- published: 16 May 2012
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Zak Penn (born 1968) is an American screenwriter and director. Penn wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness, The Grand, and co-wrote the script for X-Men: The Last Stand. With Michael Karnow, Penn is the co-creator of Alphas.
Penn graduated from Wesleyan University in 1990. His screenplay for PCU was based on his experiences at the Eclectic Society house. He is the son of New York businessman and lawyer Arthur Penn, who led the acquisition of the Capital Markets Assurance Corporation from Citicorp.
The screenplay for Last Action Hero, for which he received a Story By credit with Adam Leff, was nominated for a 1993 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay; however, it lost to the Indecent Proposal script. Other films that he has been involved in writing include The Avengers, Inspector Gadget, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Elektra. Penn wrote early drafts of both Hulk and The Incredible Hulk.
Penn is also a jury member for the digital studio Filmaka, a platform for undiscovered filmmakers to show their work to industry professionals.
Robert McKee, born 1941, is a creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Many of Hollywood's active screenwriters claim him as an inspiration.[citation needed]
Rather than simply handling "mechanical" aspects of fiction technique such as plot or dialogue taken individually, McKee examines the narrative structure of a work and what makes the story compelling or not. This could work equally as well as an analysis of any other genre or form of narrative, whether in screenplay or any other form, and could also encompass nonfiction works as long as they attempt to "tell a story".
Robert McKee is among the most widely known screenwriting lecturers. McKee's former students include 36 Academy Award winners, 164 Emmy Award winners, 19 WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award winners and 16 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award winners (all participated in McKee's course before or after winning their award; not all were awarded for writing). He was profiled by Bob Simon of 60 Minutes for CBS News, and CNN recently did a profile and review of McKee and the Story Seminar. The notable writers and actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Paul Haggis, Akiva Goldsman, William Goldman, Joan Rivers, Rob Row, David Bowie, Kirk Douglas, John Cleese, Steve Pressfield, among many others have taken his seminar.