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Bio
MICHAEL CHASE WALKER
Screenwriter/Producer/Production Executive/Author/Professor

"As for myself, it has always been about story. Beyond the box office, the Nielsens, the best sellers and the endless jockeying for credits and money, to grasp the essence of storytelling is to unravel the very fabric of human consciousness."

Michael Chase Walker is author of Power Screenwriting: The 12 Stages of Story Development. He is a film and television executive producer and screenwriter with numerous credits to his name.

After founding But Will It Play in Peoria, an award winning animation studio, he moved to Los Angeles to produce The Last Unicorn starring Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow and Christopher Lee. While overseeing production of the highly-acclaimed film, the Co-Director, Jules Bass, invited Michael to run Creative Affairs for Rankin Bass Productions where he supervised production of J.R.R. Tolkiens The Return of the King, The Wind and the Willows, The Leprechauns Golden Rainbow, Pinocchios Christmas and The Flight of Dragons. With the release of The Last Unicorn, Michael returned to Los Angeles, where he became a Staff Writer and Story Developer for the phenomenally successful, He Man and She Ra Hour of Power syndicated series.

Upon completion of his work for Filmation Studios, he was brought on to the writing staff of World Event Productions to write the animated television series VOLTRON: Defender of the Universe. At the same time, he freelanced for Hanna Barbera Productions for whom he wrote the screen treatments for Bill Stout's Dinosaurs and Dougal Dixon's After Man, currently in development with Dreamworks, SKG and John H. William's Vanguard Films.

Michael, along with science fiction marketing wiz, Jeff Walker, founded Walker Brothers Productions. They were among the first producers hired by fledgling Tri-Star Pictures, where, under the aegis of director, Sydney Pollack, they developed Poul Andersons and Gordon Dicksons EARTHMANS BURDEN for the screen. Walker Bros. Productions went on to produce, develop and consult on various films and television shows including, The Gladiator for New World Pictures and ABC Television, The Alamo, The Wayside School, and "V" The Series for Blatt Singer Productions.

Mr. Walker was appointed Director of Childrens Programs for the CBS Television Network where he conceived, supervised, and presided over 100 hours of animated programming, including, Pee Wees Playhouse, Galaxy High School, Teen Wolf and Wildfire, which reunited him with The Last Unicorn alumni, Peter S. Beagle (author) and Jimmy Webb (composer).

Michael went on to found his own animation house with producer Steve Hahn entitled, Walker Hahn Productions where he developed the animated series concepts for James Bond, Jr. 003, Little Dracula, Monopoly: The Series and Dino Riders for Tyco Toys.

As a freelance screenwriter, Michael lived in Jamaica, West Indies for a year to write, research and adapt Timothy White's epic biography, Catch A Fire: The Life and Music of Bob Marley. He talks about it briefly in this 2004 interview:

"I arrived Thanksgiving Day. The Reggae/Rasta revolution began twenty years earlier, but it felt like it had just happened. The studio leased this 90-year-old Busha's house on fifteen lush acres overlooking the Caribbean and it very quickly became a Mecca for every dread-locked Rasta on the island who wanted to " come reason wid da man who scribe da Bob Marley flim (sic)." Talk about pressure. Bob had touched so many people, not a single one could imagine a film in which they did not play a major role. Every Rasta had his own movie version of "Bob and Me" in his head and insisted on running it by me frame by frame. It was hysterically funny, but also deeply touching. Bob brought such life and hope to the disenfranchised of Jamaica, it couldn't help but spread to the entire world."

Mr. Walker's other screen work of that period, include: Seven Years in Tibet, Sleepy Hollow, The Beast is Dead, Cartoon, Storming Heaven and The Arrow and the Lamp (optioned by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation).

From 1994 to 1999 Mr. Walker served as an Adjunct Faculty Member at The College of Santa Fe Moving Image Arts Department where he lectured on The History of Animation, Screenwriting 1, 2, and 3 and Advanced Story Development for the Screen.

His book Power Screenwriting is considered among the best on the market. It was recently designated required reading at The University of California San Diego Film school. He is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on screenwriting, animation and filmmaking. He recently facilitated an 8 week screenwriting intensive for The New York Film Academy in Union Square guiding 20 select students from around the world in the conception, execution and completion of their first feature length screenplay.

Mr. Walker has served for two years standing as an International Jurist for the coveted Merrill-Hartley Screenwriting Prize, awarded yearly in Cannes, France.

Most recently, Michael served as the developing Story Editor for two animated television series: Car Talk for PBS and Gravity Man for Howard Grossman and MMCEast Productions.

Mr. Walker has numerous film projects and screenplays in development with major studios. Among them are: After Man, The Court Jester, Galaxy High School, Catch a Fire, The Bob Marley Story, and The Poet and The Tsar: The Life and Times of Alexander Pushkin.