David Seltzer

Writing

David Seltzer

Born 1940-02-12 · Highland Park, Illinois, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. David Seltzer (born 1940) is an American screenwriter, producer and director, perhaps best known for writing The Omen (1976), and Bird on a Wire (1990), starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn. As writer/director, Seltzer's credits include the 1986 teen tragi-comedy Lucas starring Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder, the 1988 comedy Punchline starring Sally Field and Tom Hanks, and 1992's Shining Through starring Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas. Description above from the Wikipedia article David Seltzer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Acting credits

Winona Ryder: The Ghosts She Called poster
7.5

A portrait of the actress Winona Ryder, the great muse of nineties cinema, who, although she has had an atypical and somewhat erratic career, has always offered performances as sensitive as they are honest.

Winona Ryder: The Ghosts She Called

2022

The Omen Legacy poster
7.0

The true stories that spawned the serie tale of Damien, a small boy with an angelic face, whose very name still conjures up thoughts of Satan. This documentary shares spine-tingling information about the the all-too-memorable flick that has terrorized film audiences since 1976.

The Omen Legacy

2001

Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' poster
6.7

Retrospective documentary on the making of the cult classic "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory."

Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'

2001

666: The Omen Revealed poster
5.9

Documentary about the making of The Omen, featuring interviews with Richard Donner, Harvey Bernhard, David Seltzer and others.

666: The Omen Revealed

2000

The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter David Seltzer poster
NR

David Seltzer knows Hollywood. He knows the business, the tricks of the trade and all the hidden truths. He's got the stories from working with Jacques Cousteau, penning the horror classic The Omen and adapting Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He can tell you why writing is like love-making and why there is no such thing as fiction. His advice about directing? Wear comfortable shoes. In this interview, you'll learn that and more, including what recent screenplay is the most elegant he has ever heard spoken on-screen and why you don't win arguments with movie stars.

The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter David Seltzer

2007

Behind the camera

The Omen poster
7.4

Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.

The Omen

1976

Bird on a Wire poster
6.2

An FBI informant has kept his new identity secret for 15 years. Now an old flame has recognised him, and the bad guys are back for revenge.

Bird on a Wire

1990

The Omen poster
5.6

A diplomatic couple adopts the son of the devil without knowing it. A remake of the classic horror film of the same name from 1976.

The Omen

2006

Dragonfly poster
6.6

A grieving doctor is being contacted by his late wife through his patient's near death experiences.

Dragonfly

2002

Lucas poster
6.7

A brilliant but socially inept 14-year-old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends – Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love – fall for each other.

Lucas

1986

Lucas poster
6.7

A brilliant but socially inept 14-year-old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends – Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love – fall for each other.

Lucas

1986

Someone to Watch Over Me poster
5.8

Claire Gregory, an upper class New York personality, witnesses a murder in a luxurious nightclub. Detective Mike Keegan, recently promoted, is assigned to protect her.

Someone to Watch Over Me

1987

Shining Through poster
6.5

Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.

Shining Through

1992

Shining Through poster
6.5

Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.

Shining Through

1992

Punchline poster
5.6

Lilah Krytsick is a mother and housewife who's always believed she could be a stand-up comedian. Steven Gold is an experienced stand-up seemingly on the cusp of success. When the two meet, they form an unlikely friendship, and Steven tries to help the untried Lilah develop her stage act. Despite the objections of her family and some very wobbly beginnings, Lilah improves, and soon she finds herself competing with Steven for a coveted television spot.

Punchline

1988

Punchline poster
5.6

Lilah Krytsick is a mother and housewife who's always believed she could be a stand-up comedian. Steven Gold is an experienced stand-up seemingly on the cusp of success. When the two meet, they form an unlikely friendship, and Steven tries to help the untried Lilah develop her stage act. Despite the objections of her family and some very wobbly beginnings, Lilah improves, and soon she finds herself competing with Steven for a coveted television spot.

