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40-1089: Her other films include Mad Money (2008) and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect (2021). She also created the series Nashville , which premiered on ABC in 2012 to strong reviews, and ran for six seasons. Carolyn Ann (Callie) Khouri was born in San Antonio, Texas , but was brought up in Kentucky . She is the daughter of a Lebanese-American Maronite father where her family name Khouri means “priest” in Levantine Arabic . Khouri's interest in theater arts began when she took part in high school plays. Following her graduation from St Mary High School in Paducah, Kentucky , she studied landscape architecture at Purdue University before changing her major to drama. Khouri dropped out of Purdue and moved to Los Angeles, where she waited tables and studied at

80-791: A company that made commercials and music videos, she began writing Thelma & Louise , her first produced screenplay. Thelma & Louise won Khouri the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay , a Golden Globe Award , and a PEN Literary Award, as well as the London Film Critics Circle Award for Film of the Year and a nomination for Best Original Screenplay from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Khouri described her experience filming Thelma & Louise in an interview by David Konow,

120-601: A job as a janitor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. On her first day on the job, Bridget hatches a scheme to steal worn-out dollar bills slated for destruction. For her team, she chooses Nina Brewster, ( Queen Latifah ) who works the dollar bill shredder, and Jackie Truman, ( Katie Holmes ), who takes bill carts from the Secret Service room to the shredding room. It takes some work to persuade Nina to join, but Jackie joins them quickly. The plan

160-479: A movie you were enjoying and having a good time with because you were watching these women get their lives. Even though they would lose them, they were becoming more and more themselves. It was a beautiful experience, a liberating experience to watch that." Her second film as a writer, the romantic comedy-drama Something to Talk About (1995), earned mixed reviews from critics. In June 2002, Khouri made her directorial debut with her adaptation of Divine Secrets of

200-446: A place to do that." "At first I had no desire to write screenplays. I kind of wished I had because I was reaching the end of my time producing music videos. I was struggling so hard to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing. I kept thinking I'm supposed to be doing something creative. I can't believe I have such a knack for the vernacular and I don't have anywhere to apply it." "I felt I had not found my true path. And then

240-481: A rating of "C", writing "Even with the legendary Diane Keaton center stage, Mad Money fails to hit the stratosphere of giddy, intoxicating comedy." The film received a critical review in from Claudia Puig in USA Today "Is it the perfect crime? No, it's a particularly imperfect heist comedy that offers little entertainment value and few laughs." Something to Talk About (film) Something to Talk About

280-539: A really hard time saying, if there were no violent games, people would stop shooting each other. I think that until they have no way of shooting each other, they won't stop." says Khouri. "We have a speed limit. Why can't we have a bullet limit? The idea that we don't need limits stricter than we have now on guns is absolutely insane. Because ultimately, people don't kill people – guns kill people, and people with guns kill people." She also argued that America has lost its moral compass and that "it's worse than it's ever been!" in

320-440: A sample of 33 critics, gave a positive review. The average rating from these critics is 5.3/10. The site's consensus states: "Small-town gossip and a battle of the sexes should really add up to more than Something to Talk About , especially with this much talent before the camera." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 62 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave

360-428: A scholarly author and journalist: "While I was writing Thelma and Louise , it was the most fun I had ever had in my life, bar none," she says. "It was such a pure experience. There was no self-censorship there, there was no second guessing. From a creative standpoint, it was the freest I had ever been in my life. I loved every moment I got to spend time with those characters. Nothing came close to it, including winning all

400-425: A series of events occurred that led me to the point where I didn't have anything to lose if I wrote a screenplay." She began writing sitcoms with a comedian friend but was plagued by second thoughts about her work. Khouri was frustrated and kept "contemplating and meditating" until she got this idea of "two women going on a crime spree." She felt as if a light bulb had gone on over her head, making her more interested in

440-546: Is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström , from a screenplay written by Callie Khouri . It stars Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid as an estranged couple, Kyra Sedgwick as Roberts' sister, and Robert Duvall and Gena Rowlands as their parents. The film's title stems from the Bonnie Raitt song of the same name . It was shot in various locations around Savannah, Georgia and Beaufort, South Carolina . Grace discovers that her husband, Eddie,

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480-573: Is also unwilling to let Grace pretend this has come out of nowhere, or that she did not make choices that led to her current predicament. Eddie, too, confronts Grace about her withdrawal from their life, and his feelings of abandonment after what started out as an affectionate, loving marriage. Her father feels the whole affair is dragging focus from an upcoming horse-jumping competition, but he and Grace's mother, Georgia, face their own set of problems with fidelity. The film generally received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 33% of critics, based on

520-410: Is having an affair with another woman. After a wildly public confrontation with Eddie and his mistress, Grace packs up their daughter and returns home to her parents' horse farm to regroup. To her surprise and dismay, everyone around her is still mired in old fashioned ideals and believes she should forgive and forget Eddie's indiscretion. Her sister, Emma Rae, who is furious at Eddie and lets him know it,

