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Wikipedia – Jan 29 2010

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J. David Shapiro (born March 18, 1969) is a filmmaker and stand-up comedian. He is best known for writing the film "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" and many consider is best work to date "We Married Margo" an independent film he wrote, directed and starred in.

Early Life
Shapiro's parents were divorced when he was two so Shapiro grew up in both North Jersey, where his mom, Barbara Shapiro lived, and Hell's Kitchen, where his father, Robert Shapiro, lived. Shapiro has three sisters, Karen Shapiro, Nancy Cohen, Pam Schloss.

As a young child, Shapiro suffered chronic bouts of walking Pneumonia, and was out of school for long periods of time. Having three sister and no brothers, this isolated him. He says it's probably one of the main reason he became a filmmaker. He had to dig into his imagination for friends and entertainment, and by doing so, he strengthened that "muscle" and was able to use it later in life to "create worlds of possibilities in film."

Shapiro has said that, although he grew up poor and came from a broken family, he had a good childhood. At times Shapiro was so poor he had to walk across the George Washington Bridge in order to get to school.

Shapiro spent much time when he was a kid on his own. Shapiro used to sneak into neighborhood bars and he ended up being befriended by members of the Westie's, the notorious Irish-American mob considered to be one of the most violent and feared crime groups in New York City during the time of their operation. They ran much of mid-town manhattan until the mid-80's. Shapiro doesn't talk much about them, only to say they taught him how to fight and showed him life was short.

Shapiro played little league baseball, and chose the position of shorts stop because one of his ideals, Snoopy, played shortstop. He was eventually moved to pitcher, but then back to shortstop because he kept hitting the batters with his curve ball that never curved. He learned to play tennis by watching others play on an exclusive court he'd sneak into and from TV. He found a racker that someone had left behind that had a slight crack in it, glued it in place, had it strung and, using balls he found in the patch of trees on the other side of the fence, he taught himself to play. (To this day he doesn't grip the racket correctly). Despite never having had a lesson, he made the varsity high school team. The school bent the rules to buy him a racket and tennis shorts and shirt. Shapiro also did some boxing in the ring-- and apparently a lot out of the ring.

Although small in stature, he played pee-wee and high school football. His first year he was a running back and was terrible. Turns out his Dyslexia caused him to constantly go the other way. His mom talked into going back and playing another year and the coach switched him to defense, were he didn't have to think as much as he had to react.

Shapiro was moved first to safety,, then to roving middle linebacker after a scrimmage with his own team where he took out the fullback, a player that outweighed Shapiro by at least 100 pounds. Shapiro became the co-captain of the defense and led his schools team, The Raiders, to the state championship where they won after Shapiro sacked the opponents QB in the end zone. Although carried off the field in victory, the next day the wrong players picture was put in the paper stating he won the game. The team made it up to Shapiro when they awarded him the MVP. He was also on the chess team. And possibly the only person to ever get into a fist fight with an opposing player during a varsity tennis match.

Shapiro became interested in entertainment, mainly film making, at an early age. He would write, produce, direct and star in productions he did with his sisters and friends. He would charge people $.25 cents to see the film or play, and another $.50 cents to get a small bag of popcorn. He used the money to fund his projects

The first movie he ever entered for an award was in high school, but it ended up not being seen by the teacher selection committee. Students who saw the movie started a grassroots movement, circulated the film to other students and word of mouth caught on. The selection committee had already made all their choices, so they ended up giving Shapiro an award for "Best Forgotten Film."

Shapiro had the opportunity to attended the NYC School of Performing Arts but when he found out they had no football team he decided to stay put.

At one Shapiro time thought about joining the secret service. He had several meetings and was even put through a series of test. He was told, among other things, that his "Independent attitude and unwillingness to follow basic rules" made him an unacceptable candidate.

After college, Shapiro packed up his few belongings, the $950 he had to his name and moved to Los Angeles to peruse his dream of becoming a filmmaker. With him was Margaux St. Ledger, the woman that would eventually be the impetus of his directorial debut film, "We Married Margo."

