Books & Writers · The Creative Process: Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk Writing, Life & Creativity

“Tim Burton had just Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He was at some point in the making of Beetlejuice. Our agency didn’t know what to do with either of us with our off-kilter sensibility, so they introduced us, and we immediately felt a kinship and became friends. It was pretty clear from pretty early on that we wanted to work together. We threw out ideas. Among the ideas we talked about Tim mentioned to me a drawing he had made in high school of a character who had scissors instead of hands. And I said, ‘Stop right there!; First of all, this may surprise you, it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard in my life, so I knew it was brilliant. It was so simple and so stupid and such an obvious metaphor, I knew that it had power beyond belief. I said, ‘Stop, I know exactly what to do with that!’ ”

Caroline Thompson was born in Washington, D.C. She grew up in a house full of books where she fell in love with horror novels, fantasy and children’s classics. Her suburban neighborhood and favorite novel, Frankenstein, later inspired her horror novel, First Born, and first produced screenplay, Edward Scissorhands.
 Thompson continued to explore horror and fantasy in screenplays for The Addams Family, City of Ember, and Welcome To Marwen, and the stop-motion animation features, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. She adapted The Secret Garden and Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and directed and wrote Black Beauty, Buddy and Snow White: The Fairest of Them All. In 2011, she received Austin Film Festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter Award. She lives near Santa Barbara with her husband and two dogs.

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