Sheldon Turner
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Sheldon Turner is a screenwriter and producer. His produced credits as a screenwriter include The Longest Yard (2005) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006).
Sheldon Turner is currently the busiest screenwriter working in Hollywood today. After graduating from Cornell University where he played football, Turner enrolled into New York University Law School. During his time there, he wrote his first screenplay. It didn't get him an agent, but did peak his interest enough to pursue screenwriting as a career. He decided to leave his future as a lawyer behind, and moved out to Los Angeles to become a bartender and wannabe screenwriter.
Day and night, he would bartend and write. During his first year in L. A. he wrote 12 screenplays at a average of a script per month. By the time he completed his 13th script, he finally felt he "nailed it". He showed the script to an industry insider that he somewhere contacted and was able to not only land and agent, but his first script sell.
From 2002 til now, Turner has compiled more script deals in both film and television than probably any other screenwriter in Hollywood history. His debut produced credit was for the 2005 hit Adam Sandler remake The Longest Yard. That was then followed by the 2006 genre thriller The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. He's also did considerable uncredited work on the screenplay for the 2005 remake The Amityville Horror, not to mention Æon Flux in 2005 and Snakes on a Plane in 2006.
His list of spec scripts, adaptations, rewrite assignments and TV pilot scripts currently total an estimated 32 projects currently in development. His most recent scripts sold include the comedy Advance Man, a comedy in the vein of Trading Places he just sold for Walt Becker to direct and John Travolta to star, followed by Down River, a thriller in the vein of Deliverance he just sold for Seven Figures.
Beyond these two most recent sales in the Spring of 2008, he has 30 more projects in development. Two Minutes to Midnight (spec), Conspiracy of Fools (article), Super Freak (biopic), Prince of Thieves (novel), The Nice Guy (spec), Magneto (comic book), Wanted (novel), The Breathtaker (novel), The Ritual (spec), The Booster (novel), Blowback (article), In Dark Woods (spec), By Viture Fall (spec), The Boys of Summer (article), Pursuit (novel), Orbit (novel), Scrawl (spec), Up in the Air (novel), 52 Blocks (spec), Hot Dog Vendor (spec), Penal Colony (spec), Highway Patrol (spec), and a slew of television projects including The Business, Hardware, The Gentleman, Dakota Diggs, "Untitled Peter Berg Cop Drama", The Hunt, and Strut.
[edit] TV Appearances
Turner was featured in The Dialogue interview series. In this 90 minute interview with producer Mike De Luca, Turner charts his detour from law school to screenwriting.