Shapiro and St. Ledger moved into a 500 square foot studio apartment in Westwood, California. Shapiro said he moved there because he "I saw people walking. Everyplace else there was no walking." Shapiro saved $50 a month in rent by becoming the assistant manager, his job being to change light bulbs and empty trash. Shapiro and St. Ledger got engaged in 1990. Several months prior to the wedding, they called it off. To this day they remain close friends.

Shapiro caught his first break In 1992. He was looking for a dentist and his sister Pam had hear of Dr. Evan Chandler and suggested he go see him. Chandler and Shapiro became friends and Chandler wanted to get into the movie business. Chandler told Shapiro some of the clients he had, one of them being a man who worked with Mel Brooks in the '70's.

Not realizing that just about ever dentist, and ever person in LA no matter what they do for a living wanted to be in the movie business, Shapiro decided to write a script on spec he was convinced would end up in the hands of Mel Brooks. Most of Shapiro's friends told him he was crazy and not to waste his time. Shapiro ignored him, and wrote the spec script "Robbin' The Hood." It got into the hands of Brooks who loved it but not the title. Brooks felt that with that title people would expect a black Robin Hood, and Eddie Murphy, who Brooks was interested in playing the part, asked for too much money. Brooks wanted to call the movie "Robin Hood: The True Story." Shapiro hated that titled, remembered all the articles with Kevin Costner talking about his Robin Hood movie and how they didn't wear tights back then, and came up with the title, "Robin Hood: Men In Tights." From concept to release was a little over a year.

Writing & Directing
When Shapiro first came to Los Angeles in 1989, he had his first meeting with Sonny Fox, a former executive at NBC, who was a friend of a friend of his fathers. Fox told Shapiro he read the first ten pages of his screenplay "Wrestlers from Outer Space" and thought it was campy. Shapiro told him it was supposed to be campy, to which Fox replied, "It's not good campy."

Fox asked Shapiro if he had had any formal training as a screenwriter. Shapiro said, "Yes, life." Fox started to tell Shapiro he should take screen writing classes, but before he even finished his sentence he changed his mind and told Shapiro that he had no talent as a writer and should get into another line of work.

Shapiro sold his first screenplay, "The Final Frontier," in 1990. He started writing it on a Monday, finished it on Wednesday, and sold it to Warner Brothers the following Wednesday. Shapiro has gone on to write over twenty screenplays to date, and sold over a dozen, selling to just about every major studio including; 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, New Line, and Miramax.

Some of the screenplays Shapiro has written include; "The Final Frontier" which was bought by Warner Brothers, "Toy Soldiers" which was optioned by Trunk Productions, "Solo to Mars," optioned by Paramount, "Robin Hood: Men In Tights, bought by 20th Century Fox & Brooksfilms, "Signed, Sealed & Delivered" which he co-wrote with Aaron William Dozier and was bought by Touchstone Pictures. Shapiro Co-wrote  "Working Class Hero," with James Cummings and had it optioned by Gale Anne Hurd, as well as co-writing "Supercops."  Cummings.  It was based on the book “Supercops" and Bought by Nittolo Entertainment. Shapiro wrote "Blast Off!" which was bought by Interscope Films for seven figures. Shapiro adapted the novella "Fear," which was optioned by Miramax and wrote "Daddy's Girl," which was optioned by New Line.

At one point Betty Thomas was attached to direct "Signed Sealed & Delivered" Glenn Close was negotiating to play the lead and Phillip Noyce was attached to direct "Blast Off!"

Shapiro has had six of his screenplays made, several of which he either took his name off of or used a pseudonym. Those screenplays include "Robin Hood: Men In Tights," "Battlefield Earth" & "We Married Margo." Shapiro wanted to use his pseudonym "Sir Nicholas Knack" for "Battlefield Earth" but the WGA would not allow it because of a rule they have that if you are paid over a certain amount of money you can't. Shapiro could have taken his name completely off the movie, but after long discussions with his agents and attorney, he begrudgingly decided not to.

