Jeff Vintar
Jeff Vintar (Oak Park, Illinois) is an American screenwriter. He is best known for his original screenplay, Hardwired, which became the basis for I, Robot. He attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop where he completed his thesis of short stories, including The Big Oops, Opportunity Community Goes to the Zoo, and The Johnny Jumps. He published a series of bizarre cartoons in several issues of Random House's The Quarterly before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood.
Carving out a living during those early years as a factory worker, cabinet-maker, English teacher, and transit bus driver, Vintar broke into the business when he sold three original screenplays in the span of five months. The first, "The Long Hello and Short Goodbye," was made into a German-language film by Warner Bros. in 1999, starring Nicolette Krebitz and Katja Riemann. The cutting-edge structure of the story created concern for the producers, who re-edited the neo-noir into a more simple linear film, a move which polarized critics and audiences alike. An English-language version of Vintar's original Long Hello script struggled to reach the screen for many years under "Moebius" director Gustavo Mosquera and "Face/Off" director-producer John Woo. It is currently in development at Circle of Confusion.
The second screenplay, Spaceless, has remained in active development for a decade, first at specialty division Fox 2000, then Fox Animation, and finally at the main live-action division of Twentieth Century Fox. The script is a long-time favorite of Gore Verbinski, who directed The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean. Vintar reacquired the rights to Spaceless through the little-known WGA contract "reacquisition" clause in the spring of 2009, and the project has moved to Universal with Verbinski producing through his Blind Wink Productions. "Jane Eyre" director Cary Fukunaga is set to direct as his next film.
The third spec sale, Hardwired, survived development hell at Walt Disney Pictures under director Bryan Singer, only to be picked up by Twentieth Century Fox for Alex Proyas. The resulting film, eventually re-named by the studio I, Robot after the Isaac Asimov short story collection, made $350 million worldwide and boosted the career of star Will Smith after a series of disappointing releases, proving that he could carry a big-budget film on his own, without a big-name co-star. The original "Hardwired" screenplay was a cerebral murder mystery that read like a stage play, and representatives of the Asimov estate considered the script "more Asimov than Asimov." Vintar spent several years transforming the script into a big-budget studio film, also moving the story into the "I, Robot" universe. When Will Smith signed on to star, studio-mandated changes made the film more of a traditional summer blockbuster, a move that angered Asimov purists, although many critics and noted sci-fi authors such as Orson Scott Card considered the final product to have brains as well as brawn.
Vintar has carved out a niche for himself writing edgy adaptations of sci-fi literary classics, including Frederik Pohl's Gateway, Asimov's Foundation, Cordwainer Smith's Scanners Live in Vain, and Greg Bear's Blood Music, all of which remain in active development. Other Vintar screenplays include early drafts of the comic book properties Iron Man (co-written with Stan Lee) back in August 1997 and Y - the Last Man, as well as the three-week rewrite of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that landed the film its high-profile voice cast, including Alec Baldwin, James Woods, and Steve Buscemi.
His latest project is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set on board the International Space Station, based on the Boom! Studios comic book Station, for producer Laurence Mark and CBS Films. Ericson Core will direct. Vintar regularly blogs on several internet sites in which he supports young writers, instructing them to "Keep the faith and keep on writing!"
[edit] Family
He is married to Michele McCain, a well-respected teacher of the blind and visually impaired, who has spent the last several years raising their daughter, and working as script and story editor.
[edit] Filmography
- I, Robot (2004)
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (released as "Fainaru Fantaji" in Japan) (2001)
- Long Hello and Short Goodbye (1999)
[edit] External links
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