Mark Rosenthal

Once but a humble Hollywood script reader, Mark Rosenthal vaulted onto the studio A-list with the 1985 teen-rebel cult flick "The Legend of Billie Jean." Co-written with partner Lawrence Konner, "Billie Jean" was a box office disappointment--overshadowed at the time by the popularity of its hit Pat Benatar-sung theme song "Invincible." But the writing team of Konner & Rosenthal prospered, immediately following up with the box-office success of "The Jewel of the Nile," a sequel to "Romancing the Stone." Bankable franchise doctors, the team next penned the screenplay for "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace," collaborating with actor Christopher Reeve on the story, and they developed the screen story for "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," the last of the film series to feature the entire original crew of the United StatesS. Enterprise. Rosenthal and Konner's contribution to the completed "Star Trek VI" script has been disputed, however, by both Kirk and Spock--that is, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Both claim in their respective memoirs that the actual depth and nature of the writers' input was fairly negligible. For his feature film directing debut, Rosenthal returned to his Philly stomping grounds with the '60s-set rock 'n' roll romance "The In Crowd" (1988), also written with Konner. The busy team garnered acclaim for the Julia Roberts vehicle "Mona Lisa Smile" and continued to deliver scripts for Hollywood blockbusters (and intended blockbusters).