Walter F. Parkes (born April 15, 1951) is an American producer, screenwriter, and media executive. The producer of more than 50 films, including the ''
Men in Black
In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses t ...
'' series and ''
Minority Report
Minority Report may refer to:
* Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09
* "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon
* "The Minority Report ...
,'' he is the co-founder and co-chairman of
Dreamscape Immersive
Dreamscape Immersive is an American entertainment and technology company. It creates story-based full-roam virtual reality (VR) experiences which allow up to six people to simultaneously explore a virtual 3D environment, seeing fully rendered avat ...
.
Parkes and his wife and business partner, producer
Laurie MacDonald, helped to build
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to:
* DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin
** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio
** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
, with Parkes the head of its motion picture division, and the two later moved to
Amblin Entertainment, where Parkes served as president. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards, receiving his first nomination as the director/ producer of the 1975 documentary ''
The California Reich''; his second for co-writing the original screenplay for ''
WarGames''; and his third as a producer of ''
Awakenings''. Parkes and MacDonald created the Parkes + Macdonald production company (P+M, P+M Image Nation) in 2010, collaborating on the production costs of a number of films, including films that Amblin has released.
Life and career
Parkes was born in
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
. He attended Yale University, and graduated cum laude in 1973. ''
WarGames'', co-written by Parkes with
Lawrence Lasker and Walon Green, garnered a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination. Parkes and Lasker co-produced several films, including ''
Sneakers
Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...
'' and ''
Awakenings'', a
Best Picture Oscar nominee in 1990. Other films Parkes produced or on which he served as executive producer include, the ''
Men in Black
In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses t ...
'' series, ''
The Kite Runner'',
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
-winning ''
Sweeney Todd'', ''
Dinner for Schmucks
''Dinner for Schmucks'' is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Jay Roach and based on Francis Veber's 1998 French film ''Le Dîner de Cons''.
Starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, with Jemaine Clement, Jeff Dunham, Bruce Greenwood, and Ron Li ...
'', ''
Gladiator
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...
'', ''
Minority Report
Minority Report may refer to:
* Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09
* "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon
* "The Minority Report ...
'', ''
Catch Me If You Can'',
The Ring, ''
The Terminal'', ''
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'', ''
Road to Perdition'', ''
A.I. Artificial Intelligence'', ''
Deep Impact'', ''
Twister'', ''
The Legend of Zorro'' and ''
Amistad''.
In 1994, Parkes was named President of
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's
Amblin Entertainment and later that year, he and his wife and business partner
Laurie MacDonald were tapped to help create the
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to:
* DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin
** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio
** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
SKG motion picture studio. As the studio's president, Parkes, in partnership with MacDonald, oversaw development and production of all DreamWorks' film projects, including three consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners: ''
American Beauty'', ''
Gladiator
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...
'' and ''
A Beautiful Mind'' — the latter two in partnership with
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
. Other films produced during their tenure include:
Cameron Crowe's ''
Almost Famous'',
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
' ''
What Lies Beneath
''What Lies Beneath'' is a 2000 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a couple who live in a haunted house. It was the first film by Zemeckis' production company ...
'',
Adam McKay's ''
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy'',
Michael Mann
Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...
's ''
Collateral
Collateral may refer to:
Business and finance
* Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan
* Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Collate ...
'', and Steven Spielberg's Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning drama ''
Saving Private Ryan'', which was the top-grossing film domestically of 1998.
Parkes is a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
,
The Writers Guild of America and the
Global Business Network
Global Business Network (GBN) was a leading consulting firm that specialized in helping organizations to adapt and grow in an uncertain and volatile world. The firm was particularly well-known for using tools such as scenario planning and also offe ...
. He is on the board of directors for the
Center for A New American Security (CNAS).
Parkes and MacDonald live in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, and have two children, Jane MacDonald and Graham Joseph.
Parkes + MacDonald production company
Its origins go back to 1991 when Parkes and MacDonald got its own production company Aerial Pictures, which is first set up at
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
. In 1993, it was moved to
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. Later that year, it was moved and merged into
Amblin Entertainment, and later at
DreamWorks Pictures, in order that Parkes will fill the seat left by the departure of
Kathleen Kennedy.
In 2005, he revived the idea of being its own production company, which is called "Parkes + MacDonald Productions" (aka P+M), which is set up at
DreamWorks Pictures.
In 2012, the duo stuck a deal with Imagenation Abu Dhabi (now
Image Nation
Image Nation, formerly known as Imagenation Abu Dhabi, is an Emirati film production and media company that acts as a subsidiary of the governmental Media Zone Authority Abu Dhabi (MZA), which in turn is based at twofour54 in Abu Dhabi, the Un ...
) to form a joint venture organization.
Since then, P+M has collaborated on the production costs of a number of films that Amblin and Image Nation have produced, including the
''Men in Black'' film series from the third film onwards.
[
]
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkes, Walter F.
1951 births
Living people
20th-century American screenwriters
Writers from Bakersfield, California
Yale University alumni
Screenwriters from California
American film producers
DreamWorks Pictures people