Movieline with this feature spotlighting 10 actors who have successfully tried their hand at writing:

If you’re an actor who’s frustrated with what Hollywood gives you, there’s always one good backup plan: Write your own stuff! Lately, more and more actors have begun writing scripts on the side, and today’s trades had two such stories. What better time for Movieline to look at 10 actors who’ve managed some notable screenwriting success?

The 10 are:

Charlie Hunnam
Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Queer as Folk UK) is striking out with his own script Vlad, which will be directed by Anthony Mandler and produced by Brad Pitt.

Madeleine Stowe
For years, Hollywood tended to think of Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, Blink) as a professional love interest, and that’s why she and actor-husband Brian Benben slapped the pseudonym “O.C. Humphrey” on their 2003 script Unbound Captives.

Danny Strong
Strong scripted Jay Roach’s Recount, an HBO film about the 2000 presidential election, and is currently writing The Crusaders for director Gary Ross and star Tobey Maguire.

Emma Thompson
The actress won the Oscar and Golden Globe for scripting Sense & Sensibility (which she also starred in), but she’s continued writing since, scripting three more vehicles for herself: the Emmy-nominated Wit for HBO, and both Nanny McPhee movies.

Dan Futterman
When Dan Futterman was Oscar-nominated for writing the film Capote in 2005, he had a perfectly respectable acting career going (Judging Amy, Will & Grace, The Birdcage) and one big part to come opposite Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart.

Justin Theroux
He’s had far more success as a screenwriter, cowriting tentpoles like Tropic Thunder and Iron Man 2 and being hired to pen the comedy Space Invader for Will Arnett.

Jay Baruchel
It’s notable that on the same day that Hunnam’s Vlad project was announced, Variety mentioned that hockey comedy Goon will soon go into production, featuring a script cowritten by Baruchel and Rogen’s writing partner Evan Goldberg.

Sarah Polley
Instead, Polley parlayed that capital into making Away From Her, the Julie Christie Alzheimer’s drama that earned Polley an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
[Since co-writing Good Will Hunting] Damon’s only other writing credit came for the mostly improvised Gus van Sant film Gerry, while Affleck scripted his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, and his upcoming film The Town.

I expected the list to be peppered with ‘vanity projects,’ but the collective writing efforts here represents a strong roster of movies. Probably safe to assume that each of the writing projects is something about which the individuals involved had enormous passion, feeling they were uniquely suited to bring that story to life. And passion for storytelling? Wouldn’t we all like to see more of that in the movies that come to market instead of rote commercial fare?

Any other actors who have distinguished themselves as writers (e.g., Orson Welles, John Huston)?