The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm

James Schamus
Role: Author
Written by Academy Award nominee, The Ice Storm won Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival and Best Performance/Best Adapted Screenplay at BAFTA.

Academy Award nominee James Schamus adapts Rick Moody’s celebrated novel in this Best Screenplay winner at Cannes Film Festival (1997). In the 1970s, an outwardly wholesome family begins cracking at the seams over the course of a tumultuous Thanksgiving break. Frustrated with his job, the father, Ben (Kevin Kline), seeks fulfillment by cheating on his wife, Elena (Joan Allen), with neighborhood seductress Janey (Sigourney Weaver). Their teenage daughter, Wendy (Christina Ricci), dabbles in sexual affairs too – with Janey’s son Mikey (Elijah Wood). The family’s strained relations continue to tauten until an ice storm strikes. Directed by Ang Lee and written by James Schamus, The Ice Storm is regarded as a modern classic.