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 A
Sketch of Robert B. Weide's Career
After being rejected from USC's film
school for the third time, Bob Weide figured he was
destined to become a film-maker.
In 1982, at the age of 22, he produced
The Marx
Brothers in a Nutshell, a documentary tribute to
his first love(s) which became one of the highest-rated
programs in PBS history.
Two years later, he produced and directed
The Great
Standups: Sixty Years of Laughter for HBO. In 1986
he received the national prime-time Emmy Award for W.
C. Fields Straight Up, honored as the year's Outstanding
Informational Special.
In 1989, Weide produced, wrote and
directed Mort
Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, which aired on PBS'
''American Masters'' series. From 1990-'94 he served
as Vice President of Development for Rollins & Joffe
Productions (producers of Woody Allen's films) where
he executive-produced Larry Gelbart's critically acclaimed
political satire, Mastergate
for the Showtime Network and Rick Reynolds' one-man
confessional, Only
The Truth Is Funny. He has also produced the HBO
specials But
Seriously, Folks and The
Lost Minutes of Billy Crystal.
1996 saw the release of Weide's first
feature film as writer/producer,
Mother Night, based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.
The film starred Nick Nolte, John Goodman, Alan Arkin,
Sheryl Lee, and Kirsten Dunst. Weide also adapted Lois
Lowry's Newbery Award-winning novel, ''The Giver'' for
actor Jeff Bridges, which is currently in development
at Walden Media for 20th Century-Fox.
In 1998, Weide completed a twelve year
labor-of-love, his acclaimed documentary Lenny
Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth. His efforts were
rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for Best Feature
Documentary, followed in '99 with an Emmy award for
the film's editing and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding
Non-Fiction Special. Still involved in documentaries,
he is part-way through film bios on comedian/ activist
Dick Gregory
and author Kurt
Vonnegut.
In 1999, HBO premiered Weide's comedy
special, Larry
David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partly real, partly
embellished ''mock-umentary'' chronicling the return
to stand-up by Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld.
Weide is now the Director and Executive Producer of
the series based on this special. The series, Curb
Your Enthusiasm, premiered on HBO in the Fall of
2000 to rave reviews
and has become HBO's latest comedy hit. The AFI named
''Curb'' the 2001 Comedy Series of the Year.
In 2002, the show received an Emmy
nomination as Outstanding Comedy Series, and Weide was
nominated as Outstanding Director of a Comedy Series.
''Curb'' also received the Golden Globe Award in 2003
as Best Television Comedy Series.
That same year, Weide won the Emmy
Award for Comedy Direction for his Curb episode ''Krazee-Eyez
Killa.'' In 2004, the show and Weide's direction were
Emmy-nominated once more. Weide was also nominated for
the prestigious DGA Award (Directors Guild of America)
for Comedy Direction for his episode ''The Carpool Lane.''
2006 brought another Emmy nomination for the series,
and for Weide's direction of ''The Christ Nail'' episode.
In 2008, Weide completed his first
feature as director, How
to Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring Simon
Pegg (''Shaun of the Dead,'' ''Hot Fuzz''), Kirsten
Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson, Danny Huston,
Megan Fox (''Transformers''), and Max Minghella. Upon the film's release in
October, 2008, it became the #1 film in the UK, and remained among the top 10
box office performers for a month.
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