Stand-up
Although always a huge fan of stand-up comedy, Shapiro never really thought of doing it himself. He was uncomfortable speaking in front of any audience of any size, due to his dyslexia and shyness. He started to flirt with the idea of doing stand-up after he made "Robin Hood: Men In Tights," but never did. It wasn't until after making "We Married Margo" that he started to seriously considered doing it for a combination of reasons; The accolades he was getting for his performance in "Margo," an "inspiring" conversation he had with Robin Williams at The HBO Aspen Comedy Festival and a chance meeting with Donna Moffit, wife of John Moffitt. Donna was going to see a friend's film but got the time wrong and figured she might as well see the movie that was playing, "We Married Margo." After the screening, she approached Shapiro, told him who she was, told him she had seen thousands of stand-up comedians and he had one of the greatest natural gifts she'd ever seen, and insisted on him perusing it as a career.

Still, Shapiro shied away from it. He remained friends with Moffitt who year-after-year pushed him to get up on stage. In March of 2005 Shapiro finally did get on stage at the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip and officially started his stand-up career. Shapiro was quoted as saying that the first time he ever went up was for three minutes which felt like 3 hours. Not just to him, but to the audience watching. Luckily the main booker for The Comedy Store saw talent in Shapiro and thus Shapiro was able to perform3 minutes on Sunday and Monday nights in the "Friends & Family" section of The Comedy store.

Due to Shapiro's heavy obligations with film and TV projects, he was unable to perform many nights a week, going even months at a time without getting in any stage time. But Shapiro's nature abilities and hard work paid off. Mitzi Shore, the owner of the Comedy Store and the woman who started such illustrious careers as Robin Williams, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Sam Kinison, Jim Carrey and a host of others, made Shapiro a Paid Regular in record time. Shapiro had only performed stand-up 198 times, which is less then most stand-ups perform in one year.

Shapiro has performed all over the country. He is a regular at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and San Diego as well as Stand Up NY in New York City.

Present Protects
Shapiro is presently working on a new superhero series he created along with Tony Chargin and legendary Stan Lee. The release date is late 2010. Those who have had a sneak peak say this new series will be Lee's new legacy and ranks among the greatest superheroes he's ever created.

Shapiro is gearing up to direct a film from a screenplay he wrote entitled, "Knights of the Not So Round Table: The Lost Tapes of 524 A.D." Dan Myrick is set to executive produce. The movie spoofs Arthur, Camelot and the knights of the round table. and is gearing up to go into production in he Spring, 2010. http://524ad.com

Shapiro is developing "Witness Protection" for "The Gold Company." It's being called "The History of Violence"-- if it was a comedy.

Shapiro is putting the finishing touches on his first novel, "The Truth About Men." http://thetruthaboutmen.net. He will soon be available on-line and Shapiro is in talks with several publisher.

Television & Internet
Shapiro got a development deal at 20TH Century Fox write and associate produce a TV series he created called “Man Bites Dog.”  The project never made it to pilot script. "We Married Margo," (based on Shapiro's movie), was optioned by "Big Ticket" with Shapiro attached to star in and Executive Producer. It never was set up at any network and Shapiro was able to get back all the rights.

Shapiro developed "Inside/Out" a TV series for him to star in with Paul Rieser’s "Nuance Picture." It's the story of an attorney who, having had enough when the same judge who gave a man two years for raping a 15 year old girl gives another man twenty years for possession of marijuana, flips out and voluntary checks himself into a mental institute, only to find out it's less crazy on the inside than it is the out, so he decides to stay inside for a while.

Shapiro made an overall-deal to create and executive produce a one-hour television series for Spelling Entertainment. Shortly after the deal was made, which was one of the largest payouts Spelling made to a writer/EP that year, many of the people at Spelling left for other jobs. Shapiro's project never went to script but Shapiro ended. Shapiro called it a very frustrating situation because he was creating a show unlike anything Spelling had ever done before and he hates it when people say "At least you made a lot of money."

Shapiro created, wrote, directed and, along with Stan Rogo, executive produced "FreakyDeak Skylark, an animated Web series for NBC. Shapiro and Rogo never got along, NBC felt the episodes produced were too racy, and the show ended there.

