Screenwriting Expo

Guests of Honor are screenwriters whose work has shown exceptional artistic achievement or who have had exceptional recent commercial success, especially in the past year, and directors and producers of high achievements in film and TV.

Wesley and Princess Buttercup in "The Pricess Bride"

Above: Wesley and Buttercup, in a scene from William Goldman's "The Princess Bride"

Above: Poster From Fierce Creatures, written by John Cleese and Iaian Stone, and William Goldman (uncredited).

Shanghai, Phoenix Pictures, scheduled October 2010 release

Above: Shanghai, with Chow Yun Fat, John Cusack, from Mike Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures , Oct. 2010 scheduled release

Karey Kirkpatrick's James And The Giant Peach

Above: Scene from Jame And The Giant Peach, written by Guest of Honor Karey Kirkpatrick

Above: Scene from Dexter, created by Guest of Honor James Manos Jr.

Above: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang -- Guest of Honor Shane Black directing Robert Downey Jr.

Above: Over The Hedge, written by Guest of Honor Karey Kirkpatrick

Above: Lethal Weapon 1, Screenplay by Guest of Honor Shane Black

CSI Miami: Creator David Zuiker
is a Guest of Honor

Army Wives: Deborah Spera, Exec Producer

Army Wives: Deborah Spera is Executive Producer of the show and President of Television for Mark Gordon Productions.

Star Trek, written and executive-produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

House, created by Expo Guest of Honor David Shore

Travel and Lodging

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2009 Screenwriting Expo
Guests of Honor
(the 2010 list will be posted beginning in late July-early August 2010)

Guests of Honor appearing in 2009 included:

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, David Shore,
Shane Black John Cleese William Goldman Karey Kirkpatrick
Franklin Leonard James Manos Jr Mike Medavoy Deborah Spera Anthony Zuiker

ANTHONY ZUIKER, CREATOR OF 'CSI'

ANTHONY E. ZUIKER is one of the most creative and multifaceted individuals working in Hollywood today. He is the creator of television's successful CSI franchise, which now includes CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. With its tenth season debuting this September, the original CSI has received widespread critical acclaim and has earned distinction as the highest rated drama on television reaching 75 million viewers per week. CSI accumulated an astounding 28 Emmy Award Nominations, four Emmy Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, and three Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series (Drama). Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, Zuiker serves as Executive Producer of the CSI franchise. Zuiker also created and executive produces CSI: Miami starring David Caruso. With an eighth season lined up for September, CSI: Miami continues to dominate in its timeslot in the United States and around the world. He is also an Executive Producer for the series third installment CSI: New York, which premiered in the fall of 2004 and stars Gary Sinise and Melina Kanakaredes. He was the showrunner for five seasons. In addition to expanding on his film and television efforts, Zuiker continues to delve into the worlds of gaming, publishing and cross-platform storytelling with the formation of his Dare to Pass production company. Regarding publishing, he has created the industry redefining multi-platform media property coined a 'Digi-Novel.' Published by Dutton, the first 'Digi-Novel' in this crime series is titled 'Level 26-Dark Orgins' which, is the first in a series of crime novels to be published by Dutton, will revolutionize modern storytelling by allowing readers to move seamlessly from books to film to the Web, an unprecedented undertaking in the publishing industry. It will be in stores on September 8, 2010. All Cyberbridges were written, produced and directed by Zuiker. Zuiker also closed a deal with publisher HarperCollins for his memoir tentatively titled "Mr. CSI". In the book, Zuiker maps out his journey as an aspiring writer working as a tram driver at Las Vegas' famed Mirage Hotel to becoming one of the most coveted screen and television writers in the business.

WILLIAM GOLDMAN

For the sixth straight year, Oscar winner WILLIAM GOLDMAN is coming back to the Expo as the Sunday Guest of Honor. As a screenwriter, novelist, and playwright, he has won two Oscars, two Edgars, a WGA award, and a BAFTA. Among his original creations are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride, and Marathon Man. His numerous adaptations include the classic All the President’s Men as well as Misery and Hearts in Atlantis. He has also written the popular book Adventures in the Screen Trade, in which he penned the most famous line in Hollywood that didn’t come from the Silver Screen: “Nobody knows anything.”

