Jeff Vintar is an American screenwriter. He is best-known for his screenplay, Hardwired, which became the basis for I, Robot. He attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he completed his thesis of short stories, including The Big Oops, Opportunity Community Goes to the Zoo, and The Johnny Jumps. He published a series of bizarre satirical cartoons in several issues of Random House's The Quarterly, before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood.

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  • Jeff Vintar is an American screenwriter. He is best-known for his screenplay, Hardwired, which became the basis for I, Robot. He attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he completed his thesis of short stories, including The Big Oops, Opportunity Community Goes to the Zoo, and The Johnny Jumps. He published a series of bizarre satirical cartoons in several issues of Random House's The Quarterly, before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood. Carving out a living during those early years as a factory worker, cabinet-maker, English teacher, and transit bus driver, Vintar broke into the business when he sold three original screenplays in the span of six months. The first, The Long Hello and Short Goodbye, was made into a German-language film by Warner Bros. in 1999, featuring German actress Katja Riemann. The cutting-edge structure of the story created concern for the producers, who re-edited the neo-noir into a more simple linear film, a move which polarized critics and audiences alike. An English-language version of Vintar's original Long Hello script struggled to reach the screen for many years under Moebius director Gustavo Mosquera and Face/Off director-producer John Woo. The second screenplay, Spaceless, has remained in active development for a decade, first at specialty division Fox 2000, then Fox Animation, and finally at the main live-action division of Twentieth Century Fox. The script is a pet project of Gore Verbinski, who directed The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean. Vintar reacquired the rights to Spaceless in the spring of 2009 and the project has moved to Universal, with Verbinski set to direct. The third spec sale, Hardwired, survived development hell at Walt Disney Pictures under director Bryan Singer, only to be picked up by Twentieth Century Fox for Alex Proyas. The resulting film, eventually re-named by the studio as I, Robot after the Isaac Asimov short story collection, made $350 million worldwide and boosted the career of star Will Smith. Vintar has carved out a niche for himself writing edgy adaptations of sci-fi literary classics, including Frederik Pohl's Gateway, Asimov's Foundation, Cordwainer Smith's Scanners Live in Vain, and Greg Bear's Blood Music, all of which remain in active development. Other Vintar screenplays include early drafts of the comic book properties, Iron Man and Y - the Last Man, as well as the rewrite of Final Fantasy. His latest project is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set on board the International Space Station, based on the Boom! Studios comic book Station, for producer Laurence Mark and CBS Films. Vintar regularly blogs on several internet sites in which he supports young writers, instructing them to "Keep the faith and keep on writing!"
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  • Jeff Vintar is an American screenwriter. He is best-known for his screenplay, Hardwired, which became the basis for I, Robot. He attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he completed his thesis of short stories, including The Big Oops, Opportunity Community Goes to the Zoo, and The Johnny Jumps. He published a series of bizarre satirical cartoons in several issues of Random House's The Quarterly, before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood.
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  • Jeff Vintar
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