Burns is also known for his acting work for movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digital Panasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The movie's entire budget was $200,000[6][7] and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual movie-making process in the director's commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director's Letter "If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York ... and have a blast".[citation needed]
His movie Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a series of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage midway through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler's boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage, Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new television series in which Johnny Drama is able to acquire a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper.[8] Burns plans to use the comic series as a springboard to a movie of the same story.
In March 2009, The Lynch Pin, a series of short movies featuring, written and directed by Burns were released via the internet.[9] The ten episodes are only available to view online as of August 2009[update] and future plans for the project are unknown.
With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns was considering taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading a few scripts and attending a few meetings, he chose to remain a writer/director. He then wrote Nice Guy Johnny and filmed it quickly, with the RED One camera, for a reported $25,000 with a small crew.[10]Nice Guy Johnny premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.[11]
To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote a movie, Newlyweds, that he also directed and starred in. Conforming to a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was filmed with a Canon 5D, with an even smaller crew, for $9000, in 12 days.[12] The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the final night movie.[13] He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget was "5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can."[14] In 2013 Burns featured as real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in Frank Darabont's miniseries Mob City.
In 2012, Burns set up a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intended to help get produced.[15]
Personal life
Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and they have two children, a daughter born in 2003 and a son born in 2006. He and Turlington are Catholic. He is an advisor to ICX Media, an ad-tech audience analytics data company.[16]
^Calamari, Alexandra. "Looking For Kitty DVD Review". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2012. The movie's budget was just over two hundred thousand dollars and it shows, with fuzzy pictures, unimpressive sound quality, and that horrible banjo strumming that always seems to be on the soundtrack of indie films.
^MacDonald, Daniel (December 12, 2006). "Review - Looking For Kitty". DVDVerdict. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2012. He made the movie for a staggering $200,000, purchasing a Panasonic digital camera for three grand and casting friends who could help him out for a couple of weeks.
^Franklin, Garth (July 27, 2007). "Ed Burns Is Into Dock-ing". Dark Horizons. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2012. Ed Burns is setting a deal with Virgin Comics for a comic book series that serves as a calling card for a live action feature reports reports Variety. Burns has created "Dock Walloper," a stylized gangster tale set in the 1920s, where Prohibition has created a struggle to control the criminal underworld.