And here's an interesting fact: he is uncredited, but did some writing on "Fierce Creatures," written by the Guest of Honor who will join him on stage...

JOHN CLEESE

JOHN CLEESE was born and brought up in Weston-super-Mare. However, he recovered to win a place to study science at Cambridge. After sampling the conversation in the Chemistry laboratories, he switched to Law. The success of the 1963 Cambridge Footlights Revue, which played in the West End and on Broadway, saved him from a legal career. He first shot to fame in England with The Frost Report in 1966 and in 1969 co-created Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The team went on to conquer the world with four cult TV series and four hugely successful films, And Now For Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), The Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). After leaving Python, Cleese moved on to create Basil Fawlty, the hotel manager from hell in Fawlty Towers. As one of the most successful TV series ever made, the 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers have been repeated on the BBC many times. In 1988, he starred in and co-wrote A Fish Called Wanda. He reunited the stars of Wanda in 1996 to make Fierce Creatures, a film about a zoo, which went on worldwide release in 1997. As well as his work with Monty Python, Cleese’s film credits as an actor include The Great Muppet Caper (1980), Time Bandits (1980), Privates on Parade (1982) Silverado (1984), Clockwise (1986), Terry Jones’ Erik the Viking, Eric Idle’s Splitting Heirs (1992), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), The Jungle Book (1995), The Wind in the Willows (1996), The Out-of-Towners (1999), and Rat Race (2001) Less well known is the fact that John Cleese co-wrote (with Robin Skynner) two best selling books on psychology, Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. He also co-founded Video Arts in 1972, which became the largest producer of management and sales training films outside the United States. Video Arts was sold in 1991. John started the Secret Policeman’s Ball concerts for Amnesty International, and has continued to do a lot of charity work, much of it, like The Human Face (2001), for the BBC. In his twilight years he passes his time writing film scripts, making speeches to business audiences, doing seminars on creativity, teaching at Cornell and UCSB, playing “The Kin” in the Shrek movies, constructing a virtual reality (his website, www.thejohncleese.com), raising chickens, and, of course, trying to grow a decent tomato.

MIKE MEDAVOY, STUDIO EXECUTIVE, PRODUCER, AGENT

MIKE MEDAVOY is the highest-ranking Hollywood executive ever to be honored at the Screenwriting Expo. His own professional life story could have come straight from of a Hollywood script. He started in the mailroom (yes that actually happens, just like in the movies!), at Universal Studios and rose to become a casting director there, then an agent, and then a VP at Creative Management Agency. Later, at International Famous Agency in the 1970s, he worked with Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Gene Wilder, Jeanne Moreau, and Jean-Louis Trintignant among others. Then, United Artists brought him in as senior vice president of production in 1974, where he was part of the team responsible for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Rocky”,and “Annie Hall”, all of which won the Best Picture Oscars over three successive years in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Other notable pictures included “Apocalypse Now”, “Raging Bull”, “Network”, and “Coming Home”.

And he was just getting started. In 1978, Mike Medavoy co-founded Orion Pictures. During his tenure there, “Platoon”, “Amadeus”, “Robocop”, “Hannah and Her Sisters”, “The Terminator”, “Dances with Wolves,” and “Silence of the Lambs” were released. Then, In 1990, after twelve fruitful years at Orion, Medavoy became Chairman of TriStar Pictures. Under his aegis, critically acclaimed, box office successes, “ Philadelphia”, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (with Carolco), “Sleepless in Seattle”, “Cliffhanger” (with Carolco), “The Fisher King”, “Legends of the Fall” and Steven Spielberg’s “Hook” debuted.

