Benedict Fitzgerald, the co-writer of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, has actually passed away. He was 74.
Fitzgerald passed away Jan. 17 after a lengthy ailment at his home in Marsala, Sicily, his relative Nancy Morgan Ritter informed The Hollywood Press reporter.
Best understood for his work with Gibson’s 2004 Scriptural impressive, the highest-grossing Christian movie, in addition to the highest-grossing independent movie of perpetuity, Fitzgerald’s various other debts consist of co-writing the movie script for John Huston’s Wise Blood (1979 ), the adjustment of Flannery O’Connor’s story.
Born upon March 9, 1949, in New York City, Fitzgerald was birthed right into a literary house. His deeply Catholic mommy, Sally, was an author and editor and his dad, Robert, was a poet, USA Poet Laureate (1984-1985), doubter, and renowned translator of traditional old Greek and Latin messages, that was in charge of possibly the most widely known translation of Homer’s The Odyssey.
In the late 1950s, Fitzgerald’s household transferred to Italy whilst his dad was equating The Odyssey, although he was sent out to boarding college in Rhode Island. He went to Harvard College in the very early 1970s, where his rate of interest in movie theater and writing, and penciling movie scripts particularly, was stimulated.
His household’s link to the author Flannery O’Connor would certainly assist Fitzgerald’s relocation right into screenwriting. His mommy was a friend and literary partner of O’Connor, and would certainly later on release The Behavior of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor after the author’s fatality. In 1949, O’Connor coped with the Fitzgeralds at their home in Connecticut, remaining for 2 years, and frequently babysat the young Fitzgerald kids.
O’Connor’s renowned job Wise Blood would certainly come to be Fitzgerald’s very first movie script to be generated. Co-written with his sibling Michael, the brother or sisters sent by mail the movie script unrequested to a semi-retired John Huston after that residing in Mexico. With Huston aboard, Michael united the funding to make the photo, and subsequently, the manufacturing would certainly introduce Fitzgerald’s sibling’s job as a movie manufacturer, whose debts consist of Huston’s Under the Volcano (1984 ), Sean Penn’s The Promise (2001) and Brian W. Chef’s Shade Me Kubrick (2005 ).
Wise Blood starred Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton and Dan Shor and premiered out of competitors at the Cannes Movie Event in 1979. Though it had a commendable influence at the ticket office, Wise Blood was a struck with doubters, and a withstanding one at that, and made The New york city Times’ “Best 1000 Movies Ever” listing in 2003.
Complying With the cozy function to Wise Blood, Fitzgerald concentrated on literary adjustments. His following generated movie script took control of a years to make it to the display, a 1993 tv film adjustment of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that starred Tim Roth as Marlow and John Malkovich as Kurtz. That very same year, Fitzgerald was the author of Zelda, a tv film starring Natasha Richardson and Timothy Hutton, that informed the tale of the connection in between writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his partner Zelda.
In 1996, the Fitzgerald-penned miniseries In Cold Blood broadcast on CBS. An adjustment of Truman Capote’s real criminal activity standard, the collection starred Anthony Edwards as Prick Hickock, Eric Roberts as Perry Smith, Sam Neill as Alvin Dewey, and was chosen for 2 Emmy Honors. 2 years later on, Fitzgerald was an anonymous author on the United States Network’s big-budget miniseries adjustment of Herman Melville’s Moby Prick. Starring Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, the collection would certainly take place to rack up 5 Emmy elections.
In 1999, after reviewing a stopped working miniseries adjustment of The Iliad with Mel Gibon’s Symbol Productions, Gibson came close to Fitzgerald regarding creating the manuscript for The Passion of the Christ, a movie regarding the Passion of Jesus quickly prior to his fatality. Fitzgerald invested a year and a fifty percent looking into the manuscript and functioned carefully with William Fulco, that was in charge of the translations to Latin and the rebuilded Aramaic made use of in the movie. Launched individually with Symbol in February 2004, The Passion of the Christ would certainly come to be an international ticket office sensation, earning over $600 million from a $30 million budget plan.
Fitzgerald would certainly later on, in 2008, file a claim against Gibson over his cut of the benefit from The Passion of the Christ, with the author apparently obtaining just $100,000 for his manuscript and a $75,000 manufacturing benefit. In 2009, Fitzgerald and Gibson cleared up. Fitzgerald tried to followup and maximize the success of The Passion of the Christ by creating an innovator that concentrated on Mary. Entitled Myriam, Mom of the Christ, the movie went unproduced, as it came to be bogged down in lawful instances and acrimony, with Fitzgerald at some point shedding the civil liberties.
He is endured by his partner Karen, children Eugenie, Helena and Olimpia and 3 grandchildren, in addition to brother or sisters Ughetta, Maria, Michael, Barnaby and Caterina.