Burr Steers

BURR STEERS made his feature film directorial debut with the acclaimed 2002 offbeat dramedy Igby Goes Down, for which he also wrote the screenplay. For the film, which starred Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum and Susan Sarandon, Steers received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay and was honored as Best First Time Director at the 2003 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Culkin and Sarandon received Golden Globe nominations for their work on the film.

Steers subsequently co-wrote the worldwide romantic-comedy hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which marked the first onscreen pairing of stars Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.

In 2009, Steers directed Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry in the worldwide box-office hit 17 Again. Steers’ next directorial effort was Emperor, the story of a young Julius Caesar, which was based on the first book in Conn Iggulden’s “Emperor” series.

For television, Steers has directed the HBO series Big Love and the Showtime series The L Word and Weeds.

Prior to launching his filmmaking career, Steers was an actor. He counts among his credits such features as The Last Days of Disco and Pulp Fiction, successful feature film Strictly Ballroom, which won eight Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Screenplay, and was nominated for five BAFTAs 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 BAFTAs 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 (and was nominated 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 12 BAFTAs 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.

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