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I lied about my age at 15 to get my first job, tearing tickets
at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where I saw all the touring musicals and as
much opera as an uncultured teenager could tolerate. My first work as an
independent contractor had come in the summer of that year, when a friend and I
ran out of money at the San Luis Obispo County Fair and hired onto the ferris
wheel deconstruction crew to pay for gas home.
Those early job experiences set me up for my future career: I learned that I liked being in a place where stories are played out and I enjoyed being part of a working crew. The other thing I’d always liked was writing. In my 20s, I went through employment phases as a social worker, a horse rancher, a truck driver, art therapist in a mental hospital, caretaker at an exotic animal farm, warehouse dock loader and sheet metal factory worker -until I nearly sliced my finger off. But I always continued writing. Eventually, I sold a couple of television episodes, then a couple of screenplay options, then fell into a job as head publicity writer at Fox. It was there that I discovered a job called unit publicist – which involved working with a crew and writing about the movies. 80 films later, I’m still writing about movies. And I’ve never stopped writing about other things as well. This is where I’ll share thoughts that don’t go into press kits. Extremely proud to have worked on Warner Bros.’ Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in New York this year. It’s a great movie; please go see it. I finished work on World War Z in Budapest in November. It’s set for a December 21, 2012 U.S. opening. Enjoying a couple of months off here in London before starting Ron Howard’s Rush in mid-February. That one shoots in England and Germany for ten weeks. Terrific Peter Morgan script. Safe travels, -Rob  |
