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Tom W. Pope

Tom W. Pope is a practicing scriptwriter and lecturer in the Department of Art History, where he teaches courses on the Western and the musical among others. He also teaches screenwriting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In his 30 year career, he has worked with numerous major directors, including Francis Coppola, Barry Levinson, Ridley Scott, Penny Marshall, Wim Wenders, and Frank Oz. He's written the screenplays for Bad Boys, Some To Watch Over Me, F/X, Hammet, Lords of Discipline and many other films. His 1998 book, Good Scripts/Bad Scripts, analyzes twenty-five of the best and worst recent American screenplays to determine how they succeed (or not).