archive | 1997-1998 | 1998 | 1998-1999
 
Tuesday, 9/21
a conversation with Hampton Fancher
  Hampton Fancher is writer and executive producer of Blade Runner, writer and director of the soon-to-be-released film The Minus Man, starring Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, and Sheryl Crow. RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu for pizza dinner preceding Fancher's talk.

Monday, 10/18
a visit by Hollywood film producer Robert Dinozzi
  Mr. Dinozzi will discuss screenwriting, producing, and the industry in general. [Mr. DiNozzi is visiting Penn to videotape the October 20 Penn Humanities Forum Lief Lecture by Dr. Steven Pinker, which is open to the public. For details, see http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/pinker.html ]

Tuesday, 11/16
6:00 PM: Talking Film and the Alumni Writers Series present Alec Sokolow
  Sokolow is a Penn alumnus, and he has written the scripts for Toy Story, which received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and the film Goodbye Lover which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and released last year. He has written or co-written about twenty feature length screenplays, including an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats and a sequel to The Mask.

Tuesday, 11/30
7:30 PM: a screening of senior Jordan Rockwell's new film, September Song

Tuesday, 1/25
7:00 PM: The Craft of Screenwriting: a Alumni-Student Workshop,
featuring alumni screenwriters Stuart Gibbs and David Stern.
Hosted by the Talking Film Series, Student Performing Arts, and the Kelly Writers House.
  Stuart Gibbs has written "Disaster Area" for Fox, "Witchhunt" for MGM, "See Spot Run" for Warner Brothers, and "Mickey's Three Musketeers" for Disney animation. Two of his films, "The Return of the World's Most Rotten Lover" and "Repli-Kate" are being financed independently by international investors, and he is at work on "The Random Games" for New Line Cinema. Despite all this, the only big budget feature work he's done that has made it to the screen was the lines he wrote for Bartok, the animated bat in Fox's "Anastasia." (They were pretty funny lines, though.)

David Stern began his career working in the New York theater for Director/Lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. During his tenure with Maltby, he worked on the Broadway productions of "Miss Saigon", "Nick & Nora", and "Big" as well as a myriad of other smaller projects. Simultaneously, he began his theater writing career. He wrote the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue "Some Enchanted Evening" (Tour), the plays "Dreams & Stuff" (John Houseman Theater) and "Finders of Lost Luggage", the radio program "The 1990's Radio Hour and a Half" (National Public Radio), and the musical "Snapshots" (Westport Country Playhouse, Virginia Stage). David took a small detour into directing with the New York revival of "Starting Here, Starting Now" (nominated for a MAC Award) and a stint with The American Project at Circle in the Square. After his six years in New York, David migrated west to Los Angeles. There he wrote "Geppetto" for The Wonderful World of Disney (starring Drew Carey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus), "The Muppets Return", and "Wish" (for director Ivan Reitman). He is currently writing "Gettysburgville" for Disney and director Jon Turtletaub. All that being said, David's proudest accomplishment is writing the December 1997 Harper's Magazine cryptic crossword puzzle with his co-conspirator, Stephen Schwartz.