{{short description|American novelist and filmmaker}} {{More footnotes needed|date=August 2018}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox writer | name = Rex Pickett | image = OnSet.JPG | caption = Rex Pickett on the set of ''Sideways'' | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|7|9}} | birth_place = Merced, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Screenwriter * novelist * playwright * film director }}
| spouse = Joy Murphy (m. 2024)
| genre = Fiction, comedy, film, theatre | education = University of California, San Diego (BA) | website = {{URL|rexpickettbooks.com}} }} '''Rex Pickett''' (born July 9, 1952)<ref name="oac">{{Cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85h7kfr/entire_text/|title=Pickett (Rex) Papers|website=oac.cdlib.org|access-date=2019-12-03}}</ref> is an American novelist and filmmaker best known for his novel ''Sideways'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/dining/06POUR.html|work=The New York Times|title=Wine, Women and a Pair of Buddies|first=Eric|last=Asimov|date=October 6, 2004}}</ref> which was adapted into a 2004 movie of the same name directed by Alexander Payne.
==Career==
===Education and early career=== Pickett was born at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California, and grew up in San Diego.<ref name="oac" /> He attended the University of California, San Diego where he was a Special Projects major, specializing in contemporary literary and film criticism and creative writing. He graduated ''summa cum laude'', then moved to Los Angeles to attend the graduate program at USC School of Cinematic Arts. He dropped out in the early 1980s and, with his then-wife, Barbara Schock, wrote and directed two independent feature films, ''California Without End'' and ''From Hollywood to Deadwood''. ''California Without End'' was sold to Bavarian Radio Television, a German television station, and ''From Hollywood to Deadwood'' to Island Pictures.
Pickett returned to writing, landing a job as a writer on David Fincher's first feature, ''Alien 3''.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Knapp|editor1-first=Laurence F.|last=Richardson|first=John H.|date=2014|title=David Fincher: Interviews|series=Conversations with Filmmakers Series|chapter=Mother from Another Planet|page=23|location=Jackson, Mississippi|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-628460-36-0}}</ref> In 1998 he wrote the screenplay for ''My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York,'' which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 1999.<ref name="Times-1999 short">{{cite web|title=My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York (1999)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/300856/My-Mother-Dreams-the-Satan-s-Disciples-in-New-York/details|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403051203/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/300856/My-Mother-Dreams-the-Satan-s-Disciples-in-New-York/details|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 3, 2015|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|date=2015|accessdate=June 2, 2014}}</ref>
===Novels and ''Sideways''=== In the 1990s, Pickett began writing novels and his first, a mystery titled ''La Purisima'', didn't sell.<ref name=S>{{cite web|title=Rex Pickett’s Sideways Inspirations|date=September 10, 2024|first=Matt|last=Kettmann|url=https://www.independent.com/2024/09/10/rex-picketts-sideways-inspirations/|work=Santa Barbara Independent}}</ref> His second was ''Sideways''. Completed in 1999, the novel was submitted to both publishers and film production companies. After 18 rejection letters from publishers, Pickett's agent pulled it from submission. Film production companies also passed. In late 1999, nearly a year after it had been written, one of the submissions by Pickett's agent, Jess Taylor, at Endeavor, went to Alexander Payne's agent, David Lonner at the same agency. Payne's assistant, Brian Beery, read it then passed it to Payne who immediately optioned it. Shortly after Payne optioned ''Sideways'' it was greenlit by Artisan Entertainment.<ref>{{cite web|work=Daily Variety|url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/artisan-on-payne-s-side-1117758284/|date=November 21, 1999|title=Artisan on Payne’s ‘Side’|first=Michael|last=Fleming}}</ref> Pickett's agent at Curtis Brown went back out to publishers in a mass submission but it was again rejected. Eventually, Payne would put ''Sideways'' on hold and go off to make ''About Schmidt''.
