Occupation Screenwriter, teacher Role Screenwriter Name Diane Drake | Nationality American Language English Movies What Women Want, Only You | |
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Alma mater University of California, San Diego Subject Communications/Visual Arts Notable works Only You, What Women Want Education University of California, San Diego Similar People Cathy Yuspa, Carmen Finestra, Nancy Meyers, Cary Woods, David McFadzean | ||
Diane Drake is an American screenwriter and teacher, and former Vice President of Creative Affairs for Sydney Pollack's production company, Mirage Enterprises. She lives in Los Angeles and is best known for the films Only You and What Women Want.
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Early life
Drake was born and grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California.
She studied Communications/Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego.
Career
Diane Drake worked for Sydney Pollack's production company, Mirage Enterprises, from 1988-1992, rising to the position of Vice President of Creative Affairs.
Writing
Drake began writing screenplays in 1991. Her first screenplay, Dog Meets Cat, though never more than optioned material, earned her a writing assignment with Hanna-Barbera. She worked on rewriting The Prince and the Pauper, with dogs, in a project that was never produced.
In 1992 she wrote a spec script called Him, which sold to TriStar Pictures for $1 million. It was produced in 1994 as Only You, starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey, Jr. The movie was remade in China by the Huayi Brothers in 2015.
In 1995 Drake wrote a spec script called Ladies Man, in which a male protagonist who works in advertising is able to read women's thoughts. In November 1995, Caravan Pictures optioned the script for 18 months.
According to the New York Post, Drake's agent sent Ladies Man to Nancy Meyers in 1996 as a writing sample. In 1999 Nancy Meyers rewrote a script by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, called Head Games, based on a pitch they sold to Touchstone—another division of the same studio that had bought Drake's script—in June, 1997, (nineteen months after Drake's original script had been optioned by the studio and one month after the studio's option on Drake's work had expired.) Head Games was developed with Todd Garner, who served as an executive under Joe Roth, co-owner of Caravan Pictures. Their work also had a male protagonist able to read women's thoughts. Meyers changed the title of Head Games to What Women Want, a line of dialogue taken from Drake's script. The New York Post said:
Diane Drake has refused to comment on this publicly, but Paramount Studios granted her a story credit on the 2000 movie. Following arbitration by the Writers Guild of America, Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa received both screenplay and story credits. What Women Want went on to become the second largest grossing romantic comedy of all time in North America. The film was remade in China in 2011 as What Women Want, with Andy Lau and Gong Li.
Authorship
In April, 2016, Diane released her first book, Get Your Story Straight; A Step-by-Step Guild to Screenwriting by a Million-Dollar Screenwriter.
Teaching
Diane Drake has been an instructor with the UCLA Extension Writer's program since 2009.
Script consultancy
Diane has done private consulting through her official website dianedrake.com since 2011.