Leonard Cooke (born April 29, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player.
40-558: Joshua Safdie (born April 3, 1984) and Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986) are independent American filmmakers and actors based in New York City , who frequently collaborate on their films. They are best known for writing and directing the crime thriller films Good Time (2017), starring Robert Pattinson , and Uncut Gems (2019), starring Adam Sandler . In addition to writing and directing, both Josh and Benny serve in
80-410: A 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) wingspan ; during the camp he injured his big toe and this limited his performance at the camp to only one game. To his surprise and disappointment, in the 2002 NBA Draft, all 29 NBA teams passed on Cooke in both rounds. Because he was not selected, Cooke became a free agent, eligible to sign with any NBA team that wanted him. That summer, after being bypassed in
120-544: A dozen NBA teams were seriously considering him and at least three guaranteed they would take him in the 1st round if he were available, Cooke chose to bypass college and declare himself eligible for the 2002 NBA draft , a decision that ended his eligibility to play college basketball. Cooke participated in the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp, where he was measured at 6 ft 5.5 in (1.97 m) without shoes, 6 ft 6.5 in (1.99 m) with shoes, with
160-803: A role in the film Person to Person . In 2020, he appeared in Pieces of a Woman , and in 2021 had a large supporting role in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza . In 2022, Safdie appeared in Claire Denis ' romantic thriller Stars at Noon , and as Nari in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi . In 2023, he starred in the film adaptation Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. , and appears as Edward Teller in Oppenheimer , directed by Christopher Nolan . Safdie
200-530: A variety of key positions including acting, editing, shooting, mixing sound, and producing their films. They have also frequently collaborated with Ronald Bronstein , who has co-written and edited all of their narrative features beginning with the 2009 film Daddy Longlegs . Other recurring collaborators include composer Oneohtrix Point Never , cinematographer Sean Price Williams , and production designer Sam Lisenco. The Safdie brothers were raised in New York,
240-619: Is Jewish . His father was born in Italy, raised in France and is of Sephardic-Jewish and Syrian-Jewish descent. His mother is of Russian-Jewish descent. His great uncle is architect Moshe Safdie . His cousin once removed is playwright Oren Safdie . He is married to Ava Safdie ( née Rawski), with whom he has two sons, Cosmo and Murray James. Film Television Lenny Cooke Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey , he
280-702: Is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and film editor best known for working with his older brother Josh as a filmmaker. His directorial works include Heaven Knows What (2014), Good Time (2017), and Uncut Gems (2019). Transitioning towards acting, Safdie was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in Good Time and has since taken on roles in films such as Licorice Pizza (2021), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and Oppenheimer (both 2023). He co-created, co-wrote and starred in
320-527: Is known primarily for having been ranked higher than LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in 2001. He averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks per game in his junior year of high school. Following his junior year in high school, he averaged 31.5 points for the first eight games of his senior year. When he turned 19 in 2001, he was academically ineligible to play according to high school athletics' rules in his home county in New Jersey. Cooke
360-672: Is the subject of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival selected documentary film Lenny Cooke by the Safdie Brothers . Cooke was born to Vernon and Alfreda Hendrix ( née Cooke): his mother gave birth to him before marrying, so he carried her maiden last name. Cooke has three younger siblings, brothers Vernon and Darius and sister Tierra. Cooke's mother worked as a dealer at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and he attended middle school there;
400-563: Is their second cousin. The brothers grew up as fans of basketball and the New York Knicks . The duo try to watch every game together. Basketball is prominently featured in Lenny Cooke and Uncut Gems . In 2007, Josh Safdie was hired by Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti to create a short film featuring Kate Spade Handbags . He devised a concise story about the adventures of a kleptomaniac woman. Eleonore Hendricks , who co-wrote
440-562: The 71st Venice International Film Festival . In February 2016, the brothers began filming their crime thriller film Good Time . which Benny starred in alongside Robert Pattinson , in New York City . It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival , where it competed for the Palme d'Or . Benny, for his performance, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male . Uncut Gems , Josh and Benny's next film, starred Adam Sandler , Lakeith Stanfield and Julia Fox and
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#1732801135199480-861: The 71st Venice International Film Festival . It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival , the New York Film Festival , and the Tokyo International Film Festival . The Safdies directed the 2017 crime film Good Time , starring Robert Pattinson and Benny Safdie as siblings. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival . The Safdies directed Uncut Gems , starring Adam Sandler , with Martin Scorsese serving as an executive producer. The film
520-590: The Purefoods TJ Hotdogs : during the 2003 PBA Reinforced Conference , Cooke averaged 37.9 points and 17.1 rebounds per game, leading the league in both statistical categories. Cooke then had a stint with the Shanghai Dongfang Sharks , where he averaged 28.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game over 13 appearances in the 2003–04 Chinese Basketball Association season . In the 2004–05 basketball season, Cooke returned to
