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David Levien

Brian Koppelman and David Levien met, as teen-agers, at John F. Kennedy International Airport and instantly became friends.

A Tufts University graduate, Koppelman distinguished himself during his college years by discovering the award winning singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. Upon graduation, he went on to develop a career in the music business and earned a law degree from Fordham University at night.

Levien graduated from the University of Michigan, where he published short stories in the undergraduate literary magazine. After graduation, he spent three years in Los Angeles, where he worked in the film business and began writing screenplays and fiction, including the novel Wormwood, published in 1999 by Hyperion-Miramax.

Koppelman and Levien had conspired for years about writing and directing movies together. In October of 1996, they began writing the screenplay Rounders. In the interest of creating a script that was as authentic as it was entertaining, Koppelman and Levien entered the dangerous world of underground poker halls. (Thorough research has become a trademark for the pair.) Purchased by Miramax Films in March of 1997, the film was produced the following winter, with noted filmmaker John Dahl (Last Seduction, Red Rock West) as the director and starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malkovich, John Turturro, and Martin Landau. The captivating film about a law student who not only gambles away his tuition money, but his girlfriend, his law degree and nearly his life, opened number one at the box office.

In addition, Koppelman and Levien produced Interview with the Assassin, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to glowing reviews. The film will be released by Magnolia Pictures in November 2002.

Recently Koppelman and Levien have completed various projects including a re-write of The Runaway Jury, based on John Grisham's novel, which will lens for Regency in September 2002, and The First Family, a spec script the duo sold to Steve Reuther's Bel Air Entertainment.

Next up for the team is The Storm Returns, which they will write, direct and produce for Dreamworks Pictures.

Levien and Koppelman reside in New York.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

David Levien Facts

OccupationDirector

Selected Filmography

Solitary Man
Knockaround Guys
Knockaround Guys/Ocean's Eleven
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