ALLISON ANDERS endured a bleak childhood and adolescence before becoming the single mom of two children by the time she enrolled at UCLA’s film school. After besieging German director Wim Wenders with correspondence, she was hired as an assistant on the set of Paris, Texas (1984). Anders soon became a director herself, crafting such personal films as Gas, Food Lodging (1992), Mi Vida Loca (1994), Grace of My Heart (1996), and Things Behind the Sun (2001). She has directed episodes of television series such as Sex and the City, and executive produced several indie films. Anders is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Nicholl Fellowship and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation.
Onetime comedienne JANE ANDERSON acted on the eighties sitcom The Facts of Life before convincing the show’s producers to let her write an episode. Thus began her transition to a varied writing career involving movies, TV, and theater. She won an Emmy for writing The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993), and received widespread acclaim for Normal (2003), which she adapted and directed for television from her own play. Her feature work includes It Could Happen to You (1994) and How to Make an American Quilt (1995), both of which she wrote, and The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005), which she wrote and directed.
DOUG ATCHISON attended USC’s film school and created the low-budget film The Pornographer (1999) before winning a Nicholl Fellowship. He turned his winning script into the uplifting drama Akeelah and the Bee (2006), which he also directed, and the project earned Atchison an NAACP Image Award. He also cowrote Spinning Into Butter (2007).
One of Hollywood’s fastest-rising writers, JOHN AUGUST made his mark with Go (1999), then quickly graduated to such big-budget projects as Charlie’s Angels (2000) and its sequel, plus three movies in a row for director Tim Burton, including Big Fish (2003) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). His feature directorial debut, The Nines, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and his Web site, JohnAugust.com, is a popular source of information about screenwriting and the film industry. August also executive produced Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).
Following years in the trenches of stand-up comedy, MIKE BINDER launched his career as a writer-director with Crossing the Bridge (1992). After directing the superhero comedy Blankman (1994) and steering the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man (2001–2002), Binder found a unique niche helming star-driven personal films, including The Upside of Anger (2005) with Kevin Costner and Reign Over Me (2007) with Adam Sandler. His acting résumé includes roles in such films as Minority Report (2002) and TV shows from Boston Legal to Curb Your Enthusiasm.
His name virtually synonymous with high-octane action, SHANE BLACK earned iconic status by following the blockbuster success of his first produced screenplay, Lethal Weapon (1987), with two record-breaking script sales: $1.75 million for The Last Boy Scout (1991) and $4 million for The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). During this time, he also worked on The Monster Squad (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), and Last Action Hero (1993). After a nearly ten-year hiatus, Black resurfaced as the writer-director of the acclaimed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005).
JOHN D. BRANCATO paid his dues writing low-budget fare for employers including legendary producer Roger Corman, before graduating to big-budget features with The Net (1995). By that time, Brancato had teamed with writing partner Michael Ferris; the two subsequently collaborated on The Game (1997), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Catwoman (2004), and Terminator Salvation (2009), as well as the short-lived TV series The Others (2000).
JOHN CARPENTER gained attention while still a film student at USC, when he cowrote the Oscar-winning short The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970) and expanded a thesis project into the feature Dark Star (1974). Then came Halloween (1978), which reigned for years as the most successful independent film of all time. Carpenter followed Halloween with other moody horror pictures, including The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Prince of Darkness (1987), and In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Concurrently, he crafted such stylish action films as Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Escape From New York (1981), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Escape From L.A. (1996), and Vampires (1998), as well as the sci-fi romance Starman (1984) and the special-effects comedy Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992). A number of Carpenter’s iconic pictures have been remade for a new generation of audiences, notably the Rob Zombie–directed version of Halloween (2007), and the filmmaker is the subject of books including John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness (2003). Most recently, Carpenter returned from a long directing hiatus with The Ward (2010).
