ROD LURIE wrote and directed the widely praised Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award nominated political thriller The Contender starring Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater. The film was also honored by the Broadcast Film Critics with the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award. Lurie wrote and directed the critically acclaimed political drama Nothing But The Truth, starring Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Alan Alda and Matt Dillon, the military prison thriller The Last Castle, which starred Robert Redford, James Gandolfini and Mark Ruffalo, and Resurrecting The Champ, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett.
Lurie‘s television credits include creating and executive producing the highly acclaimed series, Commander in Chief, starring Donald Sutherland alongside Geena Davis as the first female President of the United States. Lurie also executive produced the FBI drama, Line of Fire, starring Anson Mount, Leslie Hope and David Paymer.
Lurie made his film writing and directing debut in 1998 with the dramatic short Four Second Delay, which won the Best Short Film award at the Atlanta Film Festival and the Crested Butte Reel Fest. The short also won the Prix du Jury at the Festival of American Cinema in Deauville, France. In 2000, he made his first feature film Deterrence, a drama about America coming to the brink of nuclear war, starring Kevin Pollak and Timothy Hutton, and in 2003 his short film, The Nazi, was in the Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival.
Before becoming a filmmaker, Lurie completed a career in the military, graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and serving four years as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army. Following his military career, he broke into journalism as an entertainment reporter for the New York Daily News, and was a film critic and interviewer for Channel 12 in Fairfield, Connecticut, as well as a frequent contributor to Premiere, Movieline and Entertainment Weekly.
After moving to Los Angeles, Lurie worked as a film critic, investigative reporter and contributing editor to Los Angeles magazine from 1990-1995. As an investigative reporter in the entertainment industry, his discovery of unethical and illegal practices of tabloid newspapers gained him national exposure on programs such as 60 Minutes, Entertainment Tonight, The Larry King Show, Nightline, Geraldo and The Jane Whitney Show.
From 1995 to 1999, Lurie was the film critic for 790 AM KABC Radio in Los Angeles, where his top-rated movie review show entertained Southern California moviegoers every Saturday. His on-air guests included Tom Hanks, James Woods, Billy Bob Thornton, Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Landau, James Cameron and Mel Gibson.
In addition, in 1995 Lurie authored the book Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
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