Neil LaBute

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born

March 19, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan, The United States

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

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Neil LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.

In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he rece...more Neil LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.

In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.

LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.

LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.

LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.

He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
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Books by Neil LaBute

Average rating: 3.66 · 3,943 ratings · 432 reviews · 24 distinct works

	The Shape of Things 3.80 avg rating — 788 ratings — published 2001 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Fat Pig 3.58 avg rating — 549 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions	My rating:
	reasons to be pretty 3.55 avg rating — 323 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Bash by Neil LaBute, Neil La Bute 4.00 avg rating — 231 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Mercy Seat: A Play 3.58 avg rating — 186 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Some Girl 3.49 avg rating — 179 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Distance from Here 3.46 avg rating — 117 ratings — published 2003	My rating:
	This is How it Goes 3.64 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Autobahn 3.76 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Seconds of Pleasure 3.43 avg rating — 119 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Neil LaBute

“Maybe that's what Hell is, in the end. All of your wrongful shit played out there in front of you while you're being pumped from behind by someone you've hurt. That you've screwed over in life. Or worse, worse still...some person who doesn't really love you anymore. No one to ever look at again, make contact with. Just you being fucked as your life splashes out across this big headboard in the Devil's bedroom. Maybe. Even if that's not it, even if Hell is all fire and sulfur and that sort of thing, it couldn't be much worse than that.”
― Neil LaBute, The Mercy Seat: A Play

tags: hell

2 people liked it

“The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.”
― Neil LaBute, reasons to be pretty

1 person liked it

“I'm saying the American way is to overcome, to conquer, to come out on top. And we do it by spending and eating and screwing our women harder than anyone else. That's all I'm saying.”
― Neil LaBute, The Mercy Seat: A Play

tags: the-american-dream , united-states

0 people liked it

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