‘50 Faces’ Tells Story About Screenwriters

Their faces tell the stories.

Ring Lardner Jr., one of the blacklisted Hollywood 10, looks grim and determined as might befit a man who a half-century ago took a stand--and paid a price.

Paul Attanasio, who wrote “Donnie Brasco,” stares at the camera with deep-set eyes not unlike the star of the film, Al Pacino.

And linked together with nose chains are the Zucker brothers--David and Jerry--and Jim Abrahams, co-creators of comedies like “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad.”

Each one forms part of a new photography exhibition called “Screenwriters: 50 Faces Behind the Greatest Movie Moments,” on display through Dec. 21 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Sponsored by the Writers Guild of America, the exhibition is the creation of Helena Lumme and photographer Mika Manninen, a Finnish-born couple who now reside in La Canada.

“[Screenwriters] don’t get any recognition whatsoever,” Lumme said. “After they turn in the final draft, they are forgotten. They are not invited to premieres and they are not put in the spotlight when the media are there. Yet they created the characters and the plot and everything.”

The writers chosen for the exhibition range from older legends like Julius Epstein (“Casablanca”), Ernest Lehman (“North by Northwest”) and Billy Wilder (“Double Indemnity”) to younger writers like Richard LaGravenese (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”), Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”) and Callie Khouri (“Thelma & Louise”).

While several of the writers said they are under no illusion that the exhibition will transform them into instant celebrities, they see some symbolism in their poses.

Jeff Arch (“Sleepless in Seattle”), for example, is depicted in a shower on a Santa Barbara beach near his home.

“Standing in there getting soaked, pulling the chain myself, with no lifeguard on duty--that’s writing,” Arch said. “You’re drowning and there’s no one to save you.”

Jane Anderson (“How to Make an American Quilt”) said she struck her pose in Malibu using a rocking chair with wings that she bought when she adopted her now 3-year-old son.

“The chair has become a symbol of the exhibit,” Anderson said. “Writers sit on their backsides all day, but when you are a writer, you are going all over the place with your imagination.”

William Kelley is dressed all in black on a road near his home in Bishop. He holds an Amish bishop’s hat that he bought in New Holland, Pa., when his Amish-themed detective movie, “Witness,” was being filmed more than a decade ago. Worn with the brim down, Kelley said, the hat looks like something a cowboy would wear, but “turn the brim up and suddenly you become holy looking.”

Lumme has vivid memories of her encounter with each writer.

“Billy Wilder was [photographed] in his office in Beverly Hills,” she recalled. “He was funny and sharp as always. When he was leaving the office, he said, ‘Now, it’s time to leave.’ Mika was putting a jacket on him and he couldn’t get it on right away and [Wilder] said, ‘What are you doing? There are only three sleeves in the jacket.’ ”

Khouri climbed a tree for her picture.

“She loves to hike,” Lumme said. “Her favorite place, we found, was a tree on her hiking route, but she wanted to use an evening gown [in the shot], so she climbed up the tree with her shorts on and then she stripped herself naked and put her evening gown on when she was standing on a branch. It was scary.”

Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption”) struck a pose on a Hollywood bridge holding a teddy bear with a gun tucked in his belt.

“He loved the Philip Marlow era,” Lumme said. “It’s symbolic because he thinks writers are like detectives. They are plumbing the dark streets to find truth and the reason he has a gun and teddy bear is because you have to be armed when you are looking for truth but you also have to have a soft side, the child side in you to be able to create.”

As for the Zuckers and Abraham, she said, it was difficult just getting them together in a room.

They stood together and hooked nose chains to their nostrils, Lumme said, as if to symbolize you can be serious about your craft and also have fun.