David Kirkpatrick

The New York Times went so far as to say Kirkpatrick was interested in "Saving the Story," and was planning a documentary entitled, The World Without Story. “The idea, as we move forward with 21st-century storytelling, is to try to keep meaning alive,” he said to the New York Times.

According to Kirkpatrick, citing the works of Victor Hugo, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Charles Dickens, story, “activates social change, transforms community, and changes lives.” )

David Paul Kirkpatrick (born June 29, 1951) is an American film producer, studio executive and writer.

He is widely known for his career at Paramount Pictures where he started as a story editor, oversaw the studio's exclusive development deal with Eddie Murphy and eventually became President of the Motion Picture Group.

In 1969, he graduated from Hudson High School.

He received his bachelor's degree in 1974.

Kirkpatrick's screenplay The Great Texas Dynamite Chase was produced in 1976 and distributed by New World Pictures.

The LA Times called it, “an auspicious first feature debut in this stylish and enjoyable fantasy about friendship among thieves." Shortly after, he took a position in the story department at Paramount Pictures. He worked on and off at Paramount for a total of 18 years.

As Story Editor, Kirkpatrick had a tasteful eye and helped develop such award-winning movies as Elephant Man, Ordinary People, and Terms of Endearment.

Kirkpatrick made a name for himself by overseeing Paramount's exclusive development deal with Eddie Murphy.

The arrangement resulted in several hits including the $234 million blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop.

During his years at Paramount, Kirkpatrick oversaw the successful Indiana Jones and Star Trek franchises, box office hits such as Top Gun (1986), Ghost (1990), and The Hunt for Red October (1990), and award-winning films such as Witness (1985), and Reds (1981).

Kirkpatrick worked under industry executives Barry Diller, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg at Paramount.

From 1987 to 1989, Kirkpatrick became the chief of production at Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures becoming the first motion picture executive to hold that position at two studios at the same time.

Both Kirkpatrick and Katzenberg were involved in the development of Coming to America (1988) and the subsequent Buchwald v. Paramount breach of contract lawsuit.

During that period, he oversaw The Little Mermaid (1989), Pretty Woman (1990) and Dead Poets Society (1989) among other films, before returning to Paramount.

The case was the subject of the 1992 book Fatal Subtraction.

Kirkpatrick was also instrumental in replacing Hunt for Red October star Alec Baldwin with Harrison Ford in the Jack Ryan franchise.

Afterward, he entered into a production deal with Paramount and then produced The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), and The Evening Star (1996), a sequel to Terms of Endearment.

He then formed his own production company Original Voices concentrating on smaller budget projects, producing the independent hits Big Night (1996) and The Opposite of Sex (1998), with Rysher Entertainment, and Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny with HBO which won the Golden Globe for Best Television movie.

In 2006, The New York Times called Kirkpatrick a “kingmaker” for his shepherding of Hollywood talent.

Kirkpatrick was chief of production at two studios at the same time, Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures.

In an interview with the New York Times in 2006, Michael D Eisner, former President of Paramount and Chairman of The Walt Disney Company, who worked with Kirkpatrick at both studios referred to Kirkpatrick as “creative, thoughtful, hard-working, and committed.”

Kirkpatrick left his post at Paramount after finding his office furniture on the lawn after an altercation with the CEO of Paramount Communications, [Paramount's parent company], executive Stanley R. Jaffe.

Kirkpatrick later filed a lawsuit against Stanley Jaffe for “emotional distress” and “abusive humiliation” and it was successfully settled out of court.

In 2007, Kirkpatrick co-founded Plymouth Rock Studios, a planned $500 million film and television studio that was scheduled to open in 2012 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Other executives involved included Earl Lestz, former President of Paramount Studio Groups for 21 years, real estate developer Bill Wynne, who built Rancho Santa Margarita, and Joe DiLorenzo, former CFO of the Boston Celtics and current Chairman of the Financial Executives International organization.

In November 2007, the Studio had announced that it had secured $500 million in financing.

Kirkpatrick founded the MIT Center for the Future of Storytelling in 2008 and the Story Summit in 2019.

He has authored several books, including The Address of Happiness, The Dog with Steven James Taylor, and The Adventures of Merlin to be published in 2023.

Kirkpatrick was raised in Hudson, Ohio.

The financing eventually fell through in 2008, due to the national financial crisis that affected construction.

In 2008, Kirkpatrick founded the MIT Center for Future Storytelling with Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, in an effort to study the narrative in modern culture.

Kirkpatrick and Plymouth Rock Studios parted ways in June 2010.

Baldwin revealed this in a March 2011 column on The Huffington Post, in which he accused Kirkpatrick of back-handed dealings in the matter, referring to Kirkpatrick as "a beady-eyed, untalented tool".

In 2015, he was inducted into the school's Distinguished Hall of Fame.

While still in high school, Kirkpatrick sold his first screenplay to Paramount Pictures.

He attended California Institute of the Arts, a school founded by Walt Disney.

While there, he was the teaching assistant to the Dean of Film, Alexander Mackendrick, the writer-director of The Man in the White Suit and The Sweet Smell of Success.

His education was underwritten by the Walt Disney Foundation and producer, Ray Stark.