Boaz Yakin

Boaz Yakin (Hebrew: בועז יכין, born June 20, 1966) is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer based in New York City. He has written screenplays to films like The Rookie, A Price Above Rubies, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Now You See Me, and has directed the 2000 sports drama Remember the Titans and the 2012 Jason Statham action film Safe. As a producer he has collaborated frequently with filmmaker Eli Roth and served as executive producer for the first two entries in the Hostel franchise. 2Early life Yakin was born in New York City. His parents were born in Israel, and met in Paris while studying mime with Marcel Marceau. His father's family are of Syrian Jewish and Egyptian Jewish descent, and his mother's family is of Polish Jewish descent.He attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he was classmates in 1983 with actor Jon Cryer. He studied filmmaking at City College of New York then at New York University and made his first deal for a screenplay at age 19. 2Career After finishing school, Yakin worked in the film industry, developing projects for several companies, and saw his first screenplay reach the screen in 1989, when The Punisher, a vehicle for Dolph Lundgren, was released. Yakin's next screenplay was The Rookie, starring Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen. Wanting to take on more personal material, Yakin drew from his experiences growing up in New York's inner city for his next screenplay, Fres