Christopher Lockhart & Julie Richardson - September 28, 2015

Christopher Lockhart  - Story Editor, WME 

Julie Richardson - Writer, Editor, Producer and co-founder of Imaginarium Entertainment Group 

When: Monday, September 28 - 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.
Where: CMB 2.102

Topics of discussion during this Q&A session included Christopher Lockhart’s career working as a story editor with A-list talent and his insights on screenwriting from his role in reviewing thousands of scripts at a talent agency. Julie Richardson will focus on how she found the screenplay for Collateral and ended up getting it made. Chris and Julie have also collaborated as producers on several projects; they will discuss this process and address alternative ways of getting films made outside the traditional Hollywood model.

Listen to a podcast of this talk on Soundcloud.

Christopher Lockhart’s Biography

Christopher Lockhart is a Hollywood creative executive, filmmaker and educator. He started his career at ICM working alongside legendary talent agent Ed Limato as his story consultant, advising him on projects for his star-studded clientele such as Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Gere, Robert Downey, Jr., and Liam Neeson. Chris followed Limato to the fabled William Morris and stayed by his side through the merge with Endeavor (forming WME) until the agent’s death in 2010. Chris remains at WME Entertainment as Story Editor, helping to find projects for celebrated talent like Denzel Washington.

Chris is also an award winning filmmaker. He co-produced the cult horror film The Collector and its sequel The Collection. He wrote and produced the documentary Most Valuable Players, which was acquired by Oprah Winfrey and aired on OWN. Chris is an adjunct professor at National University’s Professional Screenwriting Program. He has lectured around the country and published several articles.

His screenwriting workshop, The Inside Pitch, was filmed for local television and earned him a Los Angeles Emmy nomination. Chris graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with an MFA in dramatic writing and received the Public Service Prize for his commitment to public education. He is a member of the Television Academy, the WGA, and the PGA. Chris has read over 50,000 screenplays.

Julie Richardson’s Biography

Julie Richardson is best known for developing and producing the DreamWorks box office sensation Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox that was directed by Michael Mann. Collateral received two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, along with twenty-two other national or international honors. 



Mentored by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redeption, The Green Mile, Walking Dead), Richardson wrote and directed the award winning short film Guarding Charliewhich was set on the eve of the Siege of Khe Sanh.   Richardson specializes in muscular, character driven films, and Guarding Charlie has been invited to numerous festivals, including Academy Award qualifying festivals, and the film, as well as Richardson as a director, has received high honors.

Hollow-point, based on the life rights of two extraordinary individuals and written by Richardson, is a character driven drama is set in a police precinct in Inglewood, CA 1974.   Richardson is slated to direct.  A UK/AUS co production, Spotted Turquoise (AU) is slated to produce.



Along with Fortress Features and Liddell Entertainment, Richardson produced the successful genre films The Collector, and its sequel The Collection, penned by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, (SAW IV, V, VI, VII).

Richardson collaborated with Robert Rodriguez and Jessica Alba on Insiders, and with Joel Zwick on SOLD!.  Along with Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment, she produced Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office, a pilot for ABC starring Jane Curtain based on the best- selling book by Dr. Lois Frankel.



Ms. Richardson is honored to have been associated with such renowned filmmakers as Frank Darabont, Michael Mann, Randall Wallace, Chuck Russell, among others. Richardson is credited with discovering writer Stuart Beattie, whose credits now include Pirates Of The Carribean.

Richardson wrote her thesis on the Comintern as an instrument of Soviet Foreign Policy and graduated cum laude, with a BS from Mercer University, Atlanta, one of the top ten schools of its size in the nation.  Ms. Richardson started her career as a PA on commercials and has forged her own path up the entertainment ladder.