Joe Eszterhas Filmography

Born:: November 23, 1944 in Csakanydoroszko, Hungary
Occupation:: Executive Producer, Screen Story, Screenwriter
Biography:: Hungarian-born Joe Eszterhas began his journalistic career as a reporter for Rolling Stone. In 1974, Eszterhas authored the popular, award-winning novel Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse. The book was optioned by Hollywood, and though it has not as yet been filmed, it served as the key for Eszterhas'...Read More

Sort By:
Title
Release Date

Children of Glory

Crew: Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Kata Dobo, Ivan Fenyo, Sándor Csányi, Karoly Gesztesi, Ildikó Bánsági

Synopsis: A nation whose dreams of freedom have been crushed meet their rivals on a different field of battle in this drama inspired by a true story. In 1956, Karcsi Szabo (Ivan Fenyo) was a star athlete at the University of Budapest and had been named captain of the national water polo team than would Read More

10/23/06
Telling Lies In America

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Brad Renfro, Maximilian Schell, Calista Flockhart, Paul Dooley

Synopsis: Karchy Jonas (Brad Renfro) was born in Hungary and immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1960s where he felt adrift in a strange sea of American culture. Jonas tries to fit in at the Catholic high school he attends but finds himself a laughing stock. At home, his stern father (Maximilian Read More

1997
One Night Stand

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Nastassja Kinski, Ming-Na Wen, Robert Downey, Jr., Kyle MacLachlan

Synopsis: A man's brief fling threatens to ruin what he values most in life in this drama. Max Carlyle (Wesley Snipes) lives in California, where he has a successful career directing television commercials and is happily married to Mimi (Ming-Na Wen), with whom he has two children. While visiting New York Read More

1997
Burn Hollywood Burn

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Coolio, Chuck D, Richard Jeni, Eric Idle

Synopsis: First, a little background: in 1955, the Director's Guild of America created the pseudonym Alan Smithee, which film directors are allowed to use if they feel their work has been tampered with to such a degree that they no longer want the credit. (For example, if you look at the credits of the Read More

1997
Jade

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Biehn, Richard Crenna

Synopsis: An investigator seeking the truth behind the death of a noted art dealer uncovers a web of sexual deception in this erotic thriller. David Caruso plays David Corelli, a San Francisco District Attorney who faces a potential conflict of interest when he learns that the prime suspect in the murder is Read More

1995
Showgirls

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, Kyle MacLachlan, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, William Shockley

Synopsis: "I'm gonna dance," Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of Showgirls, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of All About Eve, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the "Goddess" topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas. Of course, even Nomi must pay Read More

1995
Nowhere to Run

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rosanna Arquette, Joss Ackland, Ted Levine, Tiffany Taubman, Kieran Culkin

Synopsis: An escaped convict fights for his rights while hiding out from the law in this action drama. Sam Gillen (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a thief who, despite his criminal past, is an essentially decent man; he ended up behind bars after taking a murder rap for his partner. Sam escapes from prison in a Read More

1993
Sliver

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Sharon Stone, William Baldwin, Tom Berenger, Polly Walker, Colleen Camp

Synopsis: Phillip Noyce directed Joe Eszterhas's adaptation of Ira Levin's novel about voyeurism, starring Sharon Stone as Carly Norris, a book editor on the rebound from an emotionless seven-year marriage. Carly decides that a change of location will help her in the healing process, so she moves into a Read More

1993
Basic Instinct

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt

Synopsis: This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Read More

3/20/92
The Music Box

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jessica Lange, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Frederic Forrest, Donald Moffat, Lukas Haas

Synopsis: Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Read More

12/25/89
Checking Out

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jeff Daniels, Melanie Mayron, Michael Tucker, Kathleen York, Allan Havey

Synopsis: Jeff Daniels stars in this tedious situation comedy concerning the middle-aged terror of illness and mortality. Scripted by Joe Eszterhas, Daniels plays Southern Californian Ray Macklin, who thinks he will live forever but realizes the fallacy of his idea when his best friend drops dead in front Read More

4/21/89
Betrayed

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Debra Winger, Tom Berenger, John Heard, Betsy Blair, John Mahoney

Synopsis: Set in the American South, Betrayed stars Debra Winger as an FBI agent who infiltrates a Klanlike white supremacist organization. Allegedly a woman of intelligence and perception, Winger throws caution and logic to the winds when she falls in love with local farmer Tom Berenger. Much to her Read More

8/26/88
Hearts of Fire

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Bob Dylan, Rupert Everett, Fiona, Julian Glover, Suzanne Bertish

Synopsis: This uninspiring drama was unfortunately the last feature film directed by Richard Marquard and was released posthumously. Bob Dylan plays the retired and reclusive rock star (there's a stretch) Billy Parker who falls for aspiring rocker Molly McGuire (Fiona) and takes her under his wing on his Read More

1987
Jagged Edge

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia, Leigh Taylor-Young

Synopsis: In this hit thriller, a prosecuting attorney-turned-defense lawyer falls in love with a rich, charming client who's been accused of murdering his wife and her maid with a hunting knife. When an unknown assailant gruesomely slays San Francisco newspaper heiress Paige Forrester (Maria Mayenzet), her Read More

1985
Flashdance

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala, Sunny Johnson, Kyle Heffner

Synopsis: Jennifer Beals stars as Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh steel-mill welder by day, and bar dancer by night. Harboring dreams of a career in ballet, she is given financial support in this endeavor by her boss Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri) and moral support by demanding but big-hearted instructor Hanna Long (Lilia Skala Read More

1983
F.I.S.T.

Crew: Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman

Synopsis: F.I.S.T. is author Norman Jewison's chronicle of an innocent and idealistic young man corrupted by power and success as seen through the rise of the United States labor movement. Sylvester Stallone plays a Jimmy Hoffa-inspired figure who rises through the union ranks during turbulent labor times. Read More

1978