The prolific LARRY COHEN boasts nearly fifty produced features (more than twenty of which he directed), in addition to extensive work in television. He sold his first script while still employed as a page at NBC’s New York studios, then accumulated a vast number of TV credits before becoming a writer-director of lurid low-budget features. His noteworthy directing endeavors include such cult favorites as Black Caesar (1973), a blaxploitation riff on gangster movies; the It’s Alive trilogy (1974–1987), a perverse series about mutated infants; The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), a nervy exposé of the titular FBI chief; and Wicked Stepmother (1989), which boasts Bette Davis’s last screen performance. Recent Cohen screenplays include Phone Booth (2002), Cellular (2004), Captivity (2007), and Messages Deleted (2009). In 1988, he received the George Pal Memorial Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
FRANK DARABONT was born in a French refugee camp to Hungarian parents who fled their homeland during a time of political strife. His family then moved to Los Angeles. Darabont worked as a set dresser while struggling to become a professional screenwriter, eventually landing writing credits on horror pictures, including A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and the remake of The Blob (1988). Tonier projects followed, including the George Lucas–Steven Spielberg TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1993) and the Kenneth Branagh–directed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994). Darabont then exploded onto the public sphere by writing and directing The Shawshank Redemption (1994), a Stephen King adaptation that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Incredibly, he repeated that success with The Green Mile (1999), another King adaptation nominated for Best Picture. Darabont received Oscar nominations for writing both films. He made uncredited screenwriting contributions to Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Collateral (2004), and famously wrote an unproduced version of the fourth Indiana Jones adventure. Darabont’s other major projects include directing The Majestic (2001); writing and directing a third King adaptation, The Mist (2007); and helming the forthcoming AMC series The Walking Dead.
STEVEN E. de SOUZA honed his skills in regional television before achieving sudden Hollywood success. After breaking into national TV almost immediately on his arrival in Los Angeles, de Souza wrote episodes for prominent action shows of the late seventies and early eighties, including The Six Million Dollar Man and Knight Rider, before becoming one of Hollywood’s most prolific action specialists, contributing to 48 Hrs. (1982), Commando (1985), Die Hard (1988), Ricochet (1991), Judge Dredd (1995), and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003). De Souza has directed such projects as Street Fighter (1994) and the telefilm Possessed (2000).
GERALD DiPEGO began his career writing industrial films in the Midwest before moving to L.A. during the seventies heyday of made-for-television movies. After writing a number of small-screen projects, he penned the screenplay for Burt Reynolds’s hard-hitting actioner Sharky’s Machine (1981). A permanent berth in the feature world proved elusive, however, so DiPego spent the eighties juggling television work and his ongoing novel career. He finally transitioned into features permanently with the heartfelt John Travolta hit Phenomenon (1996). Subsequent credits include Message in a Bottle (1999), Angel Eyes (2001), and The Forgotten (2004).
An Oscar nominee for her first produced screenplay, Silkwood (1983), NORA EPHRON quickly established herself as one of the leading wits in contemporary cinema. The daughter of playwright-screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron, she earned subsequent Oscar nominations for When Harry Met Sally… (1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), the latter of which was her sophomore directing effort. In addition to her extensive film work, Ephron boasts a celebrated career as an essayist, reporter, and novelist; she adapted her 1986 script Heartburn from her semiautobiographical novel of the same name. Ephron’s recent endeavors as a writer-director include Michael (1996), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Bewitched (2005), and Julie & Julia (2009).
After winning the 1999 CineStory Screenwriting Award, MARK FERGUS and his writing partner Hawk Ostby collaborated on the low-budget films Consequence (2003) and First Snow (2006), the latter of which Fergus directed, before earning Oscar nominations for their work on Children of Men (2006). Subsequently, they worked on the blockbuster superhero adventure Iron Man (2008).
The life of ANTWONE FISHER can be described as a nightmare that turned into a fairy tale. After a harrowing childhood and adolescence—he was born in the prison where his mother was an inmate, suffered abuse from foster parents, and became homeless—he learned self-respect during his eleven years in the U.S. Navy. Then, while working as a security guard at Sony Pictures, he was discovered by an executive who thought his story should be made into a movie. This led to the memoir Finding Fish (2001), which the author adapted into Antwone Fisher (2002), Denzel Washington’s directorial debut. Fisher’s other work includes uncredited contributions to films such as Money Talks (1997) and Rush Hour (1998), as well as the story for the hit youth drama ATL (2006).
