For over 10 years, Swicord worked on the screen adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald from the 1922 collection, Tales of the Jazz Age. The project had been in development by Producer Ray Stark for 20 years before she began working on the script. Swicord said that the adaptation of the short story was such a loose adaptation of very short piece that she felt that her work almost became an original screenplay. The script had a very long development period in Hollywood and was attached to many Directors, actors, and studios. The eventual Director of the film, David Fincher, hired Eric Roth, who re-wrote much of Swicord's original script.
In 1984, Swicord married Screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, who is the son of Director Elia Kazan. Their daughters are actresses Zoe Kazan and Maya Kazan.
Her directorial debut was with the 1993 short film The Red Coat, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film was about her grandmother and starred Theresa Wright and Bridget Fonda.
For the 1994 film, Little Women, Swicord conducted intensive research into Louisa May Alcott's personal diaries and family letters in order to recreate the period accurately. For over 12 years, Swicord worked with film executive Amy Pascal to develop the project. The studio wanted Winona Ryder to star in the project so Producer Denise Di Novi, who had a long-standing working relationship with Ryder, joined as a Producer on the film. Ryder wanted a woman Director, which was an additional challenge, as the list of women Directors from the studio was short. Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career) who was on that list, was hired to direct.
For 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha, Swicord worked collaboratively with Director Rob Marshall to adapt Arthur Golden's novel. Although the project had been with other Writers and Directors, and there were many previous drafts of the script, Swicord said that she and Marshall started from scratch. Swicord was able to use Golden's original research and unedited manuscripts to construct the screenplay, which won a Golden Satellite Award for best-adapted screenplay.
Swicord wrote the screenplay for Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 novel The Jane Austen Book Club and directed the film, which was released in the United States on September 21, 2007. The film was her feature film debut.