560-438: Is that in the Secret Service room, Bridget will switch a cart's official Master-brand lock with a nearly identical lock she purchased at Home Depot . Bridget will tell Jackie the cart number and give Nina the official lock. When Jackie gets the chosen cart, she dumps some bills from the cart into a trash can before taking the cart to Nina, who then uses Bridget's key to open it, restores the official lock, and then proceeds to shred

600-523: The Toronto Star reviewed the film positively, praising the "exuberance of the cast." The New York Post , The New York Times and Variety also criticized Katie Holmes's performance in the film, and The New York Times called Holmes "the movie's weakest link." In an article in the Boston Herald titled "Don't waste your Mad Money on poor comedy", Stephen Schaefer gave the film

640-591: The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and with acting teacher Peggy Feury . She soon realized that being an actress was not her destiny: "I can't stand people looking at me," said Khouri. In 1985, she took her first step toward “film production by pursuing a position as a commercial and music video production assistant.” From 1996 to 1998, and from 2000 to 2002, Khouri served on the Writers Guild of America board of directors; she sat on

680-401: The Federal Reserve Bank. It isn't illegal to have a couple of hundred thousand dollars in cash lying around inside a private residence. However, they spent a large sum of that stolen cash to buy expensive objects and improvements on their houses and didn't pay the taxes for them because they couldn't justify the income. The IRS demands they pay their taxes, which turn out to equal in the amount to

720-667: The Ya-Ya Sisterhood , which grossed a total of $ 73,839,240 worldwide. The film opened at number two in the box office behind The Sum of All Fears ' s second weekend. In 2006, Khouri created, wrote and directed the pilot for the legal television series Hollis & Rae that was produced by Steven Bochco . Khouri directed Mad Money in 2008, a crime-caper film starring Diane Keaton , Queen Latifah , and Katie Holmes . In 2012 she developed ABC's country music drama series, Nashville , starring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere . Khouri's husband T Bone Burnett

760-564: The awards and everything else. As much fun as all that was, it wasn't as much fun as sitting alone in a crummy office on Vine at 2 in the morning writing that screenplay." At the Oscar ceremony she said, "for everyone who wanted to see a happy ending for Thelma and Louise , for me this is it," brandishing the statue high. After winning the Academy Award, she felt motivated enough to continue on with her career and express "her feelings about

800-565: The bank's incinerating plant in Essex. No one except these women know the exact details of the theft. In the director's commentary for the Mad Money DVD, director Callie Khouri credits producer Jay Cohen with having brought the TV film to her attention and obtaining the rights to adapt it. Khouri and Cohen worked for five years to bring a deliberately Americanized version of Hot Money to

840-462: The bitter end. Female characters who are in charge of themselves." Film TV movies TV series Mad Money (film) Mad Money is a 2008 crime comedy film starring Diane Keaton , Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes , and directed by Callie Khouri . It is loosely based on the 2001 British television film Hot Money . The film begins with the suspects getting caught and being interrogated. Then it flashes back three years earlier and

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880-687: The board of trustees of the Writer's Guild Foundation from 2001 to 2004. She was a member of Hollywood Women's Political Committee, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Women's Media Watch Project. On June 2, 1990, she married David Weaver Warfield, a writer and a producer. She later divorced him, and married musician T Bone Burnett in 2009. Khouri is a screenwriter, director, producer, lecturer, and non-fiction author. She also worked as an actress, lecturer, and waiter in Nashville. While working for

920-485: The cast. The cast is game. The dreary visual scheme, however, combines unwell with the pokey, enervated rhythm of the heist scenes, and while I'm neither a medical doctor nor a script doctor, it seems this film could use a few uppers." The film received three stars in Newsday , and Jan Stuart wrote:" Mad Money is no Rififi , but Khouri and Gers invest it with an individuality and generosity of spirit that lift it into

960-504: The film continues forward from there, interspersed with occasional bits from the interrogation. Three years before getting caught, Bridget Cardigan ( Diane Keaton ) lived a comfortable upper middle-class life until her husband Don Cardigan ( Ted Danson ) was "downsized" from his position and sank into debt. Salina, ( Sylvia Castro Galan ) the Cardigan's housekeeper, check has bounced once again. Selina confronts Bridget and suggests she take

1000-470: The film has a score of 41 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film a rating of one and a half stars, and wrote, "The bottom line is, some girls will like it, the men not so much." The film also received one and a half stars in a review in the Chicago Tribune , and Michael Phillips wrote that the film's cast was not to blame: "Do not blame

1040-525: The film's opening day. By the end of its opening weekend, Mad Money had slipped to seventh place, with a weekend take of $ 7.7 million. Writing for Rotten Tomatoes , Gitesh Pandya noted that the opening weekend per theater revenue "averaged a not-so-impressive $ 3,126." amNewYork called the film's opening weekend return "a big flop at the box office," and the New Zealand Herald described it as "a box-office flop". The film's four-day take

1080-402: The front door." The character Thelma, on the other hand, was first written as a character who "had kids and stuff like that, but I realized that she couldn't have kids. The idea that Darryl wanted her to wait, because the kids would be a sacrifice for him financially, fit perfectly. And, of course, she's really a child herself. I had to set it up that way. I love to laugh, and I wanted this to be

