Screenplays Amini's first screenplay was for the 1994 TV movie
The Dying of the Light, directed by
Peter Kosminsky. The TV movie told the story of
Sean Devereux, an aid worker who was murdered in
Somalia in 1993 for criticising arms sales. It was nominated for the "Best Single Drama" at the
British Academy Television Awards. Amini also wrote an adapted screenplay of the 1895 novel
Jude the Obscure by
Thomas Hardy. Producer
Andrew Eaton commissioned the screenplay in 1995, and it was filmed by
Michael Winterbottom as
Jude, released in 1996. Amini also wrote a screenplay for another TV movie,
Deep Secrets, which aired in 1996. Amini wrote the adapted screenplay for
The Wings of the Dove, which was based on the
1902 novel of the same name by
Henry James. The film, directed by
Iain Softley, was released in 1997 and received critical acclaim. Amini was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay. Amini was one of the screenwriters, along with Michael Schiffer, who wrote a screenplay adaptation of
A.E.W. Mason's novel
The Four Feathers, which became the film
The Four Feathers (2002), directed by
Shekhar Kapur and starring
Wes Bentley and
Heath Ledger. In 2008, he adapted the
Elmore Leonard novel
Killshot into the screenplay for the film
Killshot (2008), directed by
John Madden and starring
Thomas Jane,
Diane Lane,
Mickey Rourke,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and
Rosario Dawson. In 2010, Amini wrote an original screenplay for a film entitled
Shanghai directed by
Mikael Håfström and starring
Chow Yun Fat,
Gong Li,
Ken Watanabe and
John Cusack. Amini also wrote the screenplay for the neo-noir film
Drive (2011), directed by
Nicolas Winding Refn. His screenplay for the film is a loose adaptation of the novel of the same name by
James Sallis. During interviews, Refn noted that he and Amini cut out a lot of the content from Sallis' book, resulting in the almost bare-bones structure for the film, and the few lines of dialogue for the film's star,
Ryan Gosling. For his screenplay of
Drive, Amini also won a "Best Adapted Screenplay" award from the
Austin Film Critics Association in 2011. Amini was one of the screenwriters, along with Evan Daughtery and
John Lee Hancock, who wrote the screenplay for
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), directed by
Rupert Sanders and starring
Kristen Stewart,
Chris Hemsworth and
Charlize Theron. Additionally, Amini is one of the screenwriters, along with
Chris Morgan and
Walter Hamada, who wrote the screenplay for the film
47 Ronin (2013), directed by
Carl Rinsch and starring
Keanu Reeves,
Hiroyuki Sanada,
Tadanobu Asano,
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and
Rinko Kikuchi. Amini adapted
John le Carré's novel
Our Kind of Traitor into a
feature film, directed by
Susanna White. The film was released in 2016, starring
Ewan McGregor,
Naomie Harris, and
Stellan Skarsgård. He then adapted
The Snowman, from the novel by
Jo Nesbø. It was a box office disappointment and received negative reviews, with critics calling it "clichéd and uninvolving." In 2018, Amini began writing for television, with the crime series
McMafia and
The Alienist. On 27 September 2019, it was announced that Amini would be writing the
Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series for Disney+ but he departed before production.
Directorial work His feature directorial debut,
The Two Faces of January (2014), is a film adaptation of a
Patricia Highsmith novel for which he also wrote the screenplay. The film stars
Viggo Mortensen,
Kirsten Dunst and
Oscar Isaac. ==Filmography==