Punchline

1988

Cinema Verite poster
5.7

In 1973, the Loud family became a television sensation of a new kind. It was long before a metal rock star showed his eccentric family on the small screen and decades before housewives had screaming matches with each other on camera in public. CINEMA VERITE tells the behind-the-scenes story of the groundbreaking documentary "An American Family," which chronicled the lives of the Louds in the early 1970s and catapulted the Santa Barbara family to notoriety while creating a new television genre: the reality TV series.

Cinema Verite

2011

Prophecy poster
5.4

When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne and his wife, Maggie, are sent in to mediate. Chief John Hawks insists the loggers are poisoning the water supply, and, though company man Isley denies it, the Vernes can't ignore the strangely mutated wildlife roaming the woods. Robert captures a bear cub for testing and soon finds himself the target of an angry mutant grizzly.

Prophecy

1979

My Giant poster
5.4

Sammy, an agitated agent lost in the forest of the modern world, happens upon a gentle giant with a tall talent for friendship named Max.

My Giant

1998

The Other Side of the Mountain poster
6.3

One year before the Olympics, Jill Kinmont, an 18-year-old skiing champion, suffers a fall during competition and is left paralyzed. With her life now completely altered, she undergoes an exhausting fight to regain some of what she has lost.

The Other Side of the Mountain

1975

Nobody's Baby poster
5.2

Two not so bright small time crooks end up with a baby girl by "accident" and find a change in their lives. Billy (Ulrich) becomes the guy to take care of the child and look after it. Buford (Oldman) wants to get rid of it, but the others they knit with are for doing the best they can. They conspire to rob a pawn shop to get the necessary money, only to end up heroes for stopping a heist already in play.

Nobody's Baby

2001

Nobody's Baby poster
5.2

Two not so bright small time crooks end up with a baby girl by "accident" and find a change in their lives. Billy (Ulrich) becomes the guy to take care of the child and look after it. Buford (Oldman) wants to get rid of it, but the others they knit with are for doing the best they can. They conspire to rob a pawn shop to get the necessary money, only to end up heroes for stopping a heist already in play.

Nobody's Baby

2001

King, Queen, Knave poster
4.5

Based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, this English-language satirical drama details the experiences of Frank (John Moulder Brown), a young orphan who finds himself deep in the romantic clutches of his uncle's sensual wife. After Frank's parents die, he goes to live with his aunt Martha (Gina Lollabrigida) and uncle Charles (David Niven). Sexy Martha entices Frank into her embrace then wants him to kill her husband so that they can live off of his money. Frank wouldn't mind so much, but he really likes his uncle.

King, Queen, Knave

1972

Table for Five poster
5.7

J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.

Table for Five

1983

Six Weeks poster
6.0

A wealthy cosmetic tycoon and her 12-year-old daughter, who's dying from leukemia, strike up a sentimental friendship with a California politician. Since the girl has only six weeks or less to live, the trio fly to New York City where the daughter skates the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, assumes the lead in The Nutcracker ballet, and sightsees most of the city.

Six Weeks

1982

The Eighteenth Angel poster
5.1

Mythology and religious dogma are slowly revealed when an attractive young woman is approached by a modeling agency that pulls her into an underworld of priests that are not Christian but rather want to resurrect Satan by collecting the souls of 18 beautiful children.

The Eighteenth Angel

1997

Larry poster
6.7

A man who has been confined from early childhood to a dubiously run home for the mentally challenged is transferred to a state mental hospital when the home is shut down. Staff discover that, despite outward appearances, the man was wrongly confined and is of average intelligence.

Larry

1974

Green Eyes poster
8.0

Disillusioned Vietnam veteran Lloyd Dubeck travels back to Southeast Asia in search among thousands of war orphans for the son he left behind.

Green Eyes

1977

Green Eyes poster
8.0

Disillusioned Vietnam veteran Lloyd Dubeck travels back to Southeast Asia in search among thousands of war orphans for the son he left behind.

Green Eyes

1977