Today, as chairman and co-founder of Phoenix Pictures, Mike Medavoy has amongst other films brought to the screen “The People vs. Larry Flynt”, “The Mirror Has Two Faces”, “U-Turn”, “Apt Pupil”, “ The Thin Red Line”, “The Sixth Day”, “Basic” and “Holes.” These films have received many nominations and won two Golden Bears at the Berlin Film Festival and five Golden Satellite Awards, a cinematography award for John Toll from the ASC and nominations from the DGA and WGA for Terrence Malick. Two of his films, “The Thin Red Line” and “The People vs. Larry Flint”, a Milos Forman movie, received Academy nominations. Phoenix also released, among others, “All The King’s Men” (starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins and Mark Ruffalo, written and directed by Steven Zaillian), “Zodiac” (starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, directed by David Fincher). “Miss Potter” (starring Rene Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, directed by Chris Noonan). “Pathfinder” (starring Karl Urban, directed by Marcus Nispel)and has produced both “Shutter Island,” a film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and “Shanghai,” starring John Cusack, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe and Chow Yun-Fat.

Of all the films Medavoy has been involved with, sixteen have been nominated for Best Picture Oscars and seven have won Best Picture Academy Awards and numerous international festival awards.

He also has a vast resume of community service and political activism. He is the author of a best-selling book, “You’re Only As Good As Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films and 100 For Which I Should Be Shot,” and is co-author, with Nathan Gardels, of a new book, “American Idol After Iraq: Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age, ”a profound look at the role of media, including Hollywood, in shaping world opinion.

DEBORAH SPERA, PRESIDENT OF MARK GORDON TV

DEBORAH SPERA currently serves as the President of Television for The Mark Gordon Company which produces such critically-acclaimed programming as "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC) and "Private Practice" (ABC). Spera also serves as an executive producer on "Criminal Minds" (CBS), and "Army Wives" (Lifetime). Previously, Deborah served for eight years as Vice President of movies, minis and series at Showtime Networks. She developed and worked on over 30 projects, several of which garnered Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody nominations and wins. Some of those credits include This "American Life," "The Baby Dance," "Wild Iris," "12 Angry Men," "Inherit the Wind," "On the Beach," "Rocky Marciano," "Freak City," and "10,000 Black Men Named George." Before Showtime, Deborah was in features at Eden Roc Pictures and New Regency Productions where she worked on films including as "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "Under Siege," "Free Willy," "Sommersby," "The Mambo Kings," "Guilty by Suspicion" and "JFK." Spera is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

KARY KIRKPATRICK, WRITER, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR

Karey Kirkpatrick, Writer, Producer, Director

KAREY KIRKPATRICK has a string of major-studio animation and live-action movies under his belt. He is the co-writer/director of the hit 2006 animated film Over the Hedge. He has also written or co-written the screenplays to Chicken Run, The darkly visionary 2008 Spiderwick Chronicles, the 2006 Charlotte’s Web, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Kirkpatrick got his start at Walt Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, where he was credited with co-writing the 1990 hit The Rescuers Down Under. He next penned the screenplay for the critically acclaimed James and The Giant Peach. He made his live action writing debut with 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. 2010 saw the release of Kirkpatrick’s live-action directorial debut, the Eddie Murphy family comedy Imagine That. He has credits as a producer on The Spiderwick Chronicles and on the 2007comedy, Flakes, starring Zooey Deschanel, which he co-wrote with Chris Poche. Small world that it is, Guest of Honor John Cleese played the role of The Sheep in his adaptation of Charlotte’s Web.