Acting
Shapiro co-starred in the award winning independent film he wrote and directed called "We Married Margo." The movie won many awards and he won several acting awards including Best Actor in a Movie ???

Shapiro co-starred in National Lampoon's "Pucked." Jon Bon Jovi and Cary Elwes starred along with him. Shapiro fought often with producer Matty Simmons over the quality of the script, which Shapiro felt was lacking. In fact, Shapiro tossed the script down on Arthur Hiller's desk telling him the scripted sucked and would never get a theatrical release if he shot it. (Shapiro later apologized to Hiller, who he respects immensely, and told him he understood Simmons had tied his hands and he had no choice in the matter). About a month before principal photography began, Shapiro took it upon himself to rewrite the entire script and give it to Executive Producer, William R. Greenblat. Greenblat called Shapiro the day after he got the script to tell him how much he loved it and how excited he was to be making the movie. He told Shapiro he was going to give the script to Simmons and tell him this was the version to shoot. Several days later, Shapiro received a call from Greenblat telling him that Simmons wanted to shoot the original version, the one Simmons wrote. As a result of Shapiro's relationship with Simmons was so strained that Simmons cut down the scenes Shapiro was supposed to be in, limited his time on the set, and had Shapiro practically cut out of the entire movie during the editing process. Shapiro says he's not bitter over the experience and in fact, considered it an amazing one because he got to work with Hiller.

Shapiro starred as a fast talking, hard nosed, take-no-prisioners agent in an assemble web series called "The Strand Venice." The show was created and executive produced by Dan Myrick,, whom had become a fan of Shapiro's work as both a filmmaker and actor after seeing him in "We Married Margo." (Myrick not only became a fan but also a friend, and the two have talked about doing several projects together, one of which they are presently doing called "Knights of the Not So Round Table: The Lost Tapes of 524 A.D."). The series, which was about a group of aspiring artists set in Venice CA, was in many ways ahead of it's time, was short lived and although well received financing fell out and only four episodes were shot.

Shapiro starred in a series of commercials for "Sunkist Pistachio Nuts." Kris Nicolau, a casting director who knew Shapiro's work and liked his improve skills, called and asked if he would audition for the spot, even though the idea of the campaign was to find REAL nutty people who would try Sunkist Pistachio Nuts and then talk about how much they liked them. Nicolau told Shapiro she was having a lot of problems finding anyone interesting, and asked him if he would create a character and audition for the spot.

Shapiro came up with the idea of a guy who would said he could speak to aliens from outer space by wearing a special hat the aliens had made for him. He took a pitch helmet, attached his girlfriend's blow dryer extension to the front of it, and auditioned for Nicolau. She sent the tape, along with ten other auditions, to the director of the commercial, who called her after midnight to tell her he laughed so hard at Shapiro's audition he fell off his chair. Then he asked her if Shapiro was real. Nicolau hesitated but told him the truth. He didn't care and wanted to use Shapiro anyway. Shapiro shot a series of them for Sunkist, and the series went on to win several prestigious awards, including Best Commercial in the commercial section of the Cannes Film Festival. Sunkist, however, never aired the commercials. They felt they were too off the wall and people might be put off. Nicolau still talks about how, in a way, she created the first "Reality TV" commercial.

As himself
Shapiro hosted the first ever "Women in Film Awards, which took place at the Sundance Film Festival. Shapiro got to host them when his publicists for We Married Margo found out the name host they had fell out and lied to the committee telling them Shapiro was a stand-up (he wasn't at this time), and would be perfect for the job because of all the women Shapiro hired in key rolls in the movie he directed, "We Married Margo."  (Shapiro had indeed hired many women in key rolls traditionally held by men).  Shapiro is said to have been petrified the night of the award show and threw-up prior to the start of the show.  Much to Shapiro's surprise, it went extremely well and in a way, helped push Shapiro to start his career in stand-up... some five years later.

