Seven of the top ten grossing movies of all time were science fiction or fantasy. It’s no surprise that Hollywood’s future may rest in the hands of fantasy and science fiction writers, especially the winners of the Writers of the Future Contest.
Hollywood, CA – November 23, 2010 (via PressReleaseNation.com) — With seven out of the top ten grossing movies of all time being speculative fiction – science fiction and fantasy – it’s no wonder that Hollywood’s future is seen to reside with the writers of science fiction and fantasy, or more specifically the winners of the Writers of the Future Contest, according to Dave Wolverton, screenwriter, NY Times bestselling author and Writers of the Future Contest judge.
“The mentality is simple in Hollywood: if it makes money, you do it. And if it keeps making money, you keep doing it,” says Wolverton, from his home in Saint George, UT. “And for reasons that are very simple, science fiction and fantasy have proven time and again to be huge money makers.” The top ten grossing movies of all time include from #10 up: The Sixth Sense, Independence Day, Jurassic Park, The Lion King, Forrest Gump, Jurassic Park, ET: the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars: Episode I, Star Wars, and Titanic – and seven of these are science fiction and fantasy. “All of the top-grossing movies of all time have one thing in common,” Wolverton says. “They all take the viewer to another time, another place. People crave to be transported out of the mundane world into a place that is new and wondrous, and that is what speculative fiction does best.”
Wolverton was the grand prize winner of the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Contest in 1987 and has since gone on to publish over thirty novels, with several becoming NY Times bestsellers. As a result, he became a Writers of the Future contest judge ( http://bit.ly/DaveWolverton ), a video game designer, and has now branched off into screenwriting. With all this diverse experience now to his credit, Wolverton observed, “L. Ron Hubbard was a very prolific fiction writer during the ’30s and ’40s, and wrote several works that are classics in their field. Based on this success, he moved on to Hollywood. He worked as a writer for Columbia Pictures for the highly successful movie serial The Secret of Treasure Island and The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. And for Warner Bros., he worked with Norvell Page scripting The Spider Returns. So I find it very interesting that he created the Writers of the Future Contest, and that the legacy continues with writers like myself, who are providing more material to feed Hollywood’s voracious appetite for science fiction and fantasy.”
Writers of the Future, now in its 26th year, is the world’s largest and most recognized merit competition for writers of speculative fiction. Its over 250 winners have gone on to publish over 300 novels and 3,000 short stories.
The Writers of the Future contest ( http://www.WritersOfTheFuture.com ) was created by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 as a means of allowing the newcomer a chance to have their works seen. Based on its success, a companion Illustrators of the Future contest was also created. This competition has provided a starting point for many careers. Over 600 writers and illustrators have seen their name in print over the 25 years of the contest’s history. And hundreds of contestants have continued with now-successful careers. At last count, there have been over 700 novels, including New York Times bestsellers and over 3,000 short stories that have been published by contest winners. In addition to continuing on in the field of speculative fiction, several have gone on to publish in genres such as mystery and romance, to write for TV and motion pictures and to become editors and critics.
Each year, the winning stories are published in an anthology titled L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future. The latest edition, Writers of the Future Volume 25 ( http://bit.ly/WritersOfTheFuture25 ), can be found at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walmart and Amazon.com. For more information regarding interviewing Dave Wolverton or the Writers of the Future Contest contact John Goodwin at jgoodwin@galaxypress.com .
About Writers of the Future:
Writers of the Future (WOTF) is a science fiction and fantasy story contest originated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983. Hubbard characterized the contest as a way of “giving back” to the field that had defined his professional writing life. The contest has no entry fee and is the highest-paying contest for amateur science-fiction and fantasy writers. Notable past winners of WOTF include Stephen Baxter, Karen Joy Fowler, James Alan Gardner, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Dean Wesley Smith. The winning stories are published in the yearly anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of Future. For complete information, please visit the contest web site at http://www.WritersOfTheFuture.com
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