After graduation, he worked as an advertising copywriter, winning 11
Clio Awards, and three One Show Gold Pencils for his work on corporate and political advertising campaigns, for clients including
BMW,
FedEx,
Michael Dukakis, and
Sony. He then became a freelance writer for many publications, including
The New York Times Magazine (where he substituted for
Russell Baker),
The New Republic,
New York,
The Washington Post, the
Los Angeles Times,
The New Yorker,
The East Hampton Star, and
Playboy. He was a contributing editor at
Spy, worked for
Howell Raines writing editorials for
The New York Times, and has written the (largely) humorous "New Yorker's Diary" for
The New York Observer since 1994. He has been a contributing editor at
Vanity Fair since 1995, and a columnist at
Strategy+Business magazine since 2000. His work has also appeared online at
Salon.com and
Inside.com. In television, Feirstein worked very briefly on
Saturday Night Live, was an on-air contributor to
ABC's
Days End, and was nominated for a
CableACE Award for his one-act
HBO play
The Best Legs in the Eighth Grade, starring
Tim Matheson and
Jim Belushi. He was also the story editor on the
Fox series
Mr. President, starring
George C. Scott and produced by
Johnny Carson. He has appeared (as himself) in documentaries about the 1980s, the "
Hollywood Award Season",
James Bond, and
Pierce Brosnan. Feirstein has also appeared as an on-air political commentator for
CNBC and
Fox News, and has been interviewed on
The Today Show and
Good Morning America. Besides the James Bond series, Feirstein has also worked (uncredited) on screenplays for
Will Smith,
Bruce Willis,
John Travolta, and
Julia Roberts, along with the directors
John Woo and
John McTiernan. He appeared as himself in the 1992 feature film
Naked in New York, directed by
Daniel Algrant. In 2007, while continuing to write screenplays in Los Angeles and contribute to
Vanity Fair in New York, he began producing movies in
China. His first film, 2009's
Hóng hé (Red River), the story of the aftermath of the
Vietnam War, opened to great critical and commercial acclaim in China. Directed by Jiarui Zhang, it stars
Nick Cheung,
Danny Lee, and
Jingchu Zhang. In 2008, Feirstein was named to the board of Overseers of
Boston University.
James Bond In 1995, Feirstein began working within the
James Bond franchise by writing (with Jeffrey Caine) the screenplay for the film
GoldenEye, with story by
Michael France. Feirstein followed this up in 1997 by writing the story and the screenplay for
Tomorrow Never Dies. In 1999, Feirstein co-scripted
The World Is Not Enough with story writers
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. Feirstein has also written four
video games in the Bond series. In 2004, Feirstein wrote the critically acclaimed
Everything or Nothing for developer and publisher
Electronic Arts (EA). More recently, Feirstein adapted the 1957
Ian Fleming novel and 1963 film
From Russia with Love for a video game of the
same name, utilizing the voice and likeness of
Sean Connery. In 2010, Activision announced that he would contribute an original story for the next videogame in the series,
Blood Stone, for the
Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, and
PC platforms, along with the remake of
GoldenEye 007. As one of the original writers of the
GoldenEye film, Feirstein's work on the new game involved updating the plot to a modern setting and in the style of
Daniel Craig's interpretation of the character. == Personal life ==