Aaron Sorkin: 11 of Aaron Sorkin’s Best Screenplays

Aaron Sorkin is a TV and film screenwriter, playwright, and director. He is well-known for using his fast-paced, snappy dialogue and sharp wit to tell dramatic stories about American politics, law, and media.

Aaron was born in 1961 and raised in New York City. As a youth, he discovered a love for the theatre and dialogue. Aaron attended Syracuse University where he graduated with a degree in acting. While searching for work as an actor in New York, Aaron’s fascination with dialogue grew and he began to explore dramatic writing. In 1989, he wrote the stageplay, A Few Good Men, which became an instant hit on Broadway.

Aaron adapted the screenplay for A Few Good Men, and upon the film version’s release in 1992, Aaron’s Hollywood career exploded. He turned to TV and created Sports Night, a critical hit. Aaron then created the cultural phenomenon, The West Wing. He went on to write films like The Social Network, which earned him an Oscar for best-adapted screenplay, Moneyball, Steve Jobs, and the HBO series, The Newsroom.

Aaron’s career as a screenwriter spans nearly three decades, in which he has developed a well-known signature style. Some of his greatest screenwriting successes include:

1. 1. A Few Good Men (1992): Sorkin's first feature film A Few Good Men stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson as two U.S. Marines charged with murder, which they claim to have committed under the guise of following orders. This film immortalized the line, "You can't handle the truth!" which was an ad-lib by Jack Nicholson. In his screenplay, Aaron originally wrote the line as "You already had the truth.”
2. 2. The American President (1995): This film follows fictional president Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas) who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist (played by Annete Bening), which forces him to negotiate his ambition with his heart. This 1995 film earned Aaron his second Golden Globe nomination, and his first nomination from the Writer's Guild of America for Best Screenplay.
3. 3. Sports Night (1998–2000): This ABC sitcom follows a team of ambitious and complicated television personalities, producers, and editors as they juggle the pressures of relationships and career while working together to make a TV show. Sports Night was Sorkin's first major television series and it earned him his first Emmy nomination.
4. 4. The West Wing (1999–2006): This prestigious political tv series brought audiences into the everyday lives of fictional president Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) and his White House staff. The West Wing earned Aaron five Emmy Awards across its six-year run. The show also cemented Aaron’s heady, quick-witted style of dialogue, and became well-known for the set piece of the “walk and talk,” which showed characters walking briskly down the White House’s long hallways as they discussed vital political matters in rapid-fire.
5. 5. Charlie Wilson's War (2007): Charlie Wilson’s War is a biopic recounting the real-life story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson (played by Tom Hanks) as he attempts to assist freedom fighters in the Afghan-Soviet war of the 1980s. This biopic earned Aaron his third Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay.
6. 6. The Social Network (2010): The Social Network tells the at-times torrid and salacious story of a young Mark Zuckerberg founding Facebook. Aaron adapted this screenplay from the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, with David Fincher directing the movie. The screenplay earned Aaron his first Academy Award nomination and win for Best Adapted Screenplay, and his first Golden Globe and BAFTA for the film's screenplay.
7. 7. Moneyball (2011): Aaron worked with Steven Zillian to adapt the screenplay for this film from Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, the biography of former assistant baseball manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane. In the film, Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) develops an analytical hack to assemble a competitive baseball team in the face of an extremely limited budget. The 2011 film earned Sorkin his second Academy Award nomination.
8. 8. The Newsroom (2012–2014): The Newsroom is a political drama that follows the producers, anchors, and editors of a fast-paced cable news room as they produce a show, all while dealing with network pressures and their own complicated dynamics. Jeff Daniels, who played the newsroom’s difficult head anchor Will McAvoy, earned a Golden Globe for his role in the show.
9. 9. Steve Jobs (2015): Directed by Danny Boyle, this biopic about Steve Jobs, the iconoclastic founder of Apple, earned Aaron his second Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Cast members Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet were both nominated for Academy Awards for their acting.
10. 10. Molly's Game (2017): Molly’s Game was written by Aaron but also marks his silver screen directorial debut. The film is based on the real story of Molly Bloom (played by Jessica Chastain), an ex-Olympic skier who ran a high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target.
11. 11. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020): This is the second feature film both written and directed by Aaron. The film is based on the real story of the Chicago 7, a group of anti-Vietnam war protestors who stood trial for allegedly inciting riots during the Chicago Democratic National Convention in 1968. Aaron’s work earned him his first Best Director nomination at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards. The film stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, and Jeremy Strong.

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