February 13, 2007
BRUCE JOEL RUBIN NAMED SHOWEST “SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR”
RUBIN’S WORK TO BE SEEN IN THE NEW LINE CINEMA RELEASE “THE LAST MIMZY”

Photo by Stephen Thorburn

LOS ANGELES — ShoWest has named Bruce Joel Rubin ShoWest “Screenwriter of the Year,” it was announced today by Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of the event that will be held March 12-15, 2007, in Las Vegas. Rubin will be presented with the ShoWest Screenwriter of the Year award at ShoWest’s closing night ceremony on Thursday, March 15 at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

“Bruce Joel Rubin’s diverse and impressive collection of work including Ghost (for which he won an Academy Award), Jacob’s Ladder and Stuart Little 2 truly exemplifies the range of Rubin’s screenwriting abilities,” says Neuhauser. “The consistently high quality of his work makes Rubin well-deserving of the ShoWest Screenwriter of the Year award.”

Based on the acclaimed sci-fi short story by Lewis Padgett, The Last Mimzy tells the tale of two children who discover a mysterious box that contains some strange devices they believe are toys. As the children play with these “toys” they begin to display higher and higher intelligence levels that their teacher and parents begin to notice. Emma, the younger of the two, tells her mother that one of the toys, a stuffed rabbit, is apparently called Mimzy and that “she teaches me things.” When a citywide blackout is traced back to the families house things quickly spin wildly out of control. As the children continue to focus on these strange objects and learn that Mimzy has been sent on an important mission with a most serious message from the future. Everyone begins to realize that they are involved in something incredible…but exactly what is unknown. The Last Mimzy features an ensemble cast that includes Timothy Hutton, Joely Richardson, Rainn Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, and newcomers Rhiannon Leigh Wryn and Chris O’Neil as the children. Its screenplay was written by Rubin and Toby Emmerich, from a screen story by James V. Hart. The Last Mimzy will be released nationwide on March 23, 2007.

After graduating from New York University in 1965 where he majored in motion picture production and direction, Rubin was an assistant film editor at NBC News in the mid-sixties and hitch-hiked around the world in 1966 and 1967, an experience which he describes as “very formative.” He was also curator of film at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York where he helped establish a program called The New American Filmmakers Series. In 1991, he won an Academy Award for his original screenplay, Ghost. Rubin’s additional writing credits include Brainstorm, Jacob’s Ladder, My Life, Deep Impact (with Michael Tolkin) and Stuart Little 2. He currently has several films in development including Strange Son for Revolution, Into the Light for Fox2000 and The Time Traveler’s Wife for New Line.

ShoWest is the largest annual convention for the motion picture industry. It is the only international gathering devoted exclusively to the movie business and the single largest international gathering of motion picture professionals and theatre owners in the world. The 2007 edition of ShoWest will be held March 12 –15, 2007 at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas and is expected to draw more than 5,000 members of the motion picture industry. Each year, ShoWest attracts delegates from more than 50 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. ShoWest is managed by Nielsen Business Media, a division of The Nielsen Company.