The Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting acknowledges the crucial role that strong screenwriting plays in the creation of great films. Sponsored by SKYY Spirits.
An Afternoon with Peter Morgan
Saturday, May 5
1:00 pm
Sundance Cinemas Kabuki
1881 Post Street (at Fillmore)
The Film Society is honored to present Peter Morgan with this year’s Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. Join Morgan for a special onstage interview with film writer David Thomson and a screening of his political drama The Deal, which details the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Kings, Queens and Screenplays
By David Thomson
There has not been a screenwriter who has seized the day in the way Peter Morgan has since that moment in the 1970s when Robert Towne received three Oscar nominations in three years (for The Last Detail, Chinatown and Shampoo). But Towne was a Hollywood insider and a dedicated Los Angeleno. The achievement of Peter Morgan is all the more remarkable in that he is English and the author of several subjects that might be reckoned foreign to the American audience.
The surest proof of that is that this Festival will present the American debut of The Deal, the remarkable inside-Westminster film that Morgan wrote for Stephen Frears and which played on British television in 2003.
The Deal is part one in what may yet amount to a trilogy on Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen), arguably the most talented European politician of modern times. Blair was brilliant, as important in changing his Labour party as Margaret Thatcher had been in redefining the Conservative party. The deal in question was an unofficial pact between two youngish men—Blair, and Gordon Brown from Scotland—who found themselves at the head of the Labour party. Blair persuaded Brown that in the interests of winning a general election, Labour should make Blair its leader. Gordon Brown’s turn would follow—and he is still waiting for it.
The second part of the Blair story is, of course, The Queen, again written for Stephen Frears. This is not quite the first time the present Queen has been dramatized on film (that would be A Question of Attribution, written by Alan Bennett with Prunella Scales as HRH). But The Queen (just like The Deal) was astonishing in the depth of its research and the authenticity of its talk. And the daring of both films was to assert, as the big names still ran the country, that this is what they actually did and said. Morgan admits to a great deal of work and a lot of generous assistance from many insiders. The result is startling, and it’s possible that The Queen ended up the best piece of public relations the Royal Family had enjoyed in decades.
The Queen was helped to one Oscar (for Helen Mirren) by Morgan’s script, and it was not widely noted at the time that he had also written the brilliant script for The Last King of Scotland, in which Forest Whitaker took the acting prize for his amazing portrayal of Idi Amin.
But if that’s not quite enough for you, then add this: in early 2007, HBO premiered Longford, also written by Morgan. Longford has since won high praise in America, and it’s possible in time that it will be seen as Morgan’s best work of the year. It’s the story of the strange relationship between Myra Hindley (Samantha Morton) and Lord Longford (Jim Broadbent). She was one of the infamous Moors murderers; she and her lover, Ian Brady, had molested and murdered several children. Few British cases have aroused such horror. Yet Lord Longford, a man obsessed with prison reform and prisoner rehabilitation, did all he could to win parole for Ms. Hindley. The film that traces their relationship is intensely human and very frightening. It has two great performances, but Morgan’s script is so lucid and penetrating that it steals the picture.
So, within a year or two, Peter Morgan has become a very hot and deservedly acclaimed writer. He has had great stage success, first in London and then in New York, with a play based on the famous David Frost (Michael Sheen) interviews with Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). Once more, power and its personalities are at issue, and Morgan already has established himself as a masterly examiner of flawed political leaders. (Ron Howard and Morgan are currently adapting the play for the screen.)
Also in 2003, Morgan wrote Henry VIII for British television, starring Ray Winstone as the king. And at present, the film The Other Boleyn Girl is being finished. This focuses on the relationship between Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman), the second wife to Henry VIII, and her sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson). There are at least two other projects being talked about. Morgan and Frears and Michael Sheen are interested in telling the story of a brief period in which Brian Clough, one of the most colorful and talkative figures in the history of British soccer, took over management of Leeds United. That may sound rather parochial, but everyone who ever heard a Clough rant can hardly wait for the film. The other project is far bigger, concerning what happened to the soul and political career of Tony Blair as he made his fateful alliance with George W. Bush.
Yet, all these projects may seem like “early Morgan,” showing the influence of television thinking. He is now so much in demand that he may be launched on bigger projects. The really interesting thing to see will be how far he determines to stick with subjects like Blair that he knows firsthand.
David Thomson’s most recent books are Nicole Kidman and The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood.
Festival Screening
The Deal
Selected Filmography
Frost/Nixon (2008)
The Other Boleyn Girl (2007)
Longford (2007)
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
The Queen (2006)
Colditz (2005)
Henry VIII (2003)
The Deal (2003)
The Very Thought of You (1998)
The Silent Touch (1992)
Dear Rosie (1990)
Previous Recipients
2006 Jean-Claude Carrière
2005 Paul Haggis
Photo Credits
The Queen
The Last King of Scotland
The Queen