Tom Lazarus


Tom Lazarus is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known for writing the 1999 horror film Stigmata, and is the author of the screenwriting manuals, Secrets of Film Writing and The Last Word: Definitive Answers to All Your Screenwriting Questions.
He has won more than two dozen international film festival honors including Best Educational Film of the Year at the San Francisco Film Festival and a nomination for a CLIO for directing a Fair House Public Service TV spot.

Life

He was born in New York City on October 5, 1942.
Lazarus began working in advertising for major film studios. He also designed album covers, was nominated for a Grammy and then moved into creating educational and business films. This would later transfer into a television and film career, where he wrote and produced many productions since the 1970s, including Knight Rider, War of The Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares.
In 1999, he wrote Stigmata, starring Patricia Arquette as an atheist who is afflicted with the stigmata after acquiring a rosary formerly owned by a deceased priest. Directed by Rupert Wainwright on a $29 million budget, it premièred at the box office in the number one position, earning $18.3 million in its first weekend, becoming the first film in five weekends to outgross The Sixth Sense at the box office. In the United States, Stigmata earned $50,046,268. Internationally, the film earned $39,400,000 for a total worldwide gross $89,446,268.
Lazarus teaches at UCLA Extension, Writers Program.

Filmography