Rob Tobin

About Me

BIOGRAPHY

Rob Tobin
714-717-4289 / scripts@earthlink.net / home.earthlink.net/~scripts/gym

Introduction

Rob has just finished writing “The Camel Wars,” a feature film script that’s now in pre-production, scheduled to be shot in Brazil, Monaco, Vancouver and the U.S. this April and scheduled to premiere in Sundance ’08. “Camel Wars” has already started creating heat including the signing of a well-known international director, a major African American actor and the strong interest of an A-list, Oscar winning director/producer. It is already being called the "Platoon" of this generation -- by one of the filmmakers who actually made "Platoon."

Rob is now in development on his Telluride-winning script “The Life and Times of Lesbian Alien Opera Singers.” He is also available for writing assignments.

Rob is a screenwriter, script doctor, writing coach, author of “How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies,” (Xlibris Press) and the upcoming “The Screenwriting Formula” (Writers Digest). He has sold both features and sitcoms. He is currently writing the script for a feature to be filmed in April '07 in Brazil by a Florida-based production company. One of his scripts reached the semi-finals of Project Greenlight and was optioned, another won at Telluride, and three others made the quarterfinals of major contests. Rob is a frequent speaker at film festivals and conferences and Creative Screenwriting Magazine recently produced two of Rob’s instructional DVDs.

Rob rewrote “Across the Red Line,” a sports feature for the Cannell Studios; the treatment for “Guard of Honor,” (from the best-selling novel) for Midnight Soldiers; the treatment for “The A-Team” for Cannell; rewrote the western farce “Zen Cowboy” for Triad Films; and the sitcom pilot “Time for Joy” for Riviera Entertainment.

Rob is a former VP of Writers Boot Camp. As a story analyst, he read 5,000+ screenplays for Goldwyn, Spelling, Interscope, TriStar, TriMark and HBO, et al. He helped establish a feature film department for Stephen J. Cannell (“The A-Team,” “Hunter,” “The Commish”).

"Rob Tobin provided invaluable advice, support and encouragement in the writing of a screenplay which led directly to a staff writing position in television. I could not have done it without him."
- Jonathan R. Hiatt, Writer-producer, "City of Angels" and "Philly" (Steven Bochco Productions) and “MEDS.”

“I consulted with Rob on an original screenplay entitled ‘Ballistic,’ and on my novel, ‘Mortal Sin.’ Rob is blessed with a unique combination of skills in matters both literary and cinematic. His creative instincts are first-rate.”
- Paul Levine, Best-selling novelist

“Rob is as fine a script analyst as any I have worked with, and has helped me enormously with script analysis, story notes and script editing.”
- Wayne S. Williams, Producer, “Toy Soldiers.”

"If you want to read a fantastic book about screenwriting, check out, "How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies."
- Howard Meibach, Hollywoodlitsales

"(How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies) is the clearest, most compelling book on screenwriting that I have ever come across."
- Nick Dunning, British Screenwriting Institute

Rob is available for screenwriting, script doctoring and development work as well as lecturing, workshops and individual coaching and consulting. He can be reached at 714-717-4289 or scripts@earthlink.net.

BOOKS:
• “How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies” (Xlibris Press).
• “Screenwriting: The Formula” (Writers Digest Books, due spring ’07).
• “Quebracho.”
• “The Statue Moves.”
• “Living With Angels, Book One of the God Wars Series.”

DVDs:
• “The Seven Essential Elements of a Successful Screenplay” (Creative Screenwriting Magazine, produced 2005)
• “Credible Dialogue” (Creative Screenwriting Magazine, produced 2006)

SCRIPTS:
• “Untitled Iraq War Project” feature drama written for Xoom Entertainment, in pre-production, expected May, '07 principal
• photography, May '08 release.
• “Better Than Human,” feature drama written for Living Earth Productions.
• "Across the Red Line," a comedy/action feature sold to the Cannell Studios.
• "Guard of Honor," treatment sold to Cannell Studios and Midnight Soldiers Prods.
• "Zen Cowboy," a feature comedy sold to Triad Films. In turnaround.
• "Time for Joy," sitcom pilot and one episode sold to Riviera Entertainment.
• "I Love Ludo," half-hour sitcom pilot, written for Bu West Productions.
• “Chasing Steven Spielberg,” winner, 2004 Telluride Indiefest, quarter finalist 2006 Page Screenwriting Competition,
• quarter finalist 2006 American Scriptpimp screenwriting competition.
• “On the DL,” aka “Balls of Different Sizes,” semi-finalist 2004 Project Greenlight, semi-finalist 2006 American
• Screenwriting Competition, optioned by CIV Productions.
• “Back to the Garden,” quarter-finalist 2004 American Screenwriting, 2006 Page screenwriting competition.
• “The Server,” quarter-finalist 2004 American Screenwriting Competition.
• “Truthies,” quarter-finalist, 2005 Screenwriting Expo Screenwriting Competition.
• “God Wars: Living with Angels”
• “Just Imagine”
• “The Statue Moves”
• “Plains, Twains and Horsies”
• “Sweetheart”
• “IPO”
• “O’Reilly and Fitz”
• “Living with Angels,” Episode One of the “God Wars” trilogy.
• TV specs available as writing samples: “Ally McBeal,” “Mad About You” and “Seinfeld.”

