Robert Nelson Jacobs - Details

Biography

Jacobs brings to his work his own literary background, having studied at the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop with John Updike, John Cheever, Ian McEwan and Frank O'Connor. While at Iowa, Jacobs discovered his real interest was in spinning grand stories out of the stuff of human emotion - and he decided the best place to do that was on film.

Jacobs flew to Los Angeles - where the very first poster he hung on his wall was for Lasse Hallström's "My Life As a Dog" - and began to pursue screenwriting. He made his debut with the comedy "Out To Sea," the story of three elderly cruise hosts out to meet rich widows, which provided a vehicle for the comic talents of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Underneath the repartee, Jacobs' story also tackled the rougher seas of love and loss. Next, Jacob was hired to bring his story-telling skills to the family film "Dinosaur." Following "Chocolat," he is contracted to write two more screenplays for Miramax, including "The Shipping News" to be directed by Lasse Hallstrom.