ADDICA, Milo 1963-

PERSONAL: Born 1963. Education: Attended the University of Massachusetts, the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Acting, and Hunter College.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Lions Gate Films, 4553 Glencoe Avenue, Suite 200, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292.

CAREER: Screenwriter and producer. Actor in numerous Off-Broadway plays.

AWARDS, HONORS: Oscar nomination for best screenplay, Writers Guild of America Award nomination, and Independent Spirit Award nomination, all 2001, all for Monster's Ball.

WRITINGS:

Everything Put Together (screenplay), 2000. (With Will Rokos) Monster's Ball (screenplay), Lions Gate Films, 2001.

Let's Kill Henry, Warner Bros./Section Eight, in production.

Wrote for television shows, including Thirtysomething and LA Law, c. 1990s.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The King, for Film Four.

SIDELIGHTS: Screenwriter Milo Addica first met Monster's Ball co-writer Will Rokos when they acted in a play together off-Broadway. Addica discussed his ideas with Rokos, and a partnership was formed. It took eight months of writing together in Addica's tiny apartment before the screenplay for Monster's Ball was completed. Addica and Rokos completed Monster's Ball in 1995, but the movie was not produced until 2001. It is the story of Hank, a death-row guard at Georgia State Penitentiary who hails from a family of redneck racists. Death-row inmate Lawrence Musgrove's wife Leticia and his obese son Tyrell visit Lawrence for the last time, but decline to watch his execution. Lawrence is executed, with the help of Hank, without the presence of his lawyer, preacher, or family, a situation dubbed a "monster's ball" by prison guards. After the execution Hank quits his job and begins a relationship with Leticia. Variety contributor Robert Koehler noted, "Burning with a quiet intensity, Monster's Ball is bolstered by a poetic, intelligent sensibility not seen in an American film since Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line." "Strip away the strident melodrama, and you have this season's moodiest, most adult love story," summarized Richard Corliss in a Time review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Hollywood Reporter, March 11, 2002, Zorianna Kit, "Addica Booked for Cheadle Pic," p. 1.

Nation, January 21, 2002, Stuart Klawans, "In This Corner . . . ," p. 35.

* indicates that a listing has been compiled from secondary sources believed to be reliable, but has not been personally verified for this edition by the author sketched.

Time, January 14, 2002, Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel, "Three You Should See: Small Films Often Get Lost amid the Big Year-End Extravaganzas, but These Are Worth Seeking Out," p. 59.

Variety, November 19, 2001, Robert Koehler, review of Monster's Ball, p. 39.

online

Lions Gate Films Web site,http://www.lionsgateinfo.com/ (July 18, 2002), "Milo Addica (Screenwriter)."

MovieMaker Magazine,http://www.moviemaker.com/ (August 27, 2002), Milo Addica, "Things I've Learned as a Moviemaker"; Jennifer M. Wood, "Wake-up Call to Hollywood: An Interview with Writer Milo Addica."

Sundance Channel,http://www.sundancechannel.com/ (July 18, 2002), "Milo Addica."*