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David Marconi: Bio
A native of Highland Park, Ill., Marconi was
passionate about film making from an early age. After
winning several high-school film making competitions,
Marconi was awarded an Alumni Merit Scholarship to
attend the University of Southern California's Film
School. Upon graduation, landed his first job as
Francis Ford Coppola's assistant on The Outsiders.
Following that, Coppola promoted Marconi to Production
Superviser 2nd Unit on Rumble Fish.
Working closely with Coppola, Marconi "cut his
directing teeth" watching Francis direct both The
Outsiders and Rumblefish . 'Working for
Coppola as his assistant was an incredible experience, I
considered it a sort of grad school, a place where I
got to see and experience first-hand the various
techniques Francis would employ to illicit the
performances he required from the actors. It gave me
solid grounding as far as the craft was concerned.'"
After a yearlong series of production jobs ranging from
Art Department to Prop Master, Marconi landed his first
feature writing assignment off an original pitch
entitled; Mud Sweat and Gears. (Warner Bros.,)
Bob Schaffel producing, Thomas Carter to direct.
Marconi followed Mud Sweat and Gears by writing
two more back-to-back action pictures for David Hayman;
The Blonde Hurricane, (Warner Bros.) a romantic
comedy set in Paris during the 30's, and One Hot
Afternoon, (Warner Bros.) an updated version
of a classic Western. Though the writing assignments
were lucrative, the directing was tugging at him.
In 1993, Marconi wrote and directed his first feature,
The Harvest, (Columbia TriStar). "Taking as its
basis one of the most unnerving of all urban horror
stories, the black market organ trade, Marconi's The
Harvest plays like a paranoiac's fever-dream and
cleverly exploits the fears, both real and
xenophobic, of the stranger in a strange land. "
A visually detailed film, the stylish noir stars Miguel
Ferrer (Twin Peaks, Traffic) and Leilani Sarelle
(Basic Instinct). From his Coppola days, Marconi
employed Alex Tavoularis, One from the Heart and
Apocalypse Now to act as his visual consultant.
The sinuous imagery was provided by Mexican
cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Academy award nominee
for his work on Sleepy Hollow, Little Princess
and Children of Man, The Harvest was
Lubezki's first foray into US film production. The film
premiered in the 'official selection' of the San
Sebastian Film Festival and went on to win numerous
awards in International Film festivals .
Distributed internationally by GoldCrest Internationa,
The New York Post described it as "a tense, tough
thriller that keeps you on your toes and guessing."
The success of The Harvest brought Marconi to
the attention of several companies involved in action
pictures, most notably, Michael Mann who commissioned
Marconi to write Red Badge, (Warner Bros.) a DEA
thriller set in Thailand, and Simpson/Bruckheimer who
commissioned Marconi to write his original screenplay
Enemy of the State (Disney) starring Will Smith and
Gene Hackman. A high-tech thriller dealing with privacy
issues, Enemy of the State grossed over 250
million worldwide. On the heels of Enemy of the
State, Foster next commissioned Marconi to
redeveloped Bruckheimer's TV series; Soldier of
Fortune.
After Enemy of the State, Marconi was approached
by Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise. Stone, who had been
hired by Cruise/Wagner to direct the Mission
Impossible sequel, had expressed an earlier
interest in directing Enemy of the State for
Disney.. When Bruckheimer opted for helmer Tony Scott,
who he had a long-standing relationship with, Stone
hired Marconi to pen the first draft of MI2 for
him. (Paramount).
Marconi continued to build a strong reputation as one
of Hollywood's top action/adventure writers, creating
tent-pole action films for the major studios; WW3.com
(which served as the basis for the upcoming DIE HARD
sequel; LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD ) (Twentieth
Century Fox,) Perfect Suspect for Chris Rock
(Twentieth Century Fox,) and the high-tech., science
fiction epic; No Man's Land. (Dreamworks.)
As a writer, Marconi has co-authored with Flint Dille
three serialized novels: Agent 13, The Midnight
Avenger, Agent 13 and the Serpentine Assassins
and Agent 13 and the Acolytes of Darkness, all
from Random House Publishing . An action-adventure
series set in the 30's,the stories deal with a secret
society manipulating the events leading up to the Second
World War, and the one man, Agent Thirteen, who tries to
foil their plans.
Marconi has a penchant for creating original material
"with a political bite" as he puts it. It's those
observations and insights which have led to numerous
speaking engagements, books and articles for various
international publications. Most recently, Marconi was
a featured guest speaker for IADC, International
Attorney's Defense Council, in Pebble Beach and the
Department of Defense Cyber-Crime Conference in Palm
Harbor Florida where he lectured on his film Enemy of
the State and how it relates to privacy concerns and
cyber-warfare in a post 9-11 world. Marconi, along with
Sydney Pollack, has also recently taught a special
writers' conference of French student screenwriters at
the Deauville Film Festival and has completed a
fellowship writer-in-residence program at the Abbey
Royaumont outside Paris, an award he received from the
WGA and the ile de France Film Commission for his work
on THE TAKE.
Holding duel citizenship for the US and EU (Italy,)
Marconi divides his time between Los Angeles and Europe.
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