The recipient of a master’s in developmental psychology from Columbia University, NAOMI FONER was a producer on the educational series The Electric Company in the early seventies. She launched her feature career in the mid-eighties, and her second produced screenplay, Running on Empty (1988), earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award. Foner’s other credits include A Dangerous Woman (1993), Losing Isaiah (1995), and Bee Season (2006). The writer and her second husband, director Stephen Gyllenhaal, are the parents of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
JOE FORTE studied film at NYU, then optioned and developed projects with notables including Jodie Foster before scoring his first produced Hollywood feature with the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall (2006).
JOSH FRIEDMAN cowrote the 1996 action film Chain Reaction and then spent several years working on stillborn projects before roaring back with the Steven Spielberg blockbuster War of the Worlds (2005) and the Brian De Palma–helmed The Black Dahlia (2006). Around the same time, Friedman was credited with starting the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon by blogging about his brief association with the project. Friedman also developed and executive produced Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), the Fox series spun off from the popular sci-fi franchise.
Known for his many adaptations of Stephen King stories, MICK GARRIS worked in journalism and publicity before launching a prolific career as a writer, director, and producer. His screenplay credits include *batteries not included (1987), The Fly II (1989), and Hocus Pocus (1993), and his many directing endeavors for TV and the big screen include the miniseries The Stand (1994) and the feature Riding the Bullet (2004). In 2005, he created the cult-fave anthology series Masters of Horror, for which he received numerous awards within the genre-film community; he also served in a similar capacity on the series’ revamped incarnation Fear Itself (2008).
Chicago native WILLIAM GOLDMAN may be Hollywood’s most celebrated living screenwriter. The winner of two Academy Awards—an Original Screenplay statuette for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and an Adapted Screenplay prize for All the President’s Men (1976)—Goldman also received a 1985 Laurel Award from the Writers Guild of America for lifetime achievement in screenwriting. Based in New York City for most of his career, Goldman has straddled the worlds of books and movies for more than four decades. Projects that he adapted from his own novels include the disturbing thrillers Marathon Man (1976) and Magic (1978), as well as the beloved romantic fantasy The Princess Bride (1987); movies that he adapted from outside material include Harper (1966), The Hot Rock (1972), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), The Stepford Wives (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Misery (1990), Maverick (1994), Absolute Power (1997), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), and Dreamcatcher (2003); and Goldman’s original screenplays include Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979), Year of the Comet (1992), and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). In addition, Goldman is revered as one the industry’s consummate script doctors. Yet perhaps Goldman’s most enduring contribution to the world of screenwriting has been a series of brilliant observations about the madness of Hollywood, in the form of essays, lectures, and books. The most famous of these items is the 1983 nonfiction bestseller Adventures in the Screen Trade, in which Goldman coined the deathless phrase “nobody knows anything.”
DAVID HAYTER was partway through an acting career when he executive produced Burn (1988) alongside Bryan Singer. He then wrote the production draft of Singer’s blockbuster X-Men (2000), launching a writing career that has included The Scorpion King (2002), X2: X-Men United (2003), and the notoriously daunting comic book adaptation Watchmen (2009). He’s also a popular voice actor in cartoons and video games, playing characters including “Snake” in the Metal Gear game franchise. Hayter’s feature directorial debut, Slaughter’s Road, is slated for release in 2010.
PETER HYAMS spent time as a news anchor, painter, photographer, and jazz drummer before writing the screenplays for T.R. Baskin (1971) and Busting (1974). He then earned fame as the writer-director of films including Capricorn One (1978), Outland (1981), and The Star Chamber (1983), all of which combined conspiratorial intrigue with slick visuals. Beginning in the mid-eighties, Hyams served as his own cinematographer on pictures including the sci-fi sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), the action-comedy hit Running Scared (1986), and the Gene Hackman thriller Narrow Margin (1990). More recently, he directed Timecop (1994), End of Days (1999), A Sound of Thunder (2005), and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009).
Working outside the studio system, MICHAEL JANUARY has built a solid career writing internationally financed action films such as To Be the Best (1993), Warpath (2000), and The Band from Hell (2009).
ROBERT MARK KAMEN set out to become a novelist before discovering the rewards of writing for Hollywood. After notching solid credits beginning with the 1981 drama Taps, Kamen made his name by writing The Karate Kid (1984) and its first two sequels; the enduring series was inspired by the screenwriter’s lifelong practice of martial arts. An unusual period followed during which Kamen became an in-house script doctor at Warner Bros., contributing to such hits as Under Siege (1992) and The Fugitive (1993). Then Kamen began an epic transatlantic collaboration with French writer-director-producer Luc Besson. Thus far, the pair has teamed up on such films as The Fifth Element (1997), the Transporter series, and the surprise blockbuster Taken (2009), a sequel to which is among Kamen’s upcoming projects.
