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Lewis R. “Lew” Hunter, a screenwriting professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (Tft) who taught many celebrated Hollywood screenwriters, including Michael Colleary, Alexander Payne and Michael Werb, died Jan. 6 at a care facility in Arizona from Covid-19. He was 87.

Hunter was a professor emeritus at UCLA, where he began teaching in 1979 and helped helm the university’s graduate Ftv 434 course, a methodical guide to writing a full-length screenplay in 10 weeks. He was named co-head of the screenwriting program in 1988, a title he held until his retirement in 2000.

“I never had the pleasure or privilege of meeting Lew Hunter, but his presence is deeply felt in the screenwriting program and his signature 434 workshop,” said screenwriting professor George Huang, who currently teaches the class, in a statement. “The idea that students have to finish a full-length feature screenplay in the 10 weeks of a quarter still seems revolutionary even today,...

Just weeks before Patty Duke died, she was hoping to attend the premiere of a documentary called, Once in a Lew Moon, a film that would ultimately be her final onscreen appearance. As her health declined in the days leading up to the movie's premiere, Duke was forced to cancel her appearance. Despite her illness, she still found the strength to write a few notes expressing her gratitude for being involved in the project. "I had asked her and her husband, Mike [Pearce], to open the film premiere with a speech, and that's when things apparently took a turn for a worse,...

Just weeks before Patty Duke died, she was hoping to attend the premiere of a documentary called, Once in a Lew Moon, a film that would ultimately be her final onscreen appearance. As her health declined in the days leading up to the movie's premiere, Duke was forced to cancel her appearance. Despite her illness, she still found the strength to write a few notes expressing her gratitude for being involved in the project. "I had asked her and her husband, Mike [Pearce], to open the film premiere with a speech, and that's when things apparently took a turn for a worse,...

Hollywood screenwriting is a big business. It’s practically a law that anyone with opposable thumbs who lives in Southern California write a screenplay, lured in by the knowledge that even uncommissioned spec scripts used to make between six and seven figures just a few short years ago. With so many people chasing the dream, it was only natural that another cottage industry sprung up alongside it: one filled with screenwriting “gurus." John Truby, Syd Field, Lew Hunter, Robert McKee – all guys who have written books and hosted seminars designed to show aspiring Shane Black wannabes how to craft their story so studio bosses (or, more accurately, lowly secretaries and freelance readers) get excited about the project and pass it up the line. The ideas behind...

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