Get the latest gossip
Robert Towne, Writer of ‘Chinatown,’ Dies at 89
Robert Towne, an Oscar winner for his original script for 'Chinatown' and an acknowledged master of the art of screenwriting, has died. He was 89.
During a long career that began in the 1960s, when he went to work as an actor and writer for B-movie director Roger Corman, Towne became one of the most sought-after script doctors in movie history, called on time and again to solve structural problems and create great moments for other people’s films. In 2006, Towne adapted and directed John Fante’s novel “Ask the Dust.” A romantic period piece set in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles, “Dust” starred Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek but failed at the box office. He also endured other self-inflicted travails around that time, including a costly divorce and studio battles over “Personal Best.” He was forced to sell the rights to his script for 1984’s “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” to Warner Bros.“That was as unbearable as a professional loss ever gets,” Towne said in a 1988 interview.
Or read this on Variety