--- name: "Michael Tolkin" canonical: "https://film.one/person/michael-tolkin" fi1m_id: "michael-tolkin" imdb_id: "nm0866062" tmdb_id: 16939 wikidata_id: "Q1723417" roles: ["Writer","Producer","Director"] born: "17 October 1950" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "writer" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-05T01:08:18.178167+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Michael Tolkin ## Identity Michael Tolkin - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/michael-tolkin - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** michael-tolkin - **IMDb ID:** nm0866062 - **TMDB ID:** 16939 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1723417 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tolkin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1723417, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0866062/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/16939 Writer and producer. Born 17 October 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer, Director - **Born:** 17 October 1950, New York City, New York, USA - **Active:** 1978–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 1 acting, 1 directing, 4 writing - **Frequently works with:** [David Brown](https://film.one/person/david-brown.md), [Nick Wechsler](https://film.one/person/nick-wechsler.md) - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as writer, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 86 (1), 1990s 76 (3), 2000s 46 (1), 2010s 74 (1) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 3, Crime 2, Action 1, Comedy 1, Music 1, Romance 1 - **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $70m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tolkin, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1723417, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0866062/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/16939 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*The Player*](https://film.one/film/the-player.md) (85) - **Apple TV:** [*Escape at Dannemora*](https://film.one/tv/escape-at-dannemora.md) (74) - **The Roku Channel:** [*Deep Cover*](https://film.one/film/deep-cover.md) (72) - **Paramount+:** [*Nine*](https://film.one/film/nine.md) (46) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Michael Tolkin > Tolkin writes people who can make self-interest sound reasonable, and he lets them talk long enough to convince themselves. *The Player* is the sharp version, *Escape at Dannemora* the patient one, and we rate the first more highly. Tim Robbins's Griffin Mill, the studio executive at the centre of *The Player* (1992), is the most agreeable man in the film and the one to be most wary of. Michael Tolkin wrote him, first in a 1988 novel and then for Robert Altman, and the trick of the writing is that Mill never has to justify himself. He explains, pleasantly, and the explanation sounds fine. Tolkin's people are like that: they can make professional self-interest sound reasonable, and he gives them time to do it. He came to scripts from journalism, at the Village Voice and the Los Angeles Times, and from a spell as a television story editor, and the reporter's habit of letting people talk until they give themselves away has stayed with him. The Altman film was the making of him. He then directed two of his own scripts, *The Rapture* (1991), which takes born-again faith and the end of the world literally, and *The New Age* (1994), and neither was received as *The Player* had been. Studio work followed, *Deep Impact* (1998) and *Changing Lanes* among it, and then television: *Ray Donovan*, *Escape at Dannemora* (2018) with his regular writing partner Brett Johnson, and *The Offer* (2022), about the making of *The Godfather*. *Escape at Dannemora* is where the method shows most plainly. Ben Stiller directs seven episodes, from scripts by Johnson, Tolkin and Jerry Stahl, about the 2015 break from Clinton Correctional Facility and the woman who ran the prison tailor shop and helped. The escape is not what the writing cares about; why she did it is, and the writers refuse the usual shortcut of a flashback to explain her. Tolkin has said of the three people at the centre, "It’s about all of them. The story of any one of them without the other would be diminished." We were restless through the middle episodes, which run a good two hours longer than they need to, and then in the last two we understood that woman better than we understand most people television hands us, because nobody had told us what to think of her. Patricia Arquette and Eric Lange are superb throughout. The weakness is the same quality seen from the other side. In *The Player* the script's delight in knowing everybody softens its judgement of them, and Altman's famous guests get more attention than the story needs. In *Dannemora* the patience goes slack in the middle. The studio years gave him films he was unhappy with, *Deep Impact* among them, and his other subject, spiritual crisis and the end of things, runs through *The Rapture* and *Deep Impact* both, though the films that carry it have had a rougher reception than the Hollywood ones. With *The Offer* he is back in the rooms where the money decides what gets made. That is where his people talk best. Start with *The Player*; it is still the sharpest thing he has put his name to. ## Biography Michael Tolkin is an American screenwriter, novelist and director. He wrote the 1988 novel *The Player* and adapted it for the 1992 film of the same name, on which he also served as producer. The screenplay earned him an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Tolkin was born in New York City in 1950 and graduated from Middlebury College in 1974. His other screenwriting credits include *Gleaming the Cube* (1989), *Deep Cover* (1992), *Deep Impact* (1998), *Changing Lanes* (2002) and *Nine* (2009). He created the miniseries *The Offer* (2022) and co-created *Escape at Dannemora* (2018). He is the son of comedy writer Mel Tolkin and studio executive Edith Tolkin. Tolkin lives in Los Angeles with his wife, author Wendy Mogel. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) ### Performed in (1) - *The Player* (1992), Fi1m 85, as Eric Schecter — [page](https://film.one/film/the-player.md) ### Directed (1) - *The Rapture* (1991), Fi1m 72, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-rapture.md) ### Wrote (4) — the average rests on these - *Escape at Dannemora* (2018), Fi1m 74, Writer, Creator, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/escape-at-dannemora.md) - *Nine* (2009), Fi1m 46, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/nine.md) - *Deep Cover* (1992), Fi1m 72, Story, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/deep-cover.md) - *Taxi* (1978), Fi1m 86, Story — [page](https://film.one/tv/taxi.md) ## Complete filmography (16) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Offer* (2022), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Creator - *Escape at Dannemora* (2018), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/escape-at-dannemora.md) - *Ray Donovan* (2013), series, Writer, Consulting Producer - *Nine* (2009), Screenplay — Fi1m 46, [page](https://film.one/film/nine.md) - *1%* (2008), Writer, Executive Producer - *Masters of Science Fiction* (2007), series, Writer, Director, Creator - *Changing Lanes* (2002), Screenplay - *Deep Impact* (1998), Writer - *The Burning Season* (1994), Writer - *The New Age* (1994), Director, Writer - *The Player* (1992), as Eric Schecter · Novel, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/the-player.md) - *Deep Cover* (1992), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/deep-cover.md) - *The Rapture* (1991), Writer, Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-rapture.md) - *Gleaming the Cube* (1989), Associate Producer, Writer - *Delta House* (1979), series, Writer - *Taxi* (1978), series, Story — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/taxi.md) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1993: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *The Player* ### Other awards — 1 won - Edgar Awards 1993: Edgar Awards (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/michael-tolkin