Joe Eszterhas

József Antal Eszterhás Hungarian ˈjoːʒɛf ɒntɒl ˈɛstɛrhaːʃ born November 23 1944 credited as Joe Eszterhas is a HungarianAmerican writer Born in Hungary he grew up in Cleveland Ohio in the United States After an early career as a journalist and editor he entered the film industry His first screenwriting credit was for the film FIST 1978 He cowrote the script for Flashdance which became one of the highestgrossing films of 1983 and set off a lucrative and prolific run for his career By the early 1990s he was known as the highestpaid writer in Hollywood and noted for his work in the erotic thriller genre He was paid a thenrecord 3 million for his script Love Hurts which was produced as Basic Instinct 1992 and following its success news outlets reported he earned sevenfigure payouts solely on the basis of twotofour page outlines Eszterhas screenwriting career experienced a decline over the rest of the decade with films such as Showgirls 1995 Jade 1995 and An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn 1997 the latter receiving negative reviews and performing poorly at the box office He mostly withdrew from Hollywood afterward though he has since authored several books His publications include American Rhapsody 2000 and two volumes of memoirs Hollywood Animal 2004 an autobiography and Crossbearer 2008 which detailed his adulthood return to the Catholic faith he was raised in Description above from the Wikipedia article Joe Eszterhas licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia