
) (1975) - King KongKing Kong (1976 film)King Kong is a 1976 American monster movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic film of the same name, about a giant ape that is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition....
(1976) - HurricaneHurricane (1979 film)Hurricane is a 1979 romance, epic-adventure film featuring an all-star cast and impressive special effects, produced by: Dino De Laurentiis and Lorenzo Semple Jr, and directed by Jan Troell...
(with Tracy Keenan Wynn and Walter HillWalter HillWalter Hill may refer to:*Walter Hill *Walter Hill , American film director*Walter Hill , founder of Brisbane's botanical gardens...
) (1977) - Flash GordonFlash GordonFlash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
(with Michael Allin) (1980) - Never Say Never AgainNever Say Never AgainNever Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
(1983) - SheenaSheena (film)Sheena is a 1984 Columbia Pictures film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.A hybrid of action-adventure and soap opera-style drama, Sheena was shot on location in Kenya...
(with David NewmanDavid Newman (filmmaker)David Newman was an American filmmaker. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s he frequently collaborated with Robert Benton. He was married to fellow writer Leslie Newman, with whom he had two children, until the time of his death...
) (1984) - Never Too Young to DieNever Too Young to DieNever Too Young To Die is a 1986 action film, starring John Stamos as Lance Stargrove, a young man who, with the help of secret-agent Danja-Deering must avenge the death of his secret-agent father at the hands of the evil hermaphrodite Velvet Von Ragner .-External Links:*...
(with Gil Bettman) (1986)
Television
- The Alcoa HourThe Alcoa HourThe Alcoa Hour is a live anthology television series sponsored by Alcoa and telecast in the United States from 1955 to 1957. The series was seen Sundays on NBC at 9pm.-Overview:...
(1955) - TargetTarget (TV series)-Characters:* Detective Superintendent Hackett – Patrick Mower* Detective Chief Superintendent Tate – Philip Madoc* Detective Sergeant Bonney – Brendan Price* Detective Sergeant Louise Colbert – Vivien Heilbron...
(1958) - PursuitPursuit (TV series)Pursuit is the title of a 30 minute American television anthology drama series which aired on the CBS from 1955—1956.Among the presentations were Kiss Me Again,Stranger starring Jeffrey Hunter, and Margaret O'Brien, Epitaph For a Golden Girl starring Michael Rennie, Rip Torn, and Sally Forrest,...
(1958) - The RoguesThe Rogues (TV series)The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964 to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and very unscrupulous mark...
(1964) - Burke's LawBurke's LawBurke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
(1964) - BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
(1966) - Thompson's Ghost (1966)
- The Rat PatrolThe Rat PatrolThe Rat Patrol is an American television program that aired on ABC during the 1966–1968 seasons. The show follows the exploits of four Allied soldiers who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II...
(1966) - The Green HornetThe Green HornetThe Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
(1966) - Rearview Mirror (1984)
- Rapture (1993)
Sources
- Vincent Canby, New York Times, 12/5/80
- "Starlog" (USA)October 1983, Vol. 6, Iss. 75, pg. 45-47,+54, by: Steve Swires, "Lorenzo Semple, Jr. : The Screenwriter Fans Love to Hate Part Two"