STEVE KOREN and MARK O’KEEFE took parallel paths through pop culture before joining forces. Koren earned three Emmy nominations for his work on the writing teams of Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld, then graduated to features with the SNL spinoffs A Night at the Roxbury (1998) and Superstar (1999). Concurrently, O’Keefe rose through the ranks of Late Show with David Letterman, Politically Incorrect, and NewsRadio. The duo’s first collaboration, Bruce Almighty (2003), became a Jim Carrey megahit, and their second, Click (2006), was a smash starring Koren’s SNL colleague Adam Sandler.
After receiving a master’s in screenwriting from USC, ANDREW W. MARLOWE won a Nicholl Fellowship in 1992 and then entered features in a big way with the Harrison Ford blockbuster Air Force One (1997). The horror thrillers End of Days (1999) and Hollow Man (2000) soon followed. More recently, Marlowe created the TV series Castle, which debuted in 2009.
Actor-writer-director PAUL MAZURSKY has enjoyed one of the most iconoclastic careers in modern American film, earning five Oscar nominations for his adept comedies and incisive dramas. His first film role was in Stanley Kubrick’s debut feature, Fear and Desire (1953), and Mazursky spent more than a decade in front of the camera before co-creating The Monkees, the hit comedy series that ran from 1966 to 1968. Mazursky capitalized on his small-screen success by cowriting I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). The latter film, which he also directed, was a blockbuster comedy about free love, and it established Mazursky as a preeminent social satirist. A long string of acclaimed movies followed, including Harry and Tonto (1974), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and Enemies: A Love Story (1989). Throughout his directorial career, Mazursky has continued to act in projects ranging from A Star Is Born (1976) to Carlito’s Way (1993). His recent endeavors include playing a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2004 and directing the documentary Yippee (2006). Mazursky’s numerous accolades include two Best Screenplay awards from the National Society of Film Critics, as well as one Best Director and two Best Screenplay awards from the New York Film Critics Circle. Screenwriter Jill Mazursky is his daughter.
Although ZAK PENN is best known for writing action films, especially several adaptations of Marvel Comics characters, he also directs improvisational comedy films. His credits begin with the infamous 1993 flop Last Action Hero, which was extensively changed from the original script Penn wrote with Adam Leff, and continue through Inspector Gadget (1999), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), X2: X-Men United (2003), Elektra (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and The Incredible Hulk (2008). Penn’s directorial debut was the droll mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness (2004), and he also directed The Grand (2007).
After writing numerous episodes for TV series during the eighties, including the groundbreaking cop show Miami Vice, DANIEL PYNE hit the feature world with Pacific Heights (1990). While he contributed to the comedy Doc Hollywood (1991) and the sports drama Any Given Sunday (1999), Pyne is primarily known for such thrillers as The Sum of All Fears (2002), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and Fracture (2007). His directorial efforts include the postmodern noir Where’s Marlowe? (1998).
Despite a rocky experience on his first produced movie, Color of Night (1994), BILLY RAY emerged as one of the industry’s preeminent rewriters, working on such scripts as Volcano (1997), Hart’s War (2002), Flightplan (2005), and State of Play (2009). Concurrently, Ray established himself as a director by helming a pair of acclaimed films drawn from real life: Shattered Glass (2003), about discredited journalist Stephen Glass, and Breach (2007), about double agent Robert Hanssen.
It’s easy to wonder if there are two people in Hollywood named ADAM RIFKIN, because his filmography includes as many unconventional films as it does family-friendly comedies. After creating low-budget projects, including the demented cult classic The Dark Backward (1991) and the Charlie Sheen action-comedy The Chase (1994), Rifkin entered the family-movie business with Mouse Hunt (1997). He then continued along that vein by cowriting Small Soldiers (1998), Zoom (2006), and Underdog (2007), while maintaining his directing career with projects such as Detroit Rock City (1999), Night at the Golden Eagle (2002), and Look (2007).
