Script to Screen: Back to the Future

Bob Gale is a screenwriter, producer, and film director. Creative from a young age, Gale created his own comic book as a teen and co-created film parodies with his brother before going on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema from the University of Southern California. Gale and his fellow classmate, Robert Zemeckis, co-wrote several films together including 1941(1979), I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), Used Cars (1980), and Back to the Future. The latter earned the writing duo an Oscar nomination, and Gale continued on to write and co-produce the two sequels. He also wrote the novelization of his previous WWII comedy, 1941. Gale made his feature-film director debut in 2002 with the film Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road. In 2014, he announced a stage musical adaptation of Back to the Future was underway, which he is co-writing.

Christopher Llyod began his career apprenticing at summer theaters in Mount Kisco, New York, and Hyannis, Massachusetts shortly before taking acting classes in New York City at the age of nineteen. His first movie role was as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), but he is well-known for his role as “Reverend” Jim Ignatowski, the ex-hippie cabbie on the TV sitcom Taxi (1978), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. His role as the the eccentric inventor Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy of science-fiction films earned him a nomination for a Saturn Award. Other notable portrayals include Klingon Commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Professor Plum in the mystery film Clue (1985), villian Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), and as Uncle Fester in the movie adaptations of The Addams Family (1991).

Matthew Ryan is Director of the Pollock Theater where he pioneered the Pollock Theater Internship, which professionalizes students by developing production skills with hands-on experience. Ryan created and hosts the Script to Screen series, which has welcomed prestigious guests like Oscar® winning screenwriter John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave and Oscar® winning screenwriter Alan Ball for American Beauty.

Matthew Ryan began his career as a video librarian at the legendary Kaufman Astoria Studios. He became Associate Producer for Fox Movietone Newsreels putting together video packages for news stories. As Events Manager at New York University’s Cantor Film Center, he produced a series of film programs that included evenings with Martin Scorsese, Tim Robbins and Alec Baldwin. In 2008, he received an MFA in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University. His primary writing focus is science fiction and comedy.