Simon Kinberg

Simon Kinberg
Born Simon David Kinberg
(1973-08-02) August 2, 1973
London, England, UK
Education Brown University (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
Occupation Screenwriter, film producer, television producer
Spouse(s) Mali Heled (m. 2001)[1]
Children 2

Simon David Kinberg[2] (born August 2, 1973)[3] is a British-born American screenwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known for his work on the X-Men film franchise, and has also written such films as Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Sherlock Holmes. He has served as a producer on others including Cinderella and The Martian, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. His production company Kinberg Genre has a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox. Kinberg will make his directorial debut with Dark Phoenix, from his own screenplay. The film will be released on June 7, 2019.

Early life

Kinberg was born in London, England,[4] the son of Monica Menell-Kinberg and Jud Kinberg, a New York City-born writer and producer. From age six, he was raised in Los Angeles, California.[5] He is Jewish.[6][7] Kinberg graduated from Brentwood High School,[3] and then from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude; in 2003 received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, where he won the Zaki Gordon Fellowship for Screenwriting.[4][8]

Career

While still in film school, Kinberg sold a pitch to Warner Brothers, then went on to write scripts for Disney, Sony, and DreamWorks, working with Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer, among others. After finishing school, Kinberg moved to Hollywood, where his first screenwriting credit was a sequel to the hit action film XXX (2002), XXX: State of the Union (2005). His next screenwriting venture was the screenplay for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, directed by Doug Liman and starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The script began as Kinberg's thesis project for film school. Kinberg also wrote the pilot episode for a television adaptation of Mr. & Mrs. Smith for ABC TV. He also appears in the movie, in a scene with Brad Pitt.

Kinberg's next screenwriting job was the sequel to X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), which he co-wrote with Zak Penn. Comic-book writer Chris Claremont wrote the novelization of the film, and made Kinberg a character in the book.

Kinberg reunited with director Doug Liman for the film Jumper (2008). Kinberg wrote and produced the movie, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, Hayden Christensen, and Diane Lane. The following year, Kinberg was writer of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. In April 2010, his production company, Genre Films, signed a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox.[9]

Kinberg was the producer of X-Men: First Class (2011), and both writer and producer of This Means War (2012). He was also co-screenwriter and an executive producer of the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in that same year. In 2013, Kinberg produced Elysium.

The following year, Kinberg was the writer and the producer of the film X-Men: Days of Future Past. That same year, he produced Let's Be Cops. In 2015, Kinberg produced the Neill Blomkamp film Chappie and the live-action version of Cinderella at Disney. He also worked on Fantastic Four as writer and producer. His final film of the year was The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott.

He wrote and produced X-Men: Apocalypse, the next film in the X-Men franchise following X-Men: Days of Future Past. Kinberg produced Deadpool (2016), Logan (2017), and Deadpool 2 (2018), and the upcoming New Mutants (2019) and Gambit, all of them X-Men spin-off films. He also produced Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.

The Hollywood Reporter initially reported that Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and Kinberg would write and produce Episodes VIII and IX of the new Star Wars films.[10] A week later the publication stated that Kasdan and Kinberg would be working on future Star Wars projects, but not necessarily on Episodes VIII and IX.[11]

In television, he is an executive producer on ABC network's Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland, and on Legion created by Noah Hawley for FX, and The Gifted on Fox Network. He will executive produce the third revival of the science fiction anthology series, The Twilight Zone.

Personal life

Kinberg married Mali Heled in a Jewish ceremony on July 26, 2001.[2] They have two sons.[5]

Awards

Kinberg received a Golden Globe for Best Picture Musical/Comedy for The Martian. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for the film, as well as multiple other awards including being named to the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute, and nominated for Best Picture by the Producers Guild of America, National Board of Review, and Broadcast Film Critics Association. His films have won multiple MTV Movie Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Teen Choice Awards. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Saturn Awards in 2016. Kinberg also received a Critic's Choice Award for Best Comedy of 2016 for Deadpool, as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture Musical/Comedy for the film.

