It took 12 years for Robin Swicord to see her notion of doing a new screen version of "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott to reach fruition, but the 1994 feature starring Winona Ryder was a box office success. Swicord and studio executive Amy Pascal, who had shepherded the project, were vindicated. It also helped establish the screenwriter's career and provided her with the ability to laugh about, or at least get anecdotal mileage on the numerous executives who turned down her proposal of the remake, including the ones who asked if she could turn the characters into boys.

Born in South