560-781: The Long Island Panthers AAU team. When the building he and his family lived in was condemned, and in an attempt to improve his academics, Cooke moved in with a friend, Debbie Bortner, who was his summer league coach and the mother of one of his teammates at La Salle, and went to live in an affluent suburb in Old Tappan , Bergen County , New Jersey. The rest of his family moved to Virginia . He initially enrolled at Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest and later at Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan , and played under coach Kevin Brentnall. In
600-540: The Lower East Side of Manhattan from 1999 to 2000 where he repeated grade 9 and attended the fall and spring terms of grade 10. At La Salle, Cooke was an all-city selection, averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game despite having started playing organized basketball only at the age of 16, when he was noticed by a friend while he was playing at a playground in Brooklyn and was invited by him to try out for
640-1033: The NBA Draft, he played in the Rucker Park Summer League in New York for the Terror Squad team. Later in 2002, Cooke was drafted by the Columbus Riverdragons of the NBDL in the 11th round (87th pick) of the 2002 National Basketball Development League draft . In April 2003, he tried out for the Brevard Blue Ducks of the USBL , and in May 2003 was signed by the USBL's Brooklyn Kings . In 15 games, he averaged 28.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game, winning
680-740: The PBA's Purefoods team but tore his Achilles' tendon, ending his season. In 2005–06, Cooke played for the Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and averaged 3.9 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists over 20 games (7.4 minutes per game). In 2006–07, Cooke played 13 games for the Minot Skyrockets , averaging 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists before blowing out his other Achilles' tendon, ending his career. Late in
720-473: The Safdies elaborated in an interview with The A.V. Club , saying the film was still being made but it would no longer be a remake. Their script would instead be "re-shifted into something original." In February 2020, Showtime ordered a pilot for The Curse , a show about the making of an HGTV -style reality series, starring Emma Stone , Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie. Fielder co-created and co-wrote
760-745: The Safdies' feature films Heaven Knows What , Good Time , and Uncut Gems , Owen Kline 's feature film directorial debut Funny Pages , and the Showtime television series The Curse . Producers Their artistic influences included the cinematic works of John Cassavetes , Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino as well as underground comix artist Robert Crumb and author Irvine Welsh . Benny named Robert Bresson 's A Man Escaped as his favorite film of all time, and Josh named Vittorio De Sica 's Bicycle Thieves as his favorite. Benny Safdie Benjamin Safdie (born February 24, 1986)
800-795: The USBL Rookie of the Year award, being selected in the All-USBL Second Team and leading the league in points average, offensive rebounds (4.7) and steals per game (2.8). He scored a season-high 53 points against the Adirondack Wildcats on June 22, 2003. Cooke played well enough with the Kings that the Boston Celtics invited him to play on their summer league team for the 2003 Reebok Pro Summer League , but that
840-807: The advice of Bortner, he chose to transfer to Mott Adult High School in Flint, Michigan , where he worked to get his equivalency diploma and work on his basketball game. Ineligible for school play, he was confined to pickup games and tournaments. On March 8, 2002, he scored 21 points to help the Eastern Conference defeat the West 115–103, at the EA Sports Roundball Classic at the United Center in Chicago . At that point, he
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#1732801135199880-837: The children of Amy and Alberto Safdie. They spent their childhood living between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan . The Safdie brothers are Jewish . Their father, who is a Sephardic Jew of Syrian-Jewish descent, was raised in France and in Italy . Their mother is an Ashkenazi Jew of Russian-Jewish descent. They began making films at a young age, inspired by their film-enthusiast father, Alberto. They graduated from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in Manhattan. At Boston University , they co-founded
920-437: The creative collective Red Bucket Films with Alex Kalman, Sam Lisenco, Brett Jutkiewicz, and Zachary Treitz. Josh and Benny Safdie graduated from Boston University College of Communication in 2007 and 2008, respectively. They claim "turmoil of their youth", as children of divorced parents, became an inspiration for later work. Famed Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie is their great uncle; his son, playwright Oren Safdie ,
960-633: The family later moved to Bushwick , a neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn , where they lived in a poverty-stricken block. Cooke's parents struggled to find employment, and the family lived in poor conditions: they could not afford to pay for heating, so that they had to use boiled water and an open oven to warm their house during winter. Cooke, who was already 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) in 8th grade, enrolled at Franklin K. Lane High School , in Brooklyn: he struggled academically, and failed grade 9. He moved to La Salle Academy in
1000-549: The life of Lenny Cooke , a once phenom high school basketball player, from adolescence to manhood. The film premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival . In 2014, the Safdie Brothers produced Heaven Knows What under their Elara Pictures banner. The film centers around the real-life stories written in a book titled Mad Love in New York City by lead actress Arielle Holmes . The film had its world premiere at
1040-417: The most highly regarded prospect in the country. At the 2001 ABCD Camp, Cooke averaged 16.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks. At the end of the 2001–02 school year, Cooke had a year left to graduate, but had exhausted his high school basketball eligibility. In the 8 games he played in his senior season at Northern Valley, Cooke averaged 31.5 points and 15 rebounds per game. Against
