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bio and credits

 

SHORT BIO: Peter Hanson is the director of films including the documentary "Tales from the Script," the author of three books about cinema, and the screenwriter of upcoming projects including "Fists" and "Two Fathers." He is also a film instructor at Pepperdine University and UCLA Extension, as well as a contributing editor at "Written By" magazine. A Michigan native, Hanson did his undergraduate film studies at NYU and earned his MFA in screenwriting at UCLA.

LONG BIO: A native of East Lansing, Michigan, Peter Hanson studied film and screenwriting as an undergraduate at New York University. After working extensively in student journalism during college, he began a ten-year career as a writer/editor for various publications in upstate New York. His first book, "Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel,” explored the title subject's screenwriting oeuvre ("Roman Holiday," "Spartacus," etc.). Originally published in 2001, the book was a finalist for the National Theatre Library Association Award. In 2007, "Dalton Trumbo" was reissued as a paperback in the U.S. and republished (as a translated edition) in Japan. Hanson's follow-up book, "The Cinema of Generation X,” appraised the early work of filmmakers including Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, and Quentin Tarantino through the prism of generational identity. “Generation X” was published in 2002.

Hanson's professional filmmaking debut was a 2002 documentary short about the interaction between high-school students in Columbia County, New York, and their filmmaking advisor Courtney Hunt (later an Oscar nominee for "Frozen River"). That same year, Hanson made the feature-length documentary "Every Pixel Tells a Story," exploring the impact of digital-cinema technology on local filmmakers in and around Albany, New York. “Every Pixel” screened at regional festivals and was broadcast on PBS affiliate WMHT.

In 2003, Hanson relocated to Los Angeles, where he has completed numerous freelance screenwriting assignments and served as a consultant and/or educator for many aspiring and professional screenwriters. During his early LA years, he cowrote (with Dan and Joe Masucci) the the indie feature "The Last Round"; cowrote (with Tom Curley) the horror script "Savage," which sold to production company Picture Road; wrote and directed the comedy/drama short "Stagehand"; analyzed scripts for Film Independent’s Filmmaker Labs; wrote and line-produced promotional shorts for Mini Movie Channel; and served on the producing team for several cycles of the Saturn Awards. His journalistic work during this period included creating and writing the monthly column "Beyond the Page" for "Script" magazine; writing about movies for Yahoo! Voices (earning a Yahoo! Contributor Award); and joining the roster at "Written By," the official magazine of the WGA, eventually becoming a contributing editor at the publication.

In 2010, Hanson completed a major book/movie project about screenwriting. The book, titled "Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories," was issued by HarperCollins Publishers. The accompanying documentary, simply titled "Tales from the Script," was released by First Run Features. Later the same year, Hanson launched the daily blog "Every '70s Movie," featuring original reviews of films released from 1970 to 1979; to date, the blog has notched more than 5.5 million views. (To visit the blog, click here.) Other endeavors in the 2010s included writing and directing the comedy shorts "Closure" and "The Pre-Interview," plus writing (for director J.D. Funari) the award-winning dramatic short "Exposure." During this period, Hanson earned his MFA in screenwriting from UCLA, then began teaching film and screenwriting at Pepperdine University and UCLA Extension.

Hanson lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Leslie.

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selected credits

The Eulogist. Drama feature. Writer (in development)

Fists. Action/drama feature. Writer (in development)

Two Fathers. Action/drama feature. Writer (in development)

Exposure. HD short. Writer/associate producer (2018)

The Pre-Interview. HD short. Writer, producer, director (2014)

Closure. HD short. Writer, producer, director (2011)

Advice for New Screenwriters. Featurette. Writer, producer, director (2010)

The Gospel According to Bill. Featurette. Writer, producer, director (2010)

More Tales from the Script. Extended featurette. Writer, producer, director (2010)

Tales from the Script. Nonfiction book. Author, editor, photographer (2010)

Tales from the Script. Documentary feature. Writer, producer, director (2009)

Stagehand. DV short. Writer, producer, director (2007)

The Mourning Queen. Novella. Author (2006)

The Last Round. Feature. Cowriter (2005)

Chatham High School Film Project: Behind the Scenes. Featurette. Writer, producer, director (2002)

The Cinema of Generation X. Nonfiction book. Author (2002)

Every Pixel Tells a Story. Documentary feature. Writer, producer, director (2002)

Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel. Nonfiction book. Author (2001)

 

 

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