SHANE BLACK, WRITER-DIRECTOR
INTERVIEWED BY JOURNALIST-ACTRESS ARIANE VON KAMP

SHANE BLACK is currently writing Lethal Weapon 5, slated for 2012 release, and is lined up to direct Cold Warrior (2010), about a retired Cold War-era spy who helps a younger agent track down a terrorist. Considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, Black sold his first screenplay, Lethal Weapon (1987), at the age of 23 for $250,000 and has story and character credits for Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). He received $1.75 million for his screenplay the Last Boyscout (1991), and $1 million for the McTiernan/ Schwarzenegger Last Action Hero (1993) script. Black is one of the highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood movie industry history, making $4 million for penning the Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), which he also produced. Black was the writer and director for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005), the noir comedy, inspired by the Michael Shayne Mystery Series (circa 1941). Shane has also acted in many films, including Predator (1987), Robocop 3 (1993) and as Good as it Gets (I997). In 2005, Black received the Best Original Screenplay Award from the San Diego Film Critics Association and five Saturn Award nominations for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. In 2006, Black received the Distinguished Screenwriter Ariane Von Kamp

Award from the Austin Film Festival, The Filmmaker’s Showcase Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and a nomination for a London Critics Circle Film Award, also for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

ARIANE VON KAMP--A former librarian at ABC News, Ariane Von Kamp has interviewed screenwriters Bruce Joel Rubin, Nick Meyer, Anthony E. Zuiker, Leonard Stern, Danny Boyle, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. She studied at the Arts Student’s League of New York, Yale School of Drama at Oxford and The Actors Studio at The New School for Social Research. Ariane has appeared in Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Anchorman (2004) and is currently writing her first spy thriller comedy feature Girl in the Novel.acted in Birkin Bag (2010, yet to be released). She will be appearing in Apartment 17 (2010) and Electric City (2010).

JAMES MANOS JR
WITH STUDIO CREATIVE EXEC AND PRODUCER GERARD BOCCACCIO

JAMES MANOS JR won an Emmy Award for his College episode of The Sopranos. He served for two seasons as Consulting Producer on The Shield, and created the TV series Dexter, Showtime’s premiere one-hour drama, now in its fourth season. He most recently wrote a new dramatic pilot for Fox 21 Television. Jim successfully produced the award-winning movie The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, starring Holly Hunter and Beau Bridges, for HBO. The movie was nominated for six Emmys and won three. Additionally, it won the Cable Ace Award for Best Picture of the year. He also produced the critically acclaimed Apollo 11 and The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, which was nominated for 3 Cable Ace awards, including Best Picture.

He will be joined by creative exec GERARD BOCCACCIO, who has been involved with several of the most noteworthy and celebrated series in recent television history. Early in his career, while serving as VP of Creative Affairs, Gerard worked closely with legendary Producer Aaron Spelling on shows including Melrose Place and Models. Inc, and was directly responsible for creating and fostering Spelling’s first foray into daytime television with the NBC series, Sunset Beach. After a 6-year stint running Sid Sheinberg’s Universal-based film company, he became the Senior Vice President, Entertainment at the FX Network in 2001, and was a part of the first group of executives brought on board to launch a slate of highly original programming that would eventually include the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning shows The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and Rescue Me, among others. He later became President of Television at Silver Pictures, overseeing the TV arm of Joel Silver’s prolific Warner Bros-based Film Company and was responsible for developing and Executive Producing the People’s Choice Award-winning drama Moonlight for CBS. Gerard is now President and Partner of Level 1 Television, a division of the privately owned, financed, and operated Level 1 Entertainment; a company that co-finances all forms of content for films, television and the internet.

FRANKLIN LEONARD, STUDIO EXECUTIVE, CREATOR OF THE BLACK LIST

FRANKLIN LEONARD began his tenure as the director of development and production at Universal Pictures in August 2008 after running Los Angeles-based development for Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella's Mirage Enterprises during the final year of its existence. He has done similar work at Leonardo DiCaprio's Warner Brothers-based shingle Appian Way and former studio head John Goldwyn's company at Paramount. Before Los Angeles and all things film related, Franklin was - at different times -a business analyst at McKinsey & Co., a weekly columnist for the Trinidad Guardian in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, and the communications director for John Cranley's campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio's first district. He is also the creator of The Black List, a yearly publication highlighting as-of-yet unproduced screenplays and their authors that has been profiled in over a dozen industry publications including Entertainment Weekly, Variety, and the New York and Los Angeles Times.