1080-511: The screenplay, portrayed the lead role. The project eventually turned into a feature film. The film, titled The Pleasure of Being Robbed , had its world premiere at the 2008 South by Southwest . It also screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival , along with a short film The Acquaintances of a Lonely John directed by Benny Safdie. Their second feature film, Daddy Longlegs , had its world premiere under
1120-499: The second best senior in his class behind Anthony and before future NBA players like Stoudemire, Raymond Felton and Chris Bosh . Joakim Noah was one of his close friends. One of the featured anecdotes of the biographical movie Lenny Cooke was the 2001 ABCD Camp matchup between Cooke, the NYC area phenom and defending camp MVP, versus the lesser-known phenom from "nowhere" LeBron James, in which LeBron effectively supplanted Cooke as
1160-463: The show with Benny. In April 2022, it was reported by IndieWire that the Safdies were working with Sandler on a new project. The project, co-written by both brothers, was said to be set in the world of sports memorabilia , and was rumored to co-star Ben Affleck , Steve Harvey , Megan Thee Stallion and Gael Garcia Bernal . Later in February 2023, Sandler said "The first draft of the new [script]
1200-607: The summer of 2000, Cooke earned Underclassmen MVP honors at the Adidas ABCD Camp . That summer he also played in the Rucker League, played at the Rucker Park in New York City, and was the second leading scorer, averaging 23 points along with 12 rebounds per game; during the competition he faced professional players like Stephon Marbury , Ray Allen , Zach Randolph and Omar Cook . Around this time, Cooke
1240-462: The summer of 2005, the NBA changed its rules to prevent future players from jumping directly from high school to the NBA by requiring all its players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from their high school graduations. One-time phenoms like Cooke, whose development was stunted by a haste to get to the NBA too quickly, are considered to be the impetus for the change. Cooke is the subject of
Safdie brothers - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-544: The television show The Curse (2023). Safdie was born to Amy and Alberto Safdie; of Syrian Jewish descent and was raised in New York. He and brother Josh divided their childhood living between their father in Queens and their mother and stepfather in Manhattan upon their parents' divorce. He attended Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School and graduated from the Boston University College of Communication in 2008. The Safdies' first feature
1320-693: The title Go Get Some Rosemary in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival . Starring Ronald Bronstein , it was inspired by the filmmakers' younger years living with their father, Alberto. Bronstein won the Breakthrough Actor Award at the Gotham Independent Film Awards 2010 . The film won the John Cassavetes Award at the 26th Independent Spirit Awards . Their first full-length documentary film, Lenny Cooke , follows
1360-447: Was 340 pages! It was insane and it was great." By July 2023, it was reported that Benny would not co-direct the film, marking the first time since The Pleasure of Being Robbed either of the brothers have directed solo. In January 2024, Benny confirmed that the brothers would no longer be directing projects together, as they expanded to solo careers. The Safdies co-founded the production company Elara Pictures in 2014. The company produced
1400-558: Was diagnosed with a learning disability in the language area, and tested in high levels in matrix reasoning, meaning that he had advanced capabilities in activities like puzzle solving. Cooke was a highly regarded young basketball player in high school, in the various basketball camps, and the AAU and tournaments. At one point he was considered one of the top recruits in the country, along with rival contemporaries like LeBron James , Carmelo Anthony , and Amar'e Stoudemire . ESPN ranked him as
1440-581: Was executive produced by Martin Scorsese . The brothers won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director , and Benny shared the Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing with Ronald Bronstein , with whom he co-edited with on all the Safdie brother films. Safdie and Nathan Fielder co-created the Showtime series The Curse , which premiered in November 2023. In 2017, Safdie began taking on performances not directed by himself or Josh, appearing in
1480-639: Was inspired by their father's time working in the Manhattan Diamond District . It had its world premiere at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival . Theatrically released in the United States in 2019, it received critical acclaim and became one of A24 's highest-grossing releases. In December 2017, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the Safdies would helm a remake of 48 Hrs. with the script being written by Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein , and Jerrod Carmichael . In December 2019,
1520-493: Was rated #4 High School Player in the United States in the Prep Stars Recruiter's Handbook. At the end of the 2001–02 school year, Cooke had multiple options for basketball: North Carolina , Seton Hall , St. John's , Miami and Ohio State . He professed a preference for St John's in the NYC area, but it was never clear whether he would have been eligible. Amid enticing agent promises that explicitly stated
1560-509: Was the 2009 film Daddy Longlegs , which they also wrote the screenplay and edited together. The film was showcased in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival . In 2013, they debuted the documentary film Lenny Cooke at the Tribeca Film Festival , a documentary they became attached to after Cooke approached them to review the footage. In 2014, the pair premiered their next film Heaven Knows What at
1600-676: Was the closest he ever came to playing in the NBA. While he played in several games, to his lasting disappointment he didn't get in the game when his team played the Cleveland Cavaliers ' summer league squad featuring their just-drafted LeBron James. Later in the summer of 2003, Cooke returned to play in the Rucker Park Summer League. In the 2003–04 basketball season, he first played in the Philippine Basketball Association for
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