Robert TowneRobert Towne won the Best Screenplay Academy Award for Chinatown (1974), Roman Polanski’s classic detective neo-noir set in 1930s Los Angeles. Inspired by the dialogue in John Fante’s Ask the Dust and a chapter in Fante’s friend Carey MWilliams’s Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (1946), Towne’s script is now hailed as one of the greatest in film history. His many screen credits include The Last Detail, Shampoo, The Firm, Mission Impossible, and Ask the Dust (2006), which he wrote and directed. With director David Fincher, he is developing a Chinatown prequel series for Netflix. Read More Read Less