Shapiro has appeared on, "The Bob & Tom Show" " The Joey Reynolds Show," "The Early Show with Mike & Juliet," "Entertainment Tonight" three times), "Showtime," "CNN's Bizz Buzz," "Cinamax," "MTV," "Comedy Central," "E!" and "Movie Talk" on PBS.

Trivia
"We Married Margo" was made in 17 days, on 35mm film and shot for around $230,00. George Lucas liked the film so much he invited Shapiro to Skywalker Ranch and gave him free post-production sound editing. Frank Darabont wanted to turn the movie into a TV series for HBO.

From hiring the DP, Line producer, and most of the main personal, to finding the locations, making set design choices, costume choices and casting choices, Shapiro was involved in every aspect of the making of, "Robin Hood: Men In Tights." Shapiro would usually do the heavy lifting and narrow all the choices down to two or three, and then present them to Mel Brooks.

Brooks wanted someone else for the part of Ahchoo, but Shapiro was not happy with that choice. Luckily for Shapiro, that choices agent kept asking for more and more money, so it opened the door for Shapiro to find someone else. After a long search that including audition actors, going to comedy clubs and looking through audition tapes sent in by various agents and managers, Shapiro saw Dave Chapelle and instantly felt he was the right choice. Shapiro had the editor put together an audition reel with five other choices on them, purposely putting in a couple of okay actors and two crappy ones so Chapelle would have a better chance of getting the part.

Shapiro and Brooks ran into Sean Connery at the Fox commissary and had dessert with him. Shapiro, much to Brooks' surprise, pitched Connery on playing the part of King Richard. Connery liked the idea but wanted to do it as Queen Richard. He thought it would be fun to, "Come in on a horse, wearing a long dress and a tiara and big earrings." Connery was being serious and Fox loved the idea but when Connery's people asked for a million dollars Brooks passed. Shapiro constantly tried to get Brooks to change his mind but was unable to. "There were a few fights I had with Mel over creative issues, some I won, some I lost-- that was the one I hated losing the most. Sean Connery, 007, a true man's-man riding in on a dress at the end of the movie would have been an all time classic."

Shapiro also wrote all the lyrics to the music, including the theme song, "Men In Tights" along with Hummie Mann who wrote all the music.

Much to Shapiro's surprise, he was in "The Osbourns" annoying neighbor's episode. One of Shapiro's closes friends, Charlie Lewis, owned the house next door. Charlie spent most of his time in London and Buenos Aires, and only a few months out of the year in his Beverly Hills estate. When Charlie was in town, he and Shapiro would often throw big and small parties, mostly small, but all would last until the sun came up.

Although they saw the Jack and some of his friends video taping them, they thought it was because they wanted proof for the police, who the Osbourns were constantly calling on them. At that time, the show had not been announced and was kept very stealth. Shapiro went over to the Osbourns's house several times and spoke with Ozzie and Sharon, telling them that if he and his friends were being too noisy, they should call them and they'll tone it down. But they never did, they just called the police a lot  (Although the show made it look like everything took place over a weekend, the entire episode took place over a period of eight months).

When the show was announced, Shapiro and Lewis thought there was no way they could be on it since they hadn't agreed to be. But when the annoying neighbor episode aired, Shapiro watched the show for the first time and, sure enough, although his face was digitized out, he was in it. The night the show aired Shapiro said he got dozens and dozens of phone calls, from friends and associates, wanting to know if he was on the show. He said "I never realized I had such a distinct voice.

Shapiro and Lewis were approached by attorney Bert Fields to sue the production company that made the show, as well as MTV. Somehow Fields how found out they never agreed to be on the show and wanted to take the case because a new law had recently taken effect in CA and it would have been precedent setting. Shapiro and Lewis decided not to sue.

There were talks between Shapiro, Lewis and the producers of the show to have a "color war" were it was them against the Osbourns in various competitions, but when Sharon got sick the talks stopped. Sharon did, however, read a letter Shapiro had sent her along with a basket of Eastern remedies to help her fight her cancer on the show, but she changed it to make it look like the letter was sent because they had lost her dog.