SPEAKER: Tim McCanlies
- FILMS:
- "Second Hand Lions": wrote screenplay, directed (2003)
- Iron Giant: wrote screenplay (1999)
- Dancer, Texas: directorial debut (1998)
- North Shore: wrote screen play(1987)
Tim McCanlies,a fifth-generation Texan, began his career writing, performing and directing live theatre. While working on his MFA in the Graduate Cinema program at SMU, he completed several shorts including "Nicole et Claude," which tied for first place at USC's Student Film Awards and was sold to cable. After relocating to Los Angeles, McCanlies signed a deal at the Walt Disney studios and, in 1987, his screenplay, North Shore, was filmed for Universal (on which he also received Associate Producer credit). In 1998, he made his feature film directorial debut on his script, Dancer, Texas Pop. 81. The film met with acclaim, played continuously for seven months in his home state and premiered internationally at the prestigious London Film Festival. His screenplay for the critically lauded 1999 animated film The Iron Giant earned McCanlies and director Brad Bird an Annie, BAFTA Children's Award and a Nebula Award. McCanlies' additional projects include screenplays for the live-action The Night We Liberated Paris and Walden Media's Around the World in 80 Days starring Jackie Chan.
"Children of a Lesser God"
Children of a Lesser God is a love story about a speech teacher who falls for a beautiful yet distant deaf girl in a small New England school for the deaf, and the obstacles that they face due to their differences. William Hurt plays James Leeds, a renegade teacher with an unconventional approach to education and a resume that includes stints as a bartender and a disk jockey. Upon his arrival, he is warned by school administrator Dr. Franklin ( Philip Bosco) not to get creative with his instruction. Naturally, Leeds already has his mind set on his teaching plan and proceeds to play loud rock music in class in order to teach the students to feel the vibrations of the music and get them to try to speak phonetically. But a new element enters his life when he meets the attractive custodian, Sarah ( Marlee Matlin). An exceptionally intelligent yet extremely bitter young woman, Sarah is a graduate of the school who has decided to remain there, in the confines of her world of silence; it's safer for her to be with her own "people" than to face what she perceives as a cruel and uncaring world. She hardly seems interested in James and will only communicate with him through signing, although she can read lips and even speak a little. James learns that Sarah believes boys were only interested in having sex with her when she was a teenager. She thought that they only cared about her body, not her mind. Eventually, James does get through to Sarah and the two fall in love, although both have to learn new ways to communicate their feelings.
