His background as a history teacher helped Jeremy Pikser hook up with writer-director-star Warren Beatty in the early 1980s when the latter was developing his epic biopic of journalist John Reed. He assisted Beatty in locating many of the "witnesses" who appeared on-screen in the film offering testaments and reminiscences of Reed, Louise Bryant and the early Communist Party. "Reds" proved a fruitful ground for Pikser: he later collaborated on a book with screenwriter Trevor Griffiths (1987's "Real Dreams and Revolution in Cleveland") and contributed to the script of the pallid Diane Keaton