It took a while for Jim Burnstein to get through the long list of U-M alumni whose scripts have been made into blockbuster movies, not to mention his explanation about the impact of graduates like Bob Shaye, founder of New Line Cinema, one of the industry’s leading independent studios.
Burnstein delivered a presentation, “Wolverines in Hollywood,” in Lansing to draw attention to the success of U-M alumni in the film industry. In his speech, Burnstein, the head of the University’s scriptwriting program in the Department of Screen Arts & Cultures, also called for Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the state legislature to find bipartisan support for more attractive tax incentives to lure film production companies to Michigan.
A senate committee is considering a hike from the current 12-20 percent rebate to as high as 40 percent. If that increase is approved, Michigan likely is to get more business from the estimated $60-billion-a-year film industry, says Burnstein, who is a member of the Michigan Film Advisory Commission.
“The new reality of Hollywood is that they’re looking for the most economical places to do business,” he says. “We need to come up with a package of incentives for film companies. It’s not just tax incentives, but a way to create jobs.”
By Burnstein’s estimate, the U-M connection to Hollywood is growing stronger in numbers and influence as the University’s screenwriting program continues to gain international prominence since it began in the mid 1990s. The program, he says, rates among the top in the country, based on the increasing number of graduates whose scripts have been sold to film companies, extensive archival resources, access to an A-list of Hollywood screenwriters and range of course offerings.
A 1972 U-M graduate, Burnstein is a long-established Hollywood writer whose credits include 1995’s release “Renaissance Man,” directed by Penny Marshall; “D3: The Mighty Ducks”; and last year’s “Ruffian,” starring Sam Shepard.
The screenwriting program, he says, is a product of U-M’s dramatic writing tradition that runs from legendary playwright Arthur Miller to Lawrence Kasdan, one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed screenwriters, whose work includes blockbusters “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Body Heat” and “The Big Chill.”
The tradition of alumni writing popular films began in 1939 with Dudley Nichols’ “Stagecoach.” Since then, U-M graduates’ characters and plots have earned an indelible place in American film, including Valentine Davies’ “Miracle on 34th Street,” Miller’s “The Misfits,” John Briley’s “Ghandi,” and David Newman’s “Superman I, II and III,” “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Still of the Night.”
Other alumni whose scripts have been made into films include Kurt Luedtke (“Absence of Malice,” “Out of Africa”), Richard Friedenberg (“A River Runs Through It”), Adam Herz (“American Pie”), and Roger Lowenstein (TV writer for “L.A. Law”).
After working on “Renaissance Man” in 1995, Burnstein taught a screenwriting class at U-M, and soon realized the overwhelming demand for such courses. Students waited in long lines to sign up. At the time, class size couldn’t accommodate the number of interested students.
In 1998, with the help of a $1 million grant from Shaye’s Four Friends Foundation, an extensive library of scripts and DVDs, a guest artist series and the country’s first rewrite course offered at a university became the core attractions of the screenwriting program.
Notable guests include Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, John Sayles, Paul Schrader and Peter Benedek, a U-M graduate and founder of United Talent Agency. The guest artists teach a master class to a select group of students.