Why do we have someone who is virtually unknown outside of Hollywood, and who is associated with “The Black List” – the former version of which was such an infamous blot on American history – listed as a Guest of Honor at the Screenwriting Expo? Because Franklin Leonard is possibly the good, unnoticed writer’s best friend in town, and has become one of Hollywood’s hidden major power brokers. That is not solely because he holds an important power position at Universal. It is also because of what his creation, The (new, great) Black List, is and does. There is virtually no other vehicle – no high-powered agency, no screenplay contest, or even pitching to the right producer – that draws positive attention to a script to the degree that being on The Black List does. For those who do not know, here is what it is: a list of scripts that he publishes every December. It started in late 2005, when he asked other production executives for their favorite scripts which had not been sold. "The Black List is not a 'best of' list. It is, at best, a 'most liked' list," he wrote on the 2006 cover sheet for the list. Movies including “Juno,” (2007), “Things We Lost In The Fire” (2007), “Lars And The Real Girl (2007), “Rendition” (2007), “The Brigands of Rattleborge” (scheduled for 2010 release), “Lions for Lambs” (2007), “In Bruges (2008) and and “State of Play” (2010) have all been released or are scheduled for release after making the Black List. "I think that writers are very much undervalued in Hollywood," Leonard told the Los Angeles Times. "So I love the idea that if assistants, junior development executives, senior executives at a studio or a studio president take a look at this list and see that 18 people have recommended a script, maybe they'll take the time to read it. If you can heighten the buzz around these writers, maybe they'll start to be less undervalued. That's the hope anyway. But that was never the initial intention; it was really just about finding more good stuff for me to read.

GU EST OF HONOR TO BE NAMED Watch this space.

DAVID SHORE, CREATOR OF 'HOUSE'

DAVID SHORE: Since his first staff writing position on cult favorite “Due South,” David Shore has ascended the ladder on many of television’s most respected shows. He wrote episodes of “NYPD Blue” and “EZ Streets,” served as head writer and supervising producer on “Traders,” which he developed for Canadian television, and was part of the writing team of the Emmy Award-winning first season of “The Practice.” Shore was twice nominated for an Emmy as a producer on “Law & Order.” He executive-produced “Family Law” and “Hack” before creating HOUSE. Shore won a Humanitas Prize and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his HOUSE episode “Three Stories.” Shore is originally from London, Ontario, Canada, and lives in Los Angeles .

ALEX KURTZMAN AND ROBERTO ORCI

ALEX KURTZMAN AND ROBERTO ORCI wrote and executive-produced the latest Star Trek movie directed by JJ Abrams in May this year. They following that up in June with the sequel they and Ehren Kruger wrote to their 2007 Transformers, starring Shia LeBoeuf and Megan Fox. Kurtzman and Orci also created the new Fox Network drama Fringe with Abrams, which recently began its second season. In addition, Kurtzman and Orci are producing a continually growing slate of movies through their Kurtzman/Orci shingle at Dreamworks. Their first picture was D.J. Caruso's Eagle Eye in 2008. Their most recent producing project, The Proposal, opened on June 19 from Touchstone. They are producing Cowboys and Aliens (which they will also write, along with Damon Lindelof); Nightlife; Deep Sea Cowboys; and Atlantis Rising. They are also writing and producing 28th Amendment for Warner Bros. They began their work together as innovative storytellers in a Los Angeles-area high school, inspired by Spielbergian action-adventure films that emphasize story. They wrote for the TV series Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess, where they quickly became head writers at the age of 23. In 2003, Kurtzman and Orci were approached to write for J.J. Abrams’ wildly popular television spy thriller Alias, and eventually ascended to be executive producers of the show. In 2006, the duo re-teamed with Abrams to write the third installment of Mission: Impossible, starring Tom Cruise as super-agent Ethan Hunt. Kurtzman and Orci both live with their families in Los Angeles.