David W. Higgins - Feb. 21, 2017

(RTF BS '88), Writer, Producer, Hard Candy, Big Momma's House

When: Tuesday, February 21 - 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Where: Belo Center for New Media (BMC) 5.208 (Seating is first come, first served.)

Topics of discussion during this Q&A session include David W. Higgins’s career trajectory from his time as a student in RTF at UT-Austin, his perspectives on the craft and career of writing, as well as his experience producing for film. 

David W. Higgins's Biography 

David W. Higgins runs the independent company Launchpad Productions. His producing credits include the critically-acclaimed independent film Hard Candy and the $200 million grossing comedy Big Momma's House and its sequel.

Under the Launchpad banner, Higgins's credits include The Damned, a bilingual supernatural thriller shot in Bogota, Colombia; Sexy Evil Genius, a dark comedy starring Seth Green & Katee Sackhoff; Jujitsuing Reality, an Academy Award short-listed documentary about Scott Lew, a screenwriter paralyzed by ALS who continues to ply his craft; Burning Bright, starring Briana Evigan and Garret Dillahunt, for which he wrote the story; and multi-festival winner Disfigured, written & directed by Glenn Gers.

He is in development on several features including Defender, an original thriller he co-wrote with Rich D’Ovidio; Reborning, based on the stage-play by award-winning writer Zayd Dohrn, with Mora Stevens to direct; Fail, A Love Story, written & to be directed by Glenn Gers for BlumHouse; and Takeover, a thriller with Sergey Bodrov to direct. Higgins's writing credits include co-story credits on Burning Bright and The Damned and uncredited for Big Momma's House and Hard Candy.

Previously Higgins spent nine years with Mark Amin’s Sobini Films, running the production and development department. His Sobini credits include the Brad Anderson directed Stonehearst Asylum, starring Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Michael Caine & Ben Kingsley; Chrissa, An American Girl, for HBO and Mattel and sequels to the Prince & Me franchise.

At Sobini Films, Higgins will continue to oversee several projects, including a futuristic re-imagining of the Zorro franchise with Jonás Cuarón directing and Gael Garcia Bernal starring; a remake of the Asian blockbuster A Moment to Remember with Ben Lewin (The Sessions) attached to direct; an epic biopic about the Persian Emperor Cyrus; and Blackwell, a thriller about groundbreaking journalist Nellie Bly.

As an executive, Higgins has worked in the industry for twenty years, including stints with the producers Martin Bregman, Dan Jinks, Mark Gordon, Walter Latham, David Friendly and Marc Turtletaub. He has set up multiple projects at nearly every studio in town and has a long list of relationships with writers, directors, agents, studio executives and outside financiers. He is also a frequent guest lecturer for both the Communications and MBA departments of the University of Texas at Austin.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Higgins worked as an assistant at Brian Grazer & Ron Howard’s Imagine Films and Writers & Artists Agency before becoming an executive.

Spring 2017 MIC Speakers

Feb 21 - David W. Higgins

(BS, Radio-TV-Film)
Writer, Producer, Hard Candy, The Damned
3:30-4:45 p.m.
BMC 5.208

March 30 - Jessica Chao and Britta Lundin

Jessica Chou
(MFA, Screenwriting)
TV writer, CW's No Tomorrow
Britta Lundin
(MFA, Production)
TV writer, CW’s Riverdale
BMC 5.208

April 27 - Owen Shiflett

(BS, Radio-TV-Film)
VP, Development for SundanceNow Doc Club at AMC Networks
BMC 5.208