Writers Guild Announces 1997 Film and Television Writers Forum

Posted on May 29, 1997

The 1997 Film and Television Writers Forum will take place at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel from Friday, May 30 through Sunday, June 1, it was announced Tuesday by John Furia Jr., president of the Writers Guild Foundation.

Unprecedented in its scope, provocative and entertaining in design, Words Into Pictures will provide a public forum for uncensored, stimulating dialogue with a focus on the perspective of writers.

Forum Chair Tom Schulman said, "This unique conference offers the public and entertainment industry the opportunity to meet, in an intimate setting, some of our most influential artists, executives and decision makers for three days of an uninhibited exchange of ideas."

The forum will include a comprehensive series of panel discussions, presentations, interviews, craft seminars and audience participation events covering such wide-ranging topics as "Twister Impossible -- The Movie As E-Ticket Ride," "Whose Picture Is It Anyway? The Possessory Credit," "Creative Freedom vs. Social Responsibility," "Who Ripped Out the TV Movie's Heart and Stomped On It?," "Notes, Notes, Notes ... The Development Process: Is There a Better Way?" and "Breaking and Entering: Top Writers Tell How They Did It," among others.

A partial list of forum panelists includes James L. Brooks, Cameron Crowe, Frank Darabont, Lindsay Doran, Carrie Fisher, William Goldman, Amy Heckerling, Callie Khouri, David Koepp, Elmore Leonard, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Wallace Shawn, Ron Shelton, Oliver Stone, Jamie Tarses, Robert Towne, Robert Townsend, Tracy Ullman, James Woods, Saul Zaentz, Kenneth Ziffren and Laura Ziskin.

All registered participants will have access to the Writers Trade Fair and Beachcomber Cafe and, in addition, are invited to submit a one-page synopsis of an available project for view throughout the forum. Ticket information will be announced shortly. In the meantime, call the forum hotline at 213/782-4692 or e-mail wgfound@mail.directnet.com for more information.

The Writers Guild Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of excellence in writing and the appreciation of the writer's role in the creative process. The Forum is presented with cooperation and support of the Writers Guild of America, West.