- Jeff Vintar attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he published a series of cartoons in Random House's The Quarterly. Carving out a living as a factory worker, English teacher and transit bus driver, Vintar broke into the film business when he sold three original spec scripts in the span of six months.
The first screenplay, The Long Hello and Short Good-bye, was made into a German-language film by Warner Bros. in 1999, starring Nicolette Krebitz and Katja Riemann. The complex structure of the story worried Studio Hamburg, who re-edited the modern noir just prior to its premiere into a more simple linear film, a move which polarized critics. The film received a positive review in Variety that predicted it would play in broad-minded festivals around the world "where genre fans should lap it up." An English-language version of Vintar's original Long Hello script struggled to reach the screen for years under Face/Off director-producer John Woo and Moebius director Gustavo Mosquera R., with even a young Guillermo del Toro wanting to direct. The actors and producers of the German film still hope for a Rainer Kaufmann director's cut to restore the original picture.
The second screenplay, a twist-filled sci-fi love story called Spaceless, has been in active development for almost 30 years, first at specialty division Fox 2000, then Fox Animation, eventually moving to the main live-action division of Twentieth Century Fox. This infamous development hell has made Spaceless well-known within the industry, with notable professionals calling it their favorite unproduced screenplay, and online collectors always on the lookout for a copy of the script. It is a long-time favorite of Gore Verbinski, who directed The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango. Vintar reacquired the rights to Spaceless through the little-known WGA contract reacquisition clause, and the project moved to Universal with Verbinski producing through his Blind Wink Productions. True Detective director Cary Fukunaga was hired to helm, saying he'd never read an original script that "operated on so many levels," but after turning in a troubled rewrite that the studio agreed differed too greatly from the original, he left the production. Verbinski took over again as director with Vintar back on board as writer, and Jerry Bruckheimer producing for Paramount Pictures. Studio head Wyck Godfrey called it "the greatest screenplay never made" and the film was finally in pre-production -- when the COVID pandemic struck -- leading to the sudden end of that Paramount regime and stalling the movie again.
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, renamed by the studio I, Robot after the Isaac Asimov short story collection, starred Will Smith and made $350 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing non-sequel of the summer, and the tenth highest-grossing film of 2004. The original Hardwired screenplay was a cerebral murder mystery that read like a stage play, and representatives of the Asimov estate considered it "more Asimov than Asimov." Vintar transformed the script into a big-budget studio film, also moving the story into the greater I, Robot universe. When Will Smith signed on to star, studio-mandated changes made the project more of a summer action blockbuster, a move that angered Asimov purists, although many critics considered the final product to have brains as well as brawn. The years have been kind to I, Robot which remains a popular audience favorite, and has inspired a generation of A.I. researchers, with retrospective articles calling for the film's reevaluation, saying it is more relevant than ever, far more faithful to Asimov's entire body of work than generally recognized, and hoping for a sequel.
Other notable Vintar screenplays include an early 20th Century Fox draft of Iron Man, co-written with Stan Lee, which has been called "perhaps the best superhero screenplay of the era"; a remake of Orson Welles' classic The Lady from Shanghai for Columbia Pictures, much-loved by actor Brendan Fraser, who campaigned hard for the film; and the three-week rewrite of Final Fantasy the Spirits Within that landed the production its high-profile voice cast including Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Donald Sutherland and James Woods. Recently Vintar scripted a feature film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's celebrated mind-bending novel, Ubik, which remains a passion project for him and all involved.
Vintar's first produced television series, The Hot Zone starring Julianna Margulies, Liam Cunningham, Noah Emmerich, Topher Grace and Robert Sean Leonard became NatGeo's most-watched scripted series, was certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and warned of a coming catastrophe six months before the worldwide pandemic hit. Its 2021 follow-up, The Hot Zone: Anthrax, starred Daniel Dae Kim and Tony Goldwyn.
Vintar's current feature film projects include an adaptation of Greg Bear's classic short story and novel Blood Music, a sci-fi horror film to be directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) and produced by Vince Gerardis (Game of Thrones). In his spare hours, just for fun, Vintar creates comic strips using his vintage action figure collection, which can be found on Facebook at his Super Mega Fun Time Vintage Action Figures Rock You Page.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Vintar's Official Historian, Jimmy "Deep Dish" Polaski
- Spaceless has become almost legendary in insider circles due to its reputation and long tortuous twenty-three year struggle through Hollywood's "development hell." It is often referred to on-line as one of the Holy Grail scripts most sought after by screenplay collectors.
- When approached to co-write an adaptation of Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon for SyFy, Vintar immediately asked, "Are you sure you guys want to do this? It's a fantasy." Reassured that SyFy channel intended to branch out beyond science-fiction, he happily took the job. Two years later, after adapting Eyes of the Dragon first as a two-night mini-series, then a TV pilot, then back to a mini-series again, there was a regime change at SyFy. The new executive team looked at the current slate and immediately asked: "Why are we doing this? It's a fantasy!" And that was the end of Eyes of the Dragon.
- Ten years before Iron Man with Robert Downey, Jr. was released, Vintar wrote an early draft called The Iron Man for 20th Century Fox. He only agreed to take the job after he asked Stan Lee to co-write the screenplay or story with him, and Stan agreed. The villain was a giant-headed M.O.D.O.K. This was before the X-Men and Spider-Man films proved super-heroes are box office gold, and the project never stood a chance, with studio meddling insisting that Tony Stark not be a heartless weapons manufacturer. Vintar and Lee were forced to come up with an entirely new origin story. Studio head Tom Rothman complimented the script, saying he did not understand the character until he read the Vintar/Lee draft, but insisting that the market would never support all these super-hero movies, especially not a fringe title like Iron Man. The Iron Man by Jeff Vintar and Stan Lee has made several reader's lists, including the one at Screenwriter's Utopia, of Best Unproduced Screenplays.
- A graduate of the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop
- When Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta was asked on Twitter to name a screenplay that made him say, "Damn, this is a great screenplay!" he responded: "Hardwired by Jeff Vintar. Later re-written heavily and turned into I, Robot".
- Step one is fear. Step two is more fear. Step three is leaving fear behind and moving straight on into terror! --Vintar's Guide to Success
- I took a pill to help me remember things and I think it's working. I took a pill to help me remember things and I think it's working.
- You can't rush genius. And sometimes mediocrity takes a while, too!
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