Laurence Dworet, M.D. (usually just credited as Laurence Dworet) is an American screenwriter. In 1990, he and his writing partner Robert Roy Pool sold their spec screenplay ''The Ultimatum'' for $500,000 against $1,000,000 if a film was made. It was the story of

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

who plant an atomic bomb in an American city and threaten nuclear devastation unless their demands are met. Steven Spielberg described it as one of the three most exciting scripts he had ever read and was going to direct it, but the script became bogged-down in endless rewrites. Using his medical background, Dworet and Pool wrote the screenplay for ''

Outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

'' which they sold to producer

Arnold Kopelson Arnold Kopelson (February 14, 1935 – October 8, 2018) was an American film producer. Among his credits are ''Platoon'', '' Seven'', ''Outbreak'', '' The Fugitive'' and '' The Devil's Advocate''. Life and career Kopelson was born in Brooklyn ...

for $250,000 as he wanted a rival virus picture to Fox's '' Crisis in the Hot Zone''. Kopelson then paid

Ted Tally Ted Tally (born April 9, 1952) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He adapted the Thomas Harris novel '' The Silence of the Lambs'' into the film of the same name, for which he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the ...

$500,000 to rewrite the script. An interview with Dworet can be found in

William Froug William Froug (May 26, 1922 – August 25, 2013) was an American television writer and producer. His producing credits included the series ''The Twilight Zone'', ''Gilligan's Island'', and ''Bewitched''. He was a writer for, among other shows, '' ...

's book '' The New Screenwriter Looks at the New Screenwriter''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dworet, Laurence American male screenwriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people)