Raised in Fort Worth, TX

Produced "Summer Run", the first of several low-budget independent productions

Drove from Texas to San Francisco with a filmmaker friend on the chance of meeting Francis Ford Coppola

Met with Coppola who advised him to keep making movies

Began writing in earnest in the late 1970s

Produced "Assault on Paradise/Maniac/Ransom", a crime thriller starring Oliver Reed

Wrote his first "Dracula" adaptation

First produced screenplay, "Gimme an 'F'", a comedy about a spastic cheerleading squad

First produced screenplay for a major motion picture, Steven Spielberg's "Hook" (also executive produced with Dodi Fayed)

Wrote and co-produced Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula"

Co-scripted "Contact", adapted from the Carl Sagan novel