Peter Steinfeld
Encyclopedia
Peter L. Steinfeld is an American
screenwriter
and television producer
. He is best known for writing mystery film
Drowning Mona
(released 2000), comedy film
Be Cool
(2005) and drama film
21 (2008).
. After attending undergraduate school for eight years, he set up an unsuccessful greeting card
company, later working as a forklift operator at a cosmetics company to pay off his US$
40,000 of debt when his own company shut down. He completed his bachelor's degree
in English literature at New York University
(NYU), where he also undertook a screenwriting workshop. Students were expected to have written an entire feature film
screenplay over the six-week course, but Steinfeld had only written eleven pages by the workshop's conclusion.
Drowning Mona
, starring Bette Midler
and Danny DeVito
. He was next signed by Warner Bros.
to write the sequel to mafia comedy
Analyze This
, which became the 2002 film
Analyze That
. He next adapted Elmore Leonard
's novel Be Cool into a film of the same name
, released in 2005. As a fan of Leonard and Be Cools preceding novel, Get Shorty
, Steinfeld thought it "the greatest thing in the world" when Leonard was impressed by the screenplay. Steinfeld had been signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
in 2003 to adapt Ben Mezrich
's true crime
book Bringing Down the House
, about the feats of the card counting
MIT Blackjack Team
, into the film 21, which was released in 2008. Before filming began in 2005, screenwriter Allan Loeb
was brought in to rewrite Steinfeld's script as a former gambling addict.
Steinfeld has completed an as-yet-unmade script, Ebony and Ivory, for Imagine Entertainment
. Currently, he and his wife, screenwriter DeShawn Schneider, are working on high concept
film The Big Shot for Plan B Entertainment
and a remake of Paul Newman
's 1977 film
Slap Shot
for Universal Pictures
. He has also written and executive produced
a number of television pilot
s, including "Pulse" and "Inspector General", which have not been picked up.
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 television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
. He is best known for writing mystery film
Mystery film
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...
Drowning Mona
Drowning Mona
Drowning Mona is a 2000 comedy-mystery film starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, cruel and highly unpopular woman, who drove her son's car off a cliff and drowned in a...
(released 2000), comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
Be Cool
Be Cool
Be Cool is a 2005 crime-comedy film adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1999 novel of the same name and the sequel to Leonard's 1990 novel Get Shorty about mobster Chili Palmer's entrance into the film industry.The film adaptation of Be Cool began production in 2003. It was directed by F...
(2005) and drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
21 (2008).
Early life
Steinfeld was born and raised in Wayne, New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. After attending undergraduate school for eight years, he set up an unsuccessful greeting card
Greeting card
A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...
company, later working as a forklift operator at a cosmetics company to pay off his US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
40,000 of debt when his own company shut down. He completed his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in English literature at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU), where he also undertook a screenwriting workshop. Students were expected to have written an entire feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
screenplay over the six-week course, but Steinfeld had only written eleven pages by the workshop's conclusion.
Career
After taking the NYU workshop, Steinfeld decided to pursue screenwriting with the eleven-page screenplay he had completed: "Even though I only had those 11 pages, my feeling was, 'I'm not sure if I'm any good at it, but I love this.'" He later finished the screenplay and sold it to Neverland Films as the 2000 film2000 in film
The year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
Drowning Mona
Drowning Mona
Drowning Mona is a 2000 comedy-mystery film starring Danny DeVito as Wyatt Rash, a local police chief from Verplanck, New York, who investigates the mysterious death of Mona Dearly, a spiteful, loud-mouthed, cruel and highly unpopular woman, who drove her son's car off a cliff and drowned in a...
, starring Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
and Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
. He was next signed by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to write the sequel to mafia comedy
Mafia Comedy
Mafia comedy films are a sub-genre hybrid of comedy films and crime/gangster films.Mafia comedies revolve around the mafia and a comedic plot line, usually a chase or a complicated situation involving the Mafia...
Analyze This
Analyze This
Analyze This is a 1999 gangster comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. The film stars Robert De Niro as a mafioso and Billy Crystal as a psychiatrist...
, which became the 2002 film
2002 in film
The year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...
Analyze That
Analyze That
Analyze That is a 2002 mafia comedy film, and a sequel to the 1999 film Analyze This. The film was directed and co-written by Harold Ramis and stars Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal who respectively reprise their roles as mobster Paul Vitti and psychiatrist Ben Sobel.-Plot:Near the completion of...
. He next adapted Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
's novel Be Cool into a film of the same name
Be Cool
Be Cool is a 2005 crime-comedy film adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1999 novel of the same name and the sequel to Leonard's 1990 novel Get Shorty about mobster Chili Palmer's entrance into the film industry.The film adaptation of Be Cool began production in 2003. It was directed by F...
, released in 2005. As a fan of Leonard and Be Cools preceding novel, Get Shorty
Get Shorty
Get Shorty is a 1990 novel by American novelist Elmore Leonard. In 1995, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name.-Plot summary:...
, Steinfeld thought it "the greatest thing in the world" when Leonard was impressed by the screenplay. Steinfeld had been signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
in 2003 to adapt Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich is an American author from Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated magna-cum-laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University in 1991. Some of his books have been written under the pseudonym Holden Scott. Mezrich attended Princeton Day School, in Princeton, New Jersey...
's true crime
True crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
book Bringing Down the House
Bringing Down the House (book)
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team. While represented as non-fiction by Mezrich and Free Press, the book contains significant fictional elements...
, about the feats of the card counting
Card counting
Card counting is a casino card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Card counters, also known as advantage players, attempt to decrease the inherent casino house...
MIT Blackjack Team
MIT Blackjack Team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card-counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide...
, into the film 21, which was released in 2008. Before filming began in 2005, screenwriter Allan Loeb
Allan Loeb
Allan Loeb is an American screenwriter and film and television producer. He wrote the 2007 film Things We Lost in the Fire and created the 2008 television series New Amsterdam. He wrote the drama film 21, which also was released in 2008. He wrote and produced The Switch which came out in August 2010...
was brought in to rewrite Steinfeld's script as a former gambling addict.
Steinfeld has completed an as-yet-unmade script, Ebony and Ivory, for Imagine Entertainment
Imagine Entertainment
Imagine Entertainment is a film and television production company founded in 1986 by director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer.Its productions include the television series 24 and Arrested Development and the films Apollo 13 , A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code .-Organization:Karen...
. Currently, he and his wife, screenwriter DeShawn Schneider, are working on high concept
High concept
High concept is a term used to refer to an artistic work that can be easily described by a succinctly stated premise.-Terminology:High concept narratives are typically characterised by an over-arching "what if?" scenario that acts as a catalyst for the following events...
film The Big Shot for Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment is a film production company founded by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Jennifer Aniston. In 2006, Pitt became the sole owner; the company currently holds a release deal with Paramount Pictures, along with Warner Bros...
and a remake of Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
's 1977 film
1977 in film
The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....
Slap Shot
Slap Shot (film)
Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.- Plot :...
for Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. He has also written and executive produced
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
a number of television 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...
s, including "Pulse" and "Inspector General", which have not been picked up.