- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMardik Vartan Martin
- Height5′ 1″ (1.55 m)
- Mardik Martin is in the elite group of screenwriters on WGA's list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written. He immigrated to the United States from Iraq to attend 'New York University'. He won the Mahler award and graduated with a Master's degree in Screenwriting in 1968, then went on to teach at NYU from 1968 to 1973. Mardik moved to Hollywood after Mean Streets (1973), which he co-wrote with Martin Scorsese, became a huge success. He worked for Chartoff-Winkler Productions in the years following, writing screenplays like Valentino (1977) and collaborating with Scorsese on multiple projects before writing the first three drafts of Raging Bull (1980). Recently Martin co-wrote the screenplay to Fatih Akin's The Cut (2014) which premiered in the Competition at the 'Venice Int. Film Festival 2014'. Mardik Martin is a professor at the prestigious 'USC School of Cinematic Arts', having mentored and taught thousands of the brightest young luminaries in the movie business.
- IMDb mini biography by: Hunter Hughes
- Screenwriter of many early films directed by Martin Scorsese.
- Mardik Martin graduated with a Master's degree in Screenwriting from New York University (NYU) in 1968.
- Screenwriter Mardik Martin co-wrote Mean Streets (1973), New York, New York (1977) and Raging Bull (1980) for director Martin Scorsese. In addition Martin wrote or co-wrote the treatments for three of Scorsese's early documentary projects: Italianamerican (1974) , The Last Waltz (1978) and American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978). Scorsese and Martin were both film students at NYU and started their long-lasting collaboration in 1964 with the student short film It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). In 2014 Scorsese met again with Martin and director Fatih Akin to see a version of The Cut (2014), their first meeting in over a decade. Scorsese is quoted as saying: "Fatih Akin's The Cut (2014) is a genuine, hand-made epic, of the type that people just don't make anymore. In other words, a deeply personal response to a tragic historical episode, that has great intensity, beauty and sweeping grandeur. This picture is very precious to me, on many levels.".
- He is a US citizen of Armenian descent.
- Screenwriter Mardik Martin is a US citizen of Armenian descent. Director and screenwriter Fatih Akin is a German citizen of Turkish descent. The Cut (2014) represents the first collaboration between an Armenian and a Turkish screenwriter on a feature film about the Armenian Genocide in film history.
- Mardik Martin served as a script doctor for numerous Hollywood screenplays and film productions.
- You shouldn't be thinking when you're watching a movie, you should be feeling. "Oh, that's a lovely shot, blue horizon..." That means the movie sucks.
- If you're a shrinking violet who sits in the corner, no one's going to give a shit about you. You've got to present yourself.
- I never had to cry over spilled milk. I spilled milk, but I didn't cry over it. That's part of life.
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