JOSE RIVERA earned notoriety as a playwright before writing sitcom episodes and co-creating the short-lived series Eerie, Indiana (1991–1992). He continued his TV career and spent time abroad as a scholar before finally notching his first feature credit in 2004 with The Motorcycle Diaries. The vibrant screenplay about Che Guevara’s early life netted its author accolades including an Oscar nomination. Rivera subsequently wrote Trade (2007), cowrote Letters to Juliet (2010), and worked on short films while preparing for his directorial debut, the upcoming drama Celestina.
Providing textbook examples of how to play the Hollywood game effectively, MARK D. ROSENTHAL and his longtime writing partner Lawrence Konner have quietly notched more than a dozen credits, in a broad variety of genres, since the mid-eighties. Highlights of their shared résumé include The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), For Love or Money (1993), the Tim Burton–directed remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), Flicka (2006), and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010).
ARI B. RUBIN’s first script, The Brutus Complex, was developed as a possible Robert Redford directing endeavor but stalled. He has several projects in development, including a World War II drama at United Artists. His father is Oscar-winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin.
BRUCE JOEL RUBIN has spent his career blending popcorn entertainment with deep spirituality. After graduating from NYU in the sixties, he spent time in the Far East, at one point living in a Nepalese monastery and eventually becoming a devoted practitioner of transcendental meditation. His movie career made a halting start with Brainstorm (1983), the sci-fi thriller whose release was overshadowed by the death of leading lady Natalie Wood. Rubin’s stature finally solidified in 1990 with Ghost, a massive box-office success that netted its author an Academy Award. That same year brought the release of Jacob’s Ladder, a provocative psychological thriller that many critics rated even more highly than Ghost. Rubin’s sole directorial effort, My Life, was released in 1993, and his other screenwriting credits include Deep Impact (1998), Stuart Little 2 (2002), The Last Mimzy (2007), and The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009). His sons, Ari and Joshua, are screenwriters.
After sharpening his skills as the director of such vibrant B-pictures as Psych-Out and The Savage Seven (both 1968), RICHARD RUSH graduated to studio projects in the seventies before notching his place in film history with The Stunt Man (1980). Rush’s writing and directing of the bitterly funny picture earned twin Oscar nominations, and he chronicled the project’s torturous backstory in the 2000 documentary The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man. He cowrote Air America (1990), and his directing credits also include Hells Angels on Wheels (1967), Getting Straight (1970), Freebie and the Bean (1974), and Color of Night (1994).
One of the giants of modern screenwriting, PAUL SCHRADER was raised by strict Calvinist parents who forbade him from seeing movies until he was eighteen. Once exposed to the medium, Schrader unleashed his ferocious intellect in the halls of Calvin College, Columbia University, and UCLA’s graduate film-studies program, eventually crafting the book Transcendental Style in Film (1972). He then apprenticed with legendary critic Pauline Kael before spiraling into the personal crisis that inspired his first script, Taxi Driver (1976), the violent drama that forever linked Schrader and director Martin Scorsese. Other early credits include The Yakuza (1974), Obsession (1976), and Rolling Thunder (1977). After making his directorial debut with Blue Collar (1978), an intense drama about unemployment, Schrader helmed projects ranging from the sexy thrillers American Gigolo (1980) and Cat People (1982) to the experimental drama Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985). Along the way, he reunited with Scorsese on three films, including Raging Bull (1980) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and wrote The Mosquito Coast (1986) for director Peter Weir. In the late eighties, Schrader found a niche in the independent world, writing and/or directing such provocative movies as Patty Hearst (1988), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), Auto Focus (2002), The Walker (2007), and Adam Resurrected (2008). The recipient of a 1999 Laurel Award from the Writers Guild of America and a 2005 Franklin J. Schaffner Award from the American Film Institute, among other lifetime achievement prizes, the filmmaker is also the subject of books including Schrader on Schrader and Other Writings (2004).
