Philip Kaufman

Philip Kaufman is a film director and screenwriter.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago and later Harvard Law School. Kaufman won the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique at Cannes for his 1965 film Goldstein. After writing 1975's The Outlaw Josey Wales, he was supposed to direct it, but was replaced by Clint Eastwood.

Kaufman's first hit was the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In 1983 he directed The Right Stuff, a critically lauded film that was adapted from the book by Tom Wolfe. He later was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1988 for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 1990's Henry and June was a major factor in the development of a new MPAA rating, NC-17 which created much controversy. (IMDb mini-biography by <ranger@thepoint.net>)

He receives a story credit for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and with good reason. While George Lucas came up with the character, he did not have a story to put him in. It was Kaufman's idea for Indy to pursue the Ark of the Covenant.