Was paid a mid-six figure sum for his spec script _Tripoli (2007)_ in the fall of 2001. That script landed him the deal to write Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Both projects are set up with producer Mark Gordon at 20th Century Fox, and have Ridley Scott attached to direct both. Won Pushcart Prize for short fiction, 1997. He also published the novel, "Light House: A Trifle". Light House was optioned by Warner Brothers and Monahan wrote the script in 1998. Former Spy magazine editor While filming Kingdom of Heaven in Seville, Spain, Monahan bought back the rights to his novel "Light House: A Trifle" from Penguin- Putnam, and took the book off the market. In the book "A Mind for Murder: Harvard and the Unabomber", by Alston Chase, William Monahan is identified as being the only person to solve the bomber's lexically-based targeting methodology before the Unabomber's capture. One of 115 invitees to join AMPAS in 2007.
