Schulman, Roger S.H.

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Schulman, Roger S.H.
(S.H. Schulman)

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Beverly Hills, CA. Office—c/o Disney Channel, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521.

CAREER:

Writer for films and television. Executive producer of television programs Living Single, 1993,2gether: The Series, 2000, Phil of the Future, 2004, and Haversham Hall, 2006. Journalist for Newsweekand Business Week. Has also worked as a comedy writer for Steve Martin, and as a stand-up comedian.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, 2001, for Shrek; British Academy Award, 2001, for Shrek.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS

(Coauthor) Balto, Amblin Entertainment, 1995.

(Coauthor) Shrek, DreamWorks, 2001.

The Jungle Book 2, Disney, 2003

(Coauthor) Mulan II, Disney, 2004.

Haversham Hall (television movie), 2006.

Fox and the Hound II, Disney, 2006.

Tortoise and Hippo, Walden Media/Relevant Entertainment, 2007.

Collaborator on film Looney Tunes: Back in Action.Also writer for television series Living Single, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Nearly Departed, and Alf Tales;author, under name S.H. Schulman, of episode "Standing in the Shadows of Love" for television series ALF;Author of animated Christmas special Cool Like That;coauthor of pilot for The Wayans Brothers and of The Mother Load, Fresh Man, and Just My Luck.

SIDELIGHTS:

Roger S.H. Schulman started his writing career as a journalist, covering stories on technology and economics for publications such as Business Week. He met comedian Steve Martin in order to conduct an interview with him for a magazine article, and their encounter led Martin to offer Schulman a job writing comedy. Schulman even went on to do some standup comedy in clubs, but he eventually found his greatest success writing screenplays for animated films. The first major project of this sort on which he collaborated was Balto, the story of a heroic dog who helped pull a sled loaded with vital antitoxin needed to combat a deadly epidemic. "Avoiding the mythological grandiosity and freneticism that afflict so many animated features these days, Balto makes modesty a virtue," commented Stephen Holden in aNew York Times review of the film.

Schulman's next collaboration was the tremendously successful fairy tale spoof Shrek. Shrek boasted groundbreaking computer-generated animation, and struck a tone that was "both simple and sophisticated," according to Todd McCarthy in Variety. The result is "an instant animated classic." The story concerns the unlikely romance between an ugly and antisocial ogre and a strong-willed princess. Commented Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly Online: "Shrek lives happily ever after because it's such a feisty but good-natured embrace of the inner ogre in everyone."

The screenwriter later penned sequels to two popular Disney films, The Jungle Book and Mulan. The Jungle Book 2 is "an innocent, entertaining film," according to Sue Pierman in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.The story finds Mowgli, the boy who was raised by wolves in the first film, trying to fit into human life in an Indian village. While the story borrows heavily from the original, it is still "a fun trip back to the jungle," stated Pierman. Mulan II continues the story of a Chinese girl who disguises herself as a man in order to join the army and defend her family's honor. The sequel, which was released directly to DVD and videocassette, "earns high marks as one of the more satisfying small-screen spinoffs," stated Joe Leydon in a Variety review.

Schulman's Tortoise and Hippo is based on a real-life photograph that was widely distributed through newspaper wire services. It shows a baby hippo snuggling up to a hundred-year-old tortoise in a wildlife sanctuary. The two had formed a strong bond after being rescued from the sea in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami. Schulman adapted the real-life story into the tale of a cranky tortoise whose grudging acceptance of a baby hippo eventually leads him to take the young animal all the way back to its home in Africa.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Variety, September 15, 2005, Michael Fleming, "Animated Tortoise in Walden's Pond," p. 2.

Hollywood Reporter, March 7, 2006, Hippo Hop to Helming for Dykstra," p. 69.

Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI), February 13, 2003, Sue Pierman, review of The Jungle Book 2.

New York Times, December 22, 1995, Stephen Holden, review of Balto.

Variety, May 7, 2001, Todd McCarthy, review ofShrek, p. 49; November 12, 2001, Robert Koehler, review of Shrek, p. 30; May 22, 2006, Joe Leydon, review of Mulan II, p. 22.