Michael Arndt

Arndt was born in McLean, Virginia. Arndt's father was a member of the Foreign Service, and as a result he lived in various countries, including Sri Lanka and India; he also lived in Virginia for a time.{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/movieawards/oscars/2007-02-15-screenwriters-arndt_x.htm |title=Writing for an Oscar |last=Wloszczyna |first=Susan |date=March 5, 2007 |work=USA Today |access-date=July 9, 2008 }} Arndt graduated from Langley High School in McLean, and also attended The Potomac School. He graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Arndt was a script reader for some time, and was a personal assistant to actor Matthew Broderick until late 1999,{{cite web |url=http://www.moviemaker.com/archives/moviemaking/screenwriting/articles-screenwriting/family-values/ |title=Family Values |last=Wood |first=Jennifer |date=February 3, 2007 |work=MovieMaker Magazine |access-date=July 9, 2008 }} when he chose to begin writing screenplays full-time.

{{quote box|width=350px|quote="I figured I'd probably write 50 scripts in my life. Out of those 50, I figured maybe five would be produced, and that maybe one or two would be successful. So I always kind of expected I'd write at least one successful film in my life. [...] The way it all came together was kind of like Murphy's law in reverse—I don't expect that kind of experience again any time soon."|source=—Michael Arndt }}

Arndt wrote the first draft of Little Miss Sunshine in three days between May 23–26, 2000.{{cite book |last=Arndt |first=Michael |title=Little Miss Sunshine: The Shooting Script |publisher=Newmarket |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-55704-770-0 |page=x |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/littlemisssunshi00arnd }} From that initial draft, he made approximately 100 revisions over the course of a year, requesting input from friends and family. Arndt considered directing the film himself "as a no-budget, DV feature" due to his concern of the story being "just too small and "indie" to get any real attention from Hollywood". After the Endeavor Talent Agency read the script in July 2001, however, producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa subsequently gave the script to commercial and music video directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who were immediately attracted to the project.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-feb-20-et-gold20-story.html |title=The unkindest cut |last=Goldstein |first=Patrick |date=February 20, 2007 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=July 8, 2008 }} Dayton and Faris were signed on by producer Marc Turtletaub, who purchased the script from Arndt for $250,000, on December 21, 2001.{{cite news |title=A Small Film Nearly Left for Dead Has Its Day in the Sundance Rays |last=Waxman |first=Sharon |work=The New York Times |date=January 23, 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/movies/MoviesFeatures/23sund.html |access-date=July 8, 2008 }}

The project was set up at Focus Features, where it was in various stages of pre-production for approximately three years. During that time, Arndt was fired when he objected to centralizing the story on Richard Hoover (played by Greg Kinnear in the film), only to be re-hired within a month after the new writer hired by Focus left the project.{{cite news|title=Michael Arndt, Little Mr. Sunshine |last=Guillen |first=Michael |work=SF360 |date=February 23, 2007 |url=http://www.sf360.org/features/michael-arndt-little-mr-sunshine |access-date=July 8, 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006052524/http://www.sf360.org/features/michael-arndt-little-mr-sunshine |archive-date=October 6, 2008 }} Arndt resumed work on the script, which continued through production and into post-production: "The final scene of the movie [...] was written and shot about eight weeks before [its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006]", he said. Following its theatrical release on August 18, 2006, Little Miss Sunshine won many prizes and awards. Arndt won multiple Best Original Screenplay awards for Little Miss Sunshine, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Writers Guild of America. He was later invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.{{cite press release|title=Academy Invites 115 to Become Members |publisher=AMPAS |date=June 18, 2007 |url=http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.06.18.html |access-date=July 8, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071224094334/http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.06.18.html |archive-date=December 24, 2007 }}

Arndt began collaborating with Lee Unkrich and other Pixar personnel on the screenplay for Toy Story 3 in 2006,{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/2007/02/19/happy-ending-toy-story-3/ |title=Toy's Out of the Attic |last=Daly |first=Steve |date=February 16, 2007 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=July 9, 2008 }} working from a treatment by Andrew Stanton, who co-wrote the two preceding films in the series.{{cite news |title = 2007 Disney Conference – Studio Presentation |publisher = Disney Enterprises |date = February 8, 2007 |url = http://corporate.disney.go.com/media/investors/2007_irc_studio.pdf | access-date=August 6, 2007 }}{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2007/digital/markets-festivals/toy-story-sequel-set-1117959040/ |title='Toy Story' sequel set |last=Fritz |first=Ben |date=February 8, 2007 |work=Variety |access-date=July 8, 2008 }} He was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work, and became the first ever screenwriter to be nominated for both Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay for his first two screenplays.

Arndt was one of several screenwriters brought on to perform script revisions for Men in Black 3.{{cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/how-will-smiths-men-black-3-almost-became-disaster-movie-64839 |title=How Will Smith's 'Men in Black 3' Almost Became a Disaster Movie |last=Lee|first=Chris |date=May 21, 2012|website=Newsweek|access-date= January 15, 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/29/the-movie-redemption-of-men-in-black-3-scribe-etan-cohen.html |title=The Movie Redemption of 'Men in Black 3' Scribe Etan Cohen |last=Lee|first=Chris |date=May 29, 2012|website=The Daily Beast|access-date= January 15, 2016}}

Arndt wrote the script for The Hunger Games sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins.{{cite web|last=Kit |first=Borys|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/hunger-games-catching-fire-michael-arndt320477|title=Michael Arndt in Talks to Re-Write 'Hunger Games' Sequel 'Catching Fire' (Exclusive)|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=May 5, 2012|access-date= May 6, 2012}} Ten years later, he co-wrote the screenplay to the Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.

In November 2012, Arndt was announced as the screenwriter for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In October 2013, it was announced that Lawrence Kasdan and director J. J. Abrams were rewriting Arndt's script.{{cite magazine|last1=Holslin|first1=Peter|title=Decoding the 'Star Wars' Writers' Drama|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/decoding-the-star-wars-writers-drama-20131025|access-date=December 22, 2015|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=October 25, 2013}}

Writer

Assistant

• Addicted to Love (1997)
• Inspector Gadget (1999)

Senior creative team

• WALL-E (2008)
• Up (2009) (Uncredited)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• Cars 2 (2011)

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite news |title='Closet screenwriter' Arndt comes into light |author=Anne Thompson |date=November 17, 2006 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/risky_business/e3if6f6d214a3f513574d9abbda01a17ab2 |access-date=April 6, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070815153405/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/risky_business/e3if6f6d214a3f513574d9abbda01a17ab2 |archive-date = August 15, 2007}}

• {{IMDb name|1578335|Michael Arndt}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070306095116/http://www.screenplay-series.com/michael-arndt/sunshine-at-sundance Interview] with Michael Arndt about writing Little Miss Sunshine

{{Michael Arndt}}

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{{AcademyAwardBestOriginalScreenplay 2001-2020}}

{{BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay 2000-2019}}

{{Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay}}

{{Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay}}

{{Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay}}

{{Saturn Award for Best Writing}}

{{Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay}}

{{Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay}}

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Category:American male screenwriters

Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners

Category:Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners

Category:Independent Spirit Award winners

Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni

Category:Living people

Category:People from McLean, Virginia

Category:Pixar people

Category:Screenwriters from Virginia

Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)