Biography of Lynda Obst

She soon became an editor at the New York Times Magazine where she covered such diverse tops as science, publishing, and Entertainment.

In 1979, she was recruited by Peter Guber, then chairman of Casablanca/Polygram, to work in film development as his protégé. In that capacity she developed Flashdance and Clue as well as the adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel Contact. In 1982, Lynda joined the David Geffen Company where she worked on the development and production of Risky Business, After Hours, Lost in America, and Beetlejuice.

In 1985, she became partners with Debra Hill and formed Hill/Obst Productions at Paramount Pictures. Among their films were Chris Columbus' directing debut Adventures in Babysitting, as well as Heartbreak Hotel: which, he wrote and directed.