FILM AND TELEVISION DEVELOPMENT:
• Interpreter Films & Management/Writers Boot Camp, VP of Development.
• Stephen J. Cannell Studios, Director of Development, Motion Picture Division.
• Work included doing script rewrites and polishes.
• Davis Entertainment, Director of Development
• Freddie Fields Productions, Story Editor
• TriStar, Interscope, Spelling, Turner, HBO, Goldwyn, et al., Free-lance story analyst

EDUCATION
• U. of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
M.A. in Professional Writing
• U. of Victoria, Canada Victoria, B.C.
B.A. in Creative Writing

LOGLINES:
(Drama) Untitled Iraq War Project
In pre-production, principal photography April 07, planned release December '07.

(Dramedy) Balls of Different Sizes (aka “On The Dl”) Semi-finalist Project Greenlight, Semi-Finalist American Screenwriting Competition. A powerful and touchingly comical dramedy in which a dyslexic teenaged boy with a tough-guy attitude joins a girls’ softball team only to discover that the girls are tougher than he is, that it’s okay to ask for help, and that there is crying in softball.

(Dramedy) The Life and Times of Lesbian Alien Opera Singers, Winner, Telluride Indiefest. "Get Shorty" meets "Adaptation." Four studios spend a billion dollars on a script no-one has actually read, and a failed screenwriter is asked by his treacherous ex-lover-turned-producer to save the day. When she screws him over again, he starts the wildest battle Hollywood never wrote, complete with flying Oscars, a star-studded revolt and an answer to the age-old question: "Are those real?" If only Kaufman and McKee had been THIS much fun.

(Action, Political Thriller) The Server Quarter-Finalist, American Screenwriting Competition. A roller-blading Gen-X process server is framed for murder and must use his Xtreme skills to find the real killer – a terrorist with a nuclear bomb and a ticket to Disneyland.

(Fantasy) Back to the Garden Quarter-Finalist, American Screenwriting Competition. An atheistic archeologist discovers the Garden of Eden, revives Adam and then Eve, with whom he falls madly in love, only to discover that the fate of Mankind depends on defeating Satan, reuniting the bickering Adam and Eve, and helping them lead a million naked New Yorkers back to the Garden.

(Political Comedy) Truthies Quarter-Finalist, Screenwriting Expo Screenwriting Competition. A political comedy in which the American President is accidentally infected with a virus that forces him to tell the truth--and he’s contagious!

(Horror, SF, Action) God Wars: Living with Angels. An embittered, paraplegic young woman gains magical powers and uses them to battle evil, but instead awakens a demon she can’t resist, an angel she can’t trust, and a race of invincible three-foot tall aliens she has to defeat to save the universe – and her own soul. She has justice in her hands… and she’s pissed!

(Mixed Live Action, Animation) Just Imagine "Roger Rabbit" meets “The Lord of the Rings” in this magical, action-filled story of a reclusive wood carver who must bring his carvings to life to do battle with wacky but deadly demons intent on conquering the world.

(Drama) The Statue Moves “The Statue Moves” combines elements of “Rocky,” “Flashdance” and “Pumping Iron” as a world-class bodybuilder attempting a comeback alienates his new lover when she discovers him using steroids, the drug that killed her athlete-brother.

(Western Comedy) Plains, Twains And Horsies A broad comedy in which a Japanese-Irish-Apache warrior in the Old West seeks revenge for the murder of his parents by a land baron. The hero must come to terms with his mixed racial heritage as well as crazed postal employees, a horny transvestite gunfighter and a Chinese wise man with chopsticks up his nose. “Blazing Saddles,” but not so serious.

(Drama) Sweetheart A newly divorced man seeks out the high school sweetheart he has not seen in twenty years and ends up finding her, her husband and the mobster who wants to kill them all.

(Coming of age Dramedy) IPO Dramedy about two teens, their baby sister and their recently deceased mother who grants the baby the power to predict the stock market, but only if the kids use their winnings to help others.

O’Reilly and Fitz (sitcom pilot) A struggling young Irish-American filmmaker, his greeting-card-writing wife and their infant daughter struggle in modern-day New York to make a living, a family and a life.

TV specs available as writing samples: “Ally McBeal,” “Mad About You” and “Seinfeld.”

Goal

To win an Oscar for best screenplay.

Professional Experience

Screenwriter
Freelance
August 1990 - Present

Contacts

None.