Thomas H. Schulman (born October 20, 1951) is an American screenwriter best known for his semi-autobiographical screenplay Dead Poets Society, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989.[1][2][3][4]
Tom Schulman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas H. Schulman October 20, 1951 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film director |
Biography
editFollowing high school at Montgomery Bell Academy, Schulman earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in philosophy, graduating in 1972 from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Schulman pursued his interest in film at the University of Southern California's Graduate School of Cinema.[5]
Dead Poets Society won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Peter Weir).[6] The character of John Keating was inspired by one of Schulman's teachers at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.[7]
Prior to Dead Poets Society, Schulman had already written several telemovies. However, Dead Poets Society was his first movie script to reach the screen. He was hired to rewrite the hit movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids shortly before the film was due to begin shooting; Schulman had just seven days to turn it from a drama into a comedy.[8]
Other scripts written or co-written by Schulman include comedies Welcome to Mooseport, What About Bob?, Second Sight (which Schulman sold the same day as Dead Poets Society) and Holy Man, which stars Eddie Murphy. The Sean Connery drama Medicine Man, originally entitled The Stand,[6] proved a critical failure. Schulman executive produced the movie Indecent Proposal.
Schulman's directorial debut was the 1997 black comedy 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, which stars Joe Pesci as a gangster attempting to transport a bag of severed heads across the United States. In 2022, Schulman returned to directing with Double Down South, a seedy sports drama set in Mississippi's underground keno pool scene (a world Schulman encountered as a teenager).
In 2009, Schulman was elected vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West.[9] He was a member of the WGA negotiating committee during the extended writers' strike of 2023.[10]
Filmography
edit| Year | Film | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Joy Ride: An Auto Theft | Written by, assistant director | Short film, co-wrote with Bill Crain |
| 1986 | The Gladiator | Story by, executive producer | Co-wrote story with Jeffrey Walker and William Bleich |
| 1988 | A Father's Revenge | Story by | Co-wrote story with Mel Frohman |
| 1989 | Dead Poets Society | Written by | |
| Honey, I Shrunk the Kids | Screenplay by | Co-wrote screenplay with Ed Naha | |
| Second Sight | Written by | Co-wrote with Patricia Resnick | |
| 1991 | What About Bob? | Screenplay by | |
| 1992 | Medicine Man | Screenplay by, story by | Co-wrote screenplay with Sally Robinson |
| 1993 | Indecent Proposal | Executive producer | |
| 1997 | 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag | Director, written by | |
| 1998 | Holy Man | Written by | |
| 1999 | Genius | Executive producer | |
| 2000 | Me, Myself & Irene | Executive producer | |
| 2004 | Welcome to Mooseport | Screenplay by, producer | |
| 2019 | My Dad, Stephanie | Consulting producer | |
| 2022 | Double Down South | Director, Written by, Producer |
References
edit- ^ "Online Collections | Montgomery Bell Academy".
- ^ "Montgomery Bell Academy - A Premier Independent School in Nashville, TN ~ MBA Speaker Series Videos".
- ^ "15 Facts About Dead Poets Society". June 2019.
- ^ "Dead Poets Society - Reviews".
- ^ "Tom Schulman". Humanitas.
- ^ a b J. Easton, Nina (August 10, 1990). "Cinergi OKs $2.5 Million for Script to 'The Stand'". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Dewis, GM (2011). Dead Poets Society. Sydney: Insight Publications. p. 6. ISBN 9781921411052.
- ^ McCurrie, Tom (March 15, 2004). "Dead Poets Society's Tom Schulman on the Art of Surviving Hollywood". Writersupercenter.com. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ Writers Guild of America, September 18, 2009, Writers Guild of America, West Announces Final Results of 2009 Officers and Board of Directors Election Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Meet the Negotiating Committee: Tom Schulman". www.wgacontract2023.org. Retrieved February 28, 2024.