alone, and their cumulative worldwide gross exceeds a staggering $6.4 billion. The films he penned up until now grossed over $2.5 billion in the U.S. But he’s just as inspiring when he writes and directs Ricky Gervais and Téa Leoni in his precious and little romantic fantasy-comedy masterpiece “Ghost Town” (2008), making Mr. Those were all scripted, co-scripted, and/or adapted by Mr. Since then he took his audience on a remarkable journey, from the thrills in “Jurassic Park” (1993), to the breathtaking adventures of the famed archaeologist in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008), and from Brian De Palma’s solid action yarn “Mission: Impossible” (1996), to David Fincher’s highly suspenseful “Panic Room” (2002). He first got noticed at age twenty-seven with his breakthrough film “Death Becomes Her” (1992) starring Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis. By the time he was thirty, he was said to earn at least a million dollars a script. He was born and raised in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, and made his first feature film, “Apartment Zero” (1988), with Martin Donovan after attending film school at UCLA. But don’t kid yourself: no matter how impressive that is, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg, as his entire body of work so far is all the more stunning, surprising, and simply splendid. Meanwhile, he also wrote three scripts for Ron Howard and three for Brian De Palma. 1963) is his name over the years, he became a long-time collaborator of Steven Spielberg, writing four screenplays for him. Chances are you never heard of him, though, but yet, here he is. In case you might ask yourself who is the most successful Hollywood screenwriter of all time, considering the box office receipts of the films he worked on, don’t look any further.

David koepp books