Ed Solomon

The Guy Who Wrote Jokes at UCLA

Ed Solomon sold his first screenplay while still a student. He was only 21 years old and had no idea he would spend decades fixing other people's disasters in Hollywood editing rooms. His start in live comedy shaped his sense of rhythm. For Solomon, a script is a mechanical structure where every piece must fit with the precision of a watchmaker.

In 1989, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure hit theaters. Critics of the time didn't know what to make of that movie about two dim-witted teenagers traveling through time in a phone booth. But audiences connected with a sincerity that youth films often overlooked. Solomon wrote the script with Chris Matheson in a Los Angeles coffee shop, never imagining they were launching a cult franchise.

It was the beginning of a brand of his own.

That success opened the door to the major studio circuit. But work in the industry was not always kind. For years Solomon worked as an uncredited script doctor on projects that needed last-minute fixes. He earned millions of dollars for scripts that never carried his name in the credits. It is the usual fate of writers who know how to solve structural problems in movies with a 100 million budget.

Giant Cockroaches and the Chaos of Filming

In 1997, Men in Black hit theaters. The process was a creative nightmare. The original script went through constant changes, even during shooting days. Solomon had to rewrite entire scenes while the actors waited on set. Still, his ability to blend science fiction with Barry Sonnenfeld's dry humor worked. The film went on to gross 589 million dollars worldwide.

And despite the numbers, Solomon did not get stuck making alien movies. In 2000, he wrote Charlie's Angels. It was another chaotic production full of egos and directing changes. He prefers not to say much about those years of noisy blockbusters. Because his real interest has always been pure narrative structure and how to fool the audience without making them feel cheated.

The bet on wit paid off.

In 2013, he wrote Now You See Me. The premise of magicians robbing banks seemed impossible to pull off. Solomon designed a plot of constant twists that recalled his days as a monologist. The film's final trick divided the audience. But its financial results were so strong that the studio ordered an immediate sequel for 2016, on which he served as executive producer.

The Connection with Steven Soderbergh

Solomon's career took off when he began working with Steven Soderbergh. In 2018, they released Mosaic for HBO. It was not a conventional series. Viewers could choose the path of the story through a mobile app. Solomon had to write a branching script that added up to hundreds of pages of intersecting dialogue. It was an exercise in narrative engineering that few screenwriters in California would have accepted.

In 2021, they reunited for No Sudden Move. It is a dry crime thriller set in 1950s Detroit. Here Solomon erased any trace of the teen comedy of his early days. He focused on corporate greed and sharp dialogue. Critics praised the restraint the writer had been refining over the years, far from the radar of the big summer releases.

They kept working together nonstop.

In 2023, the miniseries Circle of Lies premiered. Solomon wrote all six episodes of this story about a failed kidnapping in New York. The writing avoided the clichés of television suspense to focus on the characters' moral consequences. For 2025, the screenwriter has the release of Black Bag scheduled. It is a spy drama starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, shot in London under Soderbergh's direction. The production budget was set at 95 million dollars.