About

Known credits:
24
Birthday:
1960-03-18
Place of birth:
Austin, Texas, USA
Website:
N/A

Steve Kloves

Overview

Stephen Keith Kloves (born March 18, 1960) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He wrote and directed the film The Fabulous Baker Boys and is mainly known for his screenplay adaptations of novels, especially for all but one of the Harry Potter films (the exception being The Order of the Phoenix) and for Wonder Boys, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Kloves, born in Austin, Texas, grew up in Sunnyvale, California, where he graduated from Fremont High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, but dropped out when he was not admitted into the film school in his third year.

As an unpaid intern for a Hollywood agent, he gained attention for a screenplay he wrote called Swings. This led to a meeting where he successfully pitched Racing with the Moon (1984).

His first experience with professional screenwriting left him wanting more interaction with the actors so that the characters would stay true to his vision. Kloves wrote The Fabulous Baker Boys and also intended it to be his directorial debut. After years of trying to sell the project in Hollywood, the film finally got off the ground and was released in 1989. The Fabulous Baker Boys did reasonably well and was critically acclaimed, but his next shot as writer/director for Flesh and Bone in 1993 fared poorly at the box office. Kloves then stopped writing for three years.

Realising that he had to return to writing to support his family, he began adapting Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys into a screenplay. Kloves was offered the chance to direct, but he declined, preferring to direct only his own original work. This was his first try at adapting another work to film. His screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award after the film's release in 2000.

Warner Bros. sent Kloves a list of novels that the company was considering adapting as films. The listing included the first Harry Potter novel, which intrigued him despite his usual indifference to these catalogs. He went on to write the screenplays for the first four films in the series. However, he turned down writing the fifth film, stating that "The fourth film, Goblet of Fire, was really hard to do. I wrote on it for two years. But it’s not that simple, and I don't know that I'll ever fully understand why I didn't do it." After Michael Goldenberg wrote the screenplay for the fifth film, Kloves then returned to write the sixth, seventh, and eighth installments.

In 2011, Kloves was attached to work on a film adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Since 2016, Kloves produced the Fantastic Beasts films, a spinoff prequel series to the main Harry Potter series. Kloves co-wrote the third installment with J.K. Rowling.

Kloves produced the Andy Serkis-directed movie, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. His daughter, Callie, wrote the screenplay.

Kloves is now set to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of T. J. Newman's novel Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 for Warner Bros.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Steve Kloves, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Acting

2024 A Look Through His Lens Actor Self N/A
N/A

Directing

1993 Flesh and Bone Directing Director 59
Average
1989 The Fabulous Baker Boys Directing Director 61
Fair
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Directing Director N/A
N/A

Writing

2022 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Writing Screenplay 65
Fair
2012 The Amazing Spider-Man Writing Screenplay 66
Fair
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Writing Screenplay 80
Very good
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Writing Screenplay 76
Good
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Writing Screenplay 76
Good
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Writing Screenplay 77
Good
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Writing Screenplay 79
Good
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Writing Screenplay 76
Good
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Writing Screenplay 78
Good
2000 Wonder Boys Writing Screenplay 63
Fair
1993 Flesh and Bone Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1989 The Fabulous Baker Boys Writing Writer 61
Fair
1984 Racing with the Moon Writing Screenplay 59
Average
Drowning Writing Screenplay N/A
N/A
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Writing Screenplay N/A
N/A

Production

2022 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Production Producer 65
Fair
2018 Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Production Producer 63
Fair
2018 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Production Producer 67
Fair
2016 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Production Producer 72
Good

Crew

2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox Crew Thanks 76
Good