Christopher Wilkinson

For the British swimmer, see Christopher Wilkinson (swimmer). For people with a similar name, see Chris Wilkinson (disambiguation).

Christopher Wilkinson is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He is best known for writing the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for Oliver Stone's film Nixon,^[1] and for Ali, starring Will Smith.^[2]

Christopher Wilkinson
Born	(1950-03-29) March 29, 1950 (age 75) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Temple University
Occupation(s)	Screenwriter, producer and director
Years active	1977–present
Spouse	Cathy Guisewite (m. 1997, div. 2011)
Children	2

Early life and education

Wilkinson was born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia. He began his career as a musician while attending film school at Temple University.^[3]

Career

Before working on feature films, Wilkinson wrote, produced and directed documentaries, industrials and commercials for EUE/Screen Gems, PBS, Center City Video and Bell of Pennsylvania. During this period, he also worked as a cameraman for ESPN. After director Mark Rydell saw Wilkinson's documentary Engine 2, Ladder 3 during a directing seminar at the Maine Photographic Workshop, he hired Wilkinson as second unit director for his film The River (1984). Wilkinson would go on to run script development at Rydell's Concourse Productions, and direct the second units of his films For the Boys (1991) and Intersection (1994).^[4]

Wilkinson has written several films with Stephen J. Rivele. In 1992, they were hired to write three screenplays for George Harrison's HandMade Films, which cemented their partnership.^[4][5] They went on to write Nixon (1995), starring Anthony Hopkins,^[6] and Ali (2001), directed by Michael Mann.^[2] They wrote and produced Copying Beethoven (2006), starring Ed Harris,^[7][8] and Birth of the Dragon (2016).^[9] They were also writers and executive producers on Ed Zwick's Pawn Sacrifice (2014) and Miles Ahead (2015), directed by and starring Don Cheadle.^[10]

On his own, Wilkinson wrote the pilot for the television series Fordlandia, to be directed by Werner Herzog,^[11] and the screenplay for the upcoming Ridley Scott film, The Dog Stars.^[12]

Personal life

Wilkinson lives in Los Angeles, California.^[13] He was formerly married to cartoonist Cathy Guisewite (creator of the comic strip Cathy).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Writer	Producer
1995	Nixon	Yes	No
2001	Ali	Yes	No
2006	Copying Beethoven	Yes	Yes
2014	Pawn Sacrifice	Yes	Executive
2015	Miles Ahead	Yes	Executive
2016	Birth of the Dragon	Yes	Yes
2026	The Dog Stars	Yes	No

Documentary film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1981	Engine 2, Ladder 3	Yes	Yes	Yes
2014	Virtuosity[14][15]	Yes	Yes	Yes

Uncredited rewrites

• The River (1984)
• Nuts (1987)
• Moneyball (2011)
• All Eyez on Me (2017)
• Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
• A Star Is Born (2018)
• Gemini Man (2019)

Other credits

Year	Title	2nd Unit Director	Producer	Notes
1984	The River	Yes	No
1991	For the Boys	Yes	Associate	Played the part of Niles LaGuardia
1994	Intersection	Yes	Post-Production Supervisor