Career Highlights
- Linklater worked on an oil rig before starting his film career
- Bought Super-8 camera with savings and used it to film his first feature length movie
- Created Slacker on a budget of $23,000
- Nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for Before Sunset
- Chooses to work mostly in Texas, refusing to go to Hollywood unless necessary
- Wrote and directed Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and School of Rock
Career Overview
Richard Linklater is an American screenwriter and director who gained popularity during the independent film renaissance of the 1990s. From Houston Texas, Linklater dropped out of Sam Houston State University to work on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. It was during this time that Linklater discovered both his love for writing and his love for movies. He moved to Austin where he bought a Super-8 camcorder and taught himself filmmaking. While in Austin, he founded the Austin Film Scoiety with frequent collaborator Lee Daniel.
In 1987, Linklater finished his debut film, It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books. After founding Detour Filmproduction and creating the low-budget movie Slacker, Linklater went on to make the films he is best-known for including: Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, School of Rock and the remake of Bad News Bears. In 2005, Linklater was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film Before Sunset.
In his project Fast Food Nation (2006), Linklater tackles an adaptation of the best-selling book that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry.
Interview
Richard Linklater appears in an interview with ThinkTalk host Zack Sherwood to talk about how he became a successful screenwriter and director. He takes students questions about how he writes for specific actors and shares his advice on becoming a playwright.