He was named #61 on the list of 100 most powerful people in Hollywood by The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. The same year, The Hollywood Reporter named Kinberg as the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood with a record US$16 million for two X-Men scripts, and named him as one of the highest paid producers in Hollywood with US$40 million for Deadpool in their annual Hollywood Salaries issue.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Credited as Notes
Director Story writer Screenwriter Producer
2005 xXx: State of the Union No Yes No
Mr. & Mrs. Smith No Yes No Role: Investment Banker #1
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand No Yes No Co-writer with Zak Penn
2008 Jumper No No Yes Yes Co-screenwriter with David S. Goyer, and Jim Uhls
2009 Sherlock Holmes No No Yes No Co-screenwriter with Michael Robert Johnson, and Anthony Peckham
2011 X-Men: First Class No No No Yes
2012 This Means War No No Yes Yes Co-screenwriter with Timothy Dowling
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter No No Yes Executive Co-screenwriter with Seth Grahame-Smith
2013 Elysium No No No Yes
2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past No Yes Yes Yes Story co-written with Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
Let's Be Cops No No No Yes
2015 Cinderella No No No Yes
Chappie No No No Yes
Fantastic Four No Yes Yes Co-writer with Jeremy Slater and Josh Trank
The Martian No No No Yes
Star Wars: Episode VII -
The Force Awakens		 No No No No Creative consultant;
'Thanks' credit[12]
2016 Deadpool No No No Yes
X-Men: Apocalypse No Yes Yes Yes Co-story writer with Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story No No No No 'Thanks' credit
2017 Logan No No No Yes
Murder on the Orient Express No No No Yes
2018 Deadpool 2 No No No Yes
2019 Dark Phoenix Yes Yes Yes Directorial debut
The New Mutants No No No Yes
TBA Untitled Star Wars anthology film No Yes Yes Co-screenwriter with James Mangold
TBA 355 Yes No No Yes

Television

Year Title Credited as Notes
Writer Producer
2014-2018 Star Wars Rebels Yes Executive Also co-creator
2016 Designated Survivor No Executive
2017 The Gifted No Executive Part of the X-Men film franchise
2017-2018 Legion No Executive Part of the X-Men film franchise
2019 The Twilight Zone TBA Executive Third revival/reboot of the eponymous

1959-64 science fiction anthology television

series, created by Rod Serling for CBS

References

  1. ↑ "Mali Heled, Simon Kinberg". The New York Times. 29 July 2001.
  2. 1 2 "Weddings; Mali Heled, Simon Kinberg". The New York Times. July 29, 2001. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Lovece, Frank (January 26, 2016). "Everyone into the Deadpool: Producer Simon Kinberg helps revive Marvel's raunchy superhero". Film Journal International. Archived from the original on January 28, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Whitley, Sheri M. (May 16, 2005). "Taking a Meeting With Screenwriter Simon Kinberg". Archived from the original on December 17, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Siegel, Tatiana (October 8, 2015). "'Martian' Producer Simon Kinberg on 'Fantastic Four' Woes, Jennifer Lawrence's Uncertain 'X-Men' Future and 'Star Wars' Secrets". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ "IGN Interviews Simon Kinberg". IGN. September 30, 2005. Archived from the original on October 5, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Times of Israel: "The tribe at the Oscars, 2016" by Nate Bloom February 25, 2016
  8. ↑ "Simon Kinberg". Columbia University School of the Arts: Film. Archived from the original on December 24, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
  9. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (April 14, 2010). "Simon Kinberg Signs First Look Fox Deal". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  10. ↑ Kit, Borys (November 20, 2012). "Sources: Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg Lock Deals to Write and Produce 'Star Wars' Installments". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ Kit, Borys (November 28, 2012). "Star Wars: How Writers Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg Will Expand the Galaxy". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Star Wars Is Being Kick-Started with Dynamite". StarWars.com. January 25, 2013. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
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