Luke Davies may have been an unknown name to American audience, until recently, but now he's becoming a household name. It's not just success of his wonderful film LION, but also the Oscar nomination for best screenwriter. He has been quite a successful poet and writer in Australia already. But in spite of all that, he's still a very kind and wonderful person. He was kind of surprised with the success of the film. Although, we are bot. He's a great screenwriter to talk to and learn from. Art Shrian had a chance to talk to him in NYC, and here it goes:
LION screenwriter Luke Davies is the author of three novels (most recently God of Speed), four volumes of poetry (the latest, Interferon Psalms, won the inaugural Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, Australia’s largest and most prestigious literary prize) and is a co-writer, with Neil Armfield, of the feature film Candy, an adaptation of his own novel. Davies’ novels are the cult best-seller Candy, Isabelle the Navigator and God of Speed. Candy was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Awards and has been published in France, Spain, Germany, Israel, Greece, the UK and USA. God of Speed was published in the US by Rare Bird Books in 2014.
Davies is currently writing the screenplay adaptation of the memoirs Beautiful Boy: My Journey Through My Son’s Addiction by David Sheff and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff (two books adapted as one film) for Brad Pitt’s company Plan B. The film is to be directed by Oscar-nominated director Felix von Groeningen (Broken Circle Breakdown) and produced by Oscar-winner Jeremy Kleiner (12 Years a Slave, Selma). Davies is additionally writing a TV adaptation of the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22, for True Detective producers Anonymous Content and Paramount TV
SYNOPSIS: Five year old Saroo gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive alone in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.