Sports are a recurring theme in the work of RON SHELTON, and for good reason: He began his professional life playing second base for the Baltimore Orioles farm team, from 1967 to 1971. That experience inspired his most celebrated project, Bull Durham (1988). The beloved comedy, which Shelton wrote and directed, snared every major screenwriting award except the Oscar, although Shelton was nominated, while solidifying the stardom of Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon. Sports also feature prominently in White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Cobb (1994), Tin Cup (1996), and Play It to the Bone (1999), all of which Shelton wrote and directed; his other credits as a screenwriter and/or director include Under Fire (1983), Blaze (1989), Blue Chips (1994), The Great White Hype (1996), Dark Blue (2002), and Bad Boys II (2003). Shelton’s upcoming projects include the golf comedy Q School.
RONALD SHUSETT earned a permanent place in science-fiction history by cowriting Alien (1979), the first film in the long-running franchise. He also cowrote and produced the Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster Total Recall (1990), based on a Philip K. Dick story, the rights to which Shusett acquired sixteen years prior to the film’s release. A similarly prolonged development process led to the Tom Cruise hit Minority Report (2002), another Dick adaptation, for which Shusett wrote early drafts and served as an executive producer. Shusett’s filmography also includes W (1974), Phobia (1980), King Kong Lives (1986), Above the Law (1988), and Freejack (1992).
JOE STILLMAN accumulated credits on children’s animated shows before joining creator Mike Judge’s team for the infamous Beavis and Butt-Head series (1993–1997), which led to Stillman cowriting the feature Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) and working on Judge’s next series, King of the Hill. Subsequently, Stillman cowrote one of the biggest hits in animation history, Shrek (2001), for which he received an Oscar nomination, an Annie award, and a BAFTA Film Award. He also cowrote Shrek 2 (2004) and wrote Planet 51 (2009).
Educated at Notre Dame and USC, horror specialist STEPHEN SUSCO wrote the script for the American version of The Grudge (2004), as well as its sequel, The Grudge 2 (2006), and the thriller Red (2008). Susco added comedy to his résumé by cowriting the 2010 release High School.
A fixture in the indie-cinema pantheon since co-creating the spirited hit Go Fish (1994), GUINEVERE TURNER has enjoyed a varied career in front of and behind the camera. She collaborated with director Mary Harron on American Psycho (2000) and The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), and wrote the video game adaptation BloodRayne (2005). She has acted in dozens of projects, including Go Fish and The L Word, and she has directed five short films.
KRISS TURNER built an enviable career as a writer and producer in sitcoms, beginning with Sister, Sister in the mid-nineties and continuing through the first season of Everybody Hates Chris in 2005, before moving on to features with the romantic comedy Something New (2006).
A professor of screenwriting at UCLA, LINDA VOORHEES worked on telefilms and direct-to-video projects, including the Disney sequel The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998), before launching her feature career as the writer-director of Raising Genius (2004) and Out of Omaha (2007).
DAVID S. WARD earned iconic status when his second produced script, The Sting (1973), won an Oscar and an enduring reputation as an example of screenwriting perfection. A period of troubled projects—most notoriously Ward’s directorial debut, the 1982 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row—followed before Ward found new success by writing and directing the baseball comedy Major League (1989). Ward also directed the film’s 1994 sequel, Major League II. Other credits include The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and Flyboys (2006), all of which Ward cowrote, and King Ralph (1991) and The Program (1993), both of which he directed.
RICHARD WENK began his career by writing and directing the cult-fave film Vamp for Roger Corman in 1986. He also wrote and directed Just the Ticket (1999), codirected Wishcraft (2002), executive produced The Girl Next Door (2004), and wrote the Bruce Willis thriller 16 Blocks (2006).
Years of writing unproduced scripts paid off for JAMES L. WHITE in 2004, when his screenplay for the hit biopic Ray, about music legend Ray Charles, earned him accolades including a BAFTA nomination and the Black Reel Award for Best Screenplay.
MICHAEL WOLK wrote plays and crime novels before tackling his first script, Innocent Blood (1992), which was directed by John Landis. Taking the indie route, Wolk then directed the noir comedy Deep Six (1999) and the music documentary You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story (2005). Based in New York City, he’s also a theatrical producer.
JUSTIN ZACKHAM tried his hand at modeling, acting, and other careers before writing and directing the collegiate farce Going Greek (2001). Then, after a long period of soul-searching, Zackham crafted his breakthrough screenplay, The Bucket List (2007), for which he also served as an executive producer. Zackham capitalized on this success by launching the production company Two Ton Films, whose forthcoming projects include the TV series Lights Out and the feature film Upstate.