ACT ONE NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

04/04/05 - Hollywood, CA: ACT ONE INC., a nonprofit organization founded to train people of faith for careers in mainstream film and television, announced today that it has hired screenwriter and author Chris Riley as the new Director of its prestigious screenwriting program.

An Act One faculty member since the program’s inception, Riley has spent over 20 years in the movie industry as a screenwriter and formatting guru. "Chris has been at the center of the best programs Act One has created," said Act One Executive Director, Barbara Nicolosi. "He embodies everything we want our students to be as professionals in Hollywood."

With an all-volunteer faculty that includes David McFadzean (Home Improvement, What Women Want), John Tinker (St. Elsewhere, The Practice), Nancy Miller (CSI: Miami), and Dean Batali (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, That 70s Show), Act One's screenwriting program emphasizes the writer’s responsibility to the audience and the need for projects that will improve our lives and our culture.

"Teaching for Act One has been a highlight of my career," said Riley."I'm thrilled for the opportunity to provide leadership for a program that is making such a meaningful contribution to Hollywood and Hollywood's vast audience." Among Riley's first tasks will be organizing the upcoming Act One: Writing for Hollywood summer program, which is accepting applications through April 8, and the Act One Screenwriting Weekends, a series of workshops that will tour the country later this year.

Before coming to Act One, Riley ran Warner Bros.’ acclaimed script processing department and acted as the studio’s script formatting expert, applying industry standard formatting rules to thousands of film and television scripts from every studio in Hollywood, from Murphy Brown and ER to Batman, Unforgiven and As Good As It Gets. Riley is author of the new book The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style from Michael Wiese Productions.

With his wife and screenwriting partner Kathy, Chris wrote 25 to Life, a dramatic thriller for Touchstone Pictures, The Other White House, a political thriller for Sean Connery's Fountainbridge Films, and an adaptation of the book Actual Innocence for Mandalay Television Pictures. Most recently, they completed the action-romance Aces for producer Robert Cort and Paramount Pictures, and the thriller Crawlspace for indie director Helmut Schleppi. Their first film, After the Truth, a multiple-award-winning German-language courtroom thriller, sparked international controversy in 1999 when it was released in Germany. The film earned its star Goetz George a Best Actor nomination for the prestigious European Film Award for his portrayal of Josef Mengele.