In early 2003, Payne, fresh from the success of ''About Schmidt'', returned his attention to ''Sideways''. The project was greenlit by Fox Searchlight, who gained control of it from Artisan in July 2003 and a start date announced for late September. After more than 100 rejection letters, Pickett's new agent at Trident Media Group went back out with his still unpublished novel and ended up selling it in a fire sale to St. Martin's Press for $5,000. It was published in June 2004, four months before the film was released.
''Sideways'' the film was released on October 22, 2004. It went on to win over 350 awards from various critics and awards organizations, including 6 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, 5 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 5 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, 6 Indie Spirit Awards, 2 Golden Globes, et al. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. The film had an impact on the sales of two types of California wine, driving Pinot noir sales and decreasing Merlot, the grape variety the main character, Miles, expressed hatred for.<ref>{{cite news | last=Alexander | first=Bryan | date=October 8, 2014 | title='Sideways' at 10: Still not drinking any Merlot? | newspaper=USA Today | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/10/06/sideways-killed-merlot/15901489/ | access-date=August 19, 2016 }}</ref>
In 2011, Pickett released a sequel to ''Sideways'', titled ''Vertical''. That same year it won the gold medal for Popular Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
In 2012 Pickett staged a play version of his novel ''Sideways'' at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica, California. It ran for six months and a production was later staged at the La Jolla Playhouse under the direction of Des McAnuff.
Pickett spent a year traveling in Chile, New York, and Costa Rica before completing ''Sideways 3 Chile'', set in the Chilean wine world.<ref>{{cite news|author=Bronzini, Tom|date=September 19, 2014|title=10 years after 'Sideways' screen debut, Miles and Jack roll on|publisher=Pacific Coast Business Times|url=http://www.pacbiztimes.com/2014/09/19/10-years-after-sideways-screen-debut-miles-and-jack-roll-on/|access-date=August 23, 2016}}</ref> It was published in 2015.
In 2024 a fourth novel in the series was released, ''Sideways New Zealand''.<ref>{{cite book|date=2024|title=Sideways New Zealand|isbn=979-8-212-18028-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxbUEAAAQBAJ |last1=Pickett |first1=Rex |publisher=Blackstone }}</ref>
==Stage and musical adaptions== In 2019 it was announced that ''Sideways'' was scheduled to be adapted for a Broadway musical.<ref name=THR/> A play adapted by author Rex Pickett from the ''Sideways'' novel was produced at multiple theaters in the United States and the United Kingdom, including at the La Jolla Playhouse.<ref name=THR/>
In addition to the musical, it was reported that Rex Pickett had written screenplays based on his two ''Sideways'' sequels already in print, ''Vertical'' and ''Sideways 3 Chile''.<ref name=THR>{{cite web|work=The Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sideways-development-as-broadway-musical-1206537|title='Sideways' in Development as Broadway Musical|date=May 2, 2019|author=Rooney, David}}</ref>
==Filmography==
===Director=== *''California Without End'' (1984) (Bavarian Radio Television) *''From Hollywood to Deadwood'' (1989) (theatrically released by Island Pictures)
===Screenplays=== *''California Without End'' (1984) *''From Hollywood to Deadwood'' (1989) *''My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York'' (1998) *''Repairman'' (2010) (as writer/director/producer)
===Editor=== *''California Without End'' (1984)
==Novels== *''Sideways'' (2004) *''Vertical'' (2011) *''Sideways 3 Chile'' (2015) *''Sideways New Zealand'' (2024)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{official website|http://rexpickettbooks.com}} *{{IMDb name|0681914}} *[http://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/findingaids/mss0750.html Rex Pickett Papers] MSS 750. [http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/ Special Collections & Archives], UC San Diego Library.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickett, Rex}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:American male screenwriters Category:Writers from San Diego Category:University of California, San Diego alumni Category:People from Merced, California Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Novelists from California Category:Film directors from California Category:Screenwriters from California Category:American film editors Category:21st-century American screenwriters Category:1952 births Category:Screenwriters from San Diego