Craig Pearce is a graduate of Australia's premiere theater school, The National Institute of Dramatic Art. In 1991, he and Baz Luhrmann co-wrote the screenplay for the enormously successful feature film "Strictly Ballroom," which won eight Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Screenplay, and was nominated for five BAFTA Awards, including Best Screenplay. It also won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival and the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Script Writing.
In 1994, Pearce and Luhrmann adapted William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" for the screen. The film, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, broke box-office records for Shakespeare films worldwide. Among its many nominations and awards, the film won the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and three BAFTA Awards, including Best Screenplay – Adapted. Pearce and Luhrmann also co-wrote the screenplay for "Moulin Rouge!" The film was in competition at—and opened—the Cannes Film Festival. The film's many accolades include winning two National Board of Review Awards, including Best Film; nine Golden Satellite Awards, with a nomination for Best Screenplay, Original; three Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy; a Grammy Award; five Australian Film Institute Awards; two AFI Film Awards; and numerous others throughout the world. It was also nominated for twelve BAFTA Awards, including Best Screenplay – Original, nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and nominated for eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture.
Pearce recently co-wrote the screenplay for director Burr Steers' drama "Charlie St. Cloud," starring Zac Efron, and has a number of film projects in development, including "The Power of the Dark Crystal," with the Jim Henson Company.
Warner Bros.