1120-568: The idea. She originally created the character Louise as a woman living in Texas who works as a communication secretary, "somebody sitting behind one of those big desks with a headset on directing people and taking calls and all that stuff." She imagined that Louise considered herself a liability as an employee, and that women would never be able to achieve power. This version of Louise would always remain narrow in her ambitions, someone "who never realized women could be executives until she saw one come in

1160-520: The lack of female directors in Hollywood", not to mention that most of her career began because of her stance on women's rights. In an interview with The Huffington Post , she stated that adult women "are a market that I feel is underserved in the entertainment population at large. I don't see the kind of women represented that I know or that I'm attracted to. I really want to try to write more nuanced, less simplistic kind of stuff, and it's hard to find

1200-432: The loot stashed in their houses, but the cops move in before all the evidence is destroyed. Bridget escapes but the others get caught. Bridget hires a tax attorney to defend them. The lawyer gets Bridget, Don, Nina, Berry, Jackie and Jackie's husband Bob Truman ( Adam Rothenberg ) off the hook for their crimes, because neither the law enforcement nor the examiner can prove that the large stash of cash in their homes came from

1240-618: The matters of gun control. She claimed that there is no quick route to end gun violence because Hollywood actors such as Sylvester Stallone "make a fortune from violence. Do you think those types of movies will stop getting made? I don't," says Khouri. The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) is a non-profit organization that recognizes powerful women who contribute toward feminist filmmaking, such as Callie Khouri and Susan Sarandon . It also receives support, as well as generous donations, from other women such as Shonda Rhimes , Meryl Streep , and Frances Fisher . On August 23, 2014, Callie Khouri

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1280-479: The money that still remains. Eight months later, Bridget reveals to Nina and Jackie that she had stashed away much of the stolen cash in the basement of a friend's bar. Hot Money (2001), the original UK TV film produced by Granada Television, is based on the true story of three women who worked at the Bank of England and embarked on a plan to steal thousands of pounds of banknotes that were due to be destroyed at

1320-547: The realm of guiltless pleasure." Bill Wine of All Headline News gave the film two and a half stars, writing " Mad Money is a light and lively, likable low-tech lark. Don't expect big laughs, but you can at least bank on it to hold your interest." The Canadian Press gave the film one and a half stars, and criticized Katie Holmes 's performance "While Keaton has long done zany and giddy well, and she and Latifah have an interesting contrast of personalities, Holmes' presence feels like an afterthought." In contrast, Peter Howell of

1360-552: The remaining bills. Meanwhile, Bridget, in the course of her janitorial duties, retrieves the dumped bills from the trash and splits them among Nina and Jackie in the women's restroom. Their first robbery is a success though the take is not as big as they had hoped. However, they're emboldened to do it repeatedly. Once Don and Bridget pay off their debt, Don suggests they stop before they get caught. Bridget rejects this idea and persuades Nina and Jack to keep going. They almost get caught but they end up cutting Barry ( Roger Cross ), one of

1400-468: The screen using various writers. Both Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah were attached early on to the project and writers began designing the characters specifically around the two actresses. The film debuted in fifth place at the box office on its opening day in the United States , with a return of US$ 2.3 million from 2,470 screens. Reuters referred to this return as a "modest" result for

1440-488: The security guards, who is attracted to Nina. A Federal Bank Examiner shows up at a party at Bridget's house, and the next day, Jackie sees him at work. The Examiner confronts Glover ( Stephen Root ), the manager of the Federal Bank, who is unwilling as a matter of professional pride to admit anyone has stolen a single bill out of his bank. Tipped off, that night Bridget and her accomplices begin trying to get rid of all

1480-945: The show without Burnett's involvement. In 2016, Nashville moved to CMT. Khouri works as a part-time lecturer of theatre arts. She has taught a master class on film-making at the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York City, as well as a writing and directing course at the Arts Initiative Columbia University in New York, featuring Thelma & Louise . According to an interview in Variety Khouri takes an opposing approach toward guns in social media: "in other countries where they have violent video games but less access to guns, they have less mass shootings. I have

1520-505: Was a dismal $ 9.2 million. The film also did not fare well in its release in other countries, and Conor Bresnan of Box Office Mojo reported that "Mad Money bombed in its first two markets" overseas. The film grossed $ 26.4 million worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes , a review aggregator , reports that 22% of 105 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A laborious, unfunny and implausible heist film." On Metacritic ,

1560-623: Was honored by the National Women's History Museum and NWHM Los Angeles Council in "Women Making History Brunch" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, for winning an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and WGA. "She's revolutionary," said Geena Davis on working with Khouri, who also is the creator and executive producer of Nashville ." "She creates characters that are in charge of their own fate to

1600-400: Was the show's executive music producer and composer for the first season. Leaving the show shortly after the first season production wrapped, Burnett later stated that he was upset with television executives' treatment of his wife. His assistant and the managing producer Buddy Miller took over for Burnett in season two. Nashville received positive reviews from critics, and Khouri continued on

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