About The Author

Landesman wrote his first fiction book The Raven, which was published in 1995, for which he won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction.

Landesman’s article The Girls Next Door about sex slaves and the trafficking of young and often underage women into and through the United States, was featured as the cover story in the January 24, 2004 issue of New York Times Magazine. Daniel Radosh had a public dispute with Landesman, when Radosh challenged the facts of the article. A series of articles about the dispute by Jack Shafer in the magazine Slate turned the issue of the article’s accuracy into one of the most controversial topics in journalism during the first half of 2004. The details of the expose were famously – almost obsessively – challenged, and, some say, ultimately verified and justified. That piece triggered a national conversation on sex trafficking in this country, and, notwithstanding the controversy over Landesman’s accuracy, won Landesman his second Overseas Press Club Award, this one for Best Human Rights Reporting. The article was adapted into a film Trade deals with human trafficking out of Mexico and a brother’s attempt to rescue his kidnapped and trafficked young sister. The film was released in 2007.

Landesman wrote and directed his debut historical film Parkland, based on the book Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by author Vincent Bugliosi. The film is about the chaotic events that occurred at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. James Badge Dale and Zac Efron starred in the film, which was released in 2013.

Landesman also wrote the script of a 2014 thriller film Kill the Messenger, a true story about a journalist Gary Webb, based on two books Kill the Messenger by Nick Schou and Dark Alliance by Webb. The film stars Jeremy Renner and was directed by Michael Cuesta.

Landesman recently wrote and has directed a sports drama film Concussion starring Will Smith, about the Pittsburgh forensics pathologist who uncovered the disease, CTE, in football players, the result of years of concussions and thousands of sub-concussive blows. The pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu (Smith’s character) makes a David v Goliath journey to tell the truth about the dangers of football in the face of criticism and pressure from the NFL and mainstream media. The film was released on December 25, 2015.