Web programmer turned writer dreaming of Oscars glory

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

HOLLYWOOD (AFP) — A Japanese-American web programmer who once dreamed of a Hollywood writing career is on the brink of Oscars glory after emerging as one of the creative forces behind the war film "Letters from Iwo Jima."

The remarkable story of how Iris Yamashita was hired to write the script for the Clint Eastwood-directed film is one of the more unusual sub-plots at this year's Academy Awards, which take place here on February 25.

Yamashita had been toiling in IT obscurity when she was approached by Oscar-winning writer-director Paul Haggis to work on "Iwo Jima," which tells the story of fighting on the island during WWII from the Japanese perspective.

The 40-year-old, who has been nominated in the best orignal screenplay category, had shared the same...