Caroline Thompson

Last updated

Caroline Thompson
Born (1956-04-23) April 23, 1956 (age 68)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Alma mater Radcliffe College
Amherst College
Occupations
  • Novelist
  • Screenwriter
  • Director
  • Producer
Spouses

Caroline Thompson (born April 23, 1956) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for the Tim Burton-directed films Edward Scissorhands and Corpse Bride and the Burton-produced The Nightmare Before Christmas . She co-wrote the story for Edward Scissorhands and co-adapted a new stage version of the film with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne. Thompson also adapted the screenplay for the film version of Wicked Lovely , a bestselling fantasy series, in 2011, but the production was put into turnaround. She directed Black Beauty (1994); Buddy (1997), which she also wrote; and the television film Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), also as producer and co-writer.

Contents

Personal life

Thompson was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bettie Marshall (née Warner), a teacher, and Thomas Carlton Thompson, Jr., a lawyer. [1] She received her early education in Washington. She later moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Radcliffe College, and eventually graduated from Amherst College in 1978 with a degree in English and classic literature. [2] Her first marriage was to Henry Bromell, a fellow novelist and screenwriter. She later married Steve Nicolaides, a film and TV producer. [3] [4]

Career

Thompson moved to Los Angeles, supporting herself as a freelance book reviewer and writer. In 1983, she published a novel First Born which director Penelope Spheeris chose to adapt into a film, and from whom she started learning scriptwriting while writing the drafts of the film's screenplay. [5] Though the movie was never made, the project inspired her to pursue a career as a screenwriter. [6] Tim Burton was impressed with the novel, which was "about a monster fetus". He felt First Born had the same psychological elements he wanted to showcase in Edward Scissorhands , and hired her to write its screenplay as a spec script. [7]

Her other works include Snow White: The Fairest of Them All , The Secret Garden , Buddy , Black Beauty, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and The Addams Family . Though she is best known for having written the screenplays for Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, she has had more than a dozen movies made, including City of Ember and The Addams Family.

From the above, she directed Black Beauty (1994) as her directorial debut, [8] followed by Snow White in 2001 for TV [9] and Buddy. She was the producer for Snow White and the associate producer for The Secret Garden and Edward Scissorhands.

Her screenplay for Wicked Lovely , intended to be directed by Mary Harron, was in turnaround in 2011. [10]

Thompson was the first woman to be presented with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2011 Austin Film Festival. [11]

Filmography

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducer
1990 Edward Scissorhands NoYesAssociate
1991 The Addams Family NoYesNo
1993 Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey NoYesNo
The Secret Garden NoYesAssociate
The Nightmare Before Christmas NoYesNo
1994 Black Beauty YesYesNo
1997 Buddy YesYesNo
2001 Snow White: The Fairest of Them All YesYesYes
2005 Corpse Bride NoYesNo
2008 City of Ember NoYesNo
2018 Welcome to Marwen NoYesNo

As herself

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ "Caroline Thompson Biography (1956-)".
  2. ↑ Biography The New York Times .
  3. ↑ "Steve Nicolaides | Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles" . Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  4. ↑ Odam, Matthew. "Thompson to bring her quirky side to AFF". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Interview". Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  6. ↑ Biography Archived September 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Yahoo! Movies.
  7. ↑ Salisbury, Burton, p.84–88
  8. ↑ Black Beauty Review Entertainment Weekly .
  9. ↑ on making "Snow White: The Fairest of Them All"
  10. ↑ Stuart Kemp (Hollywood Reporter), "Screen Talk: No fairytale ending in sight", The Independent (UK), September 2, 2011
  11. ↑ Savlov, Marc (October 21, 2011). "A Slice of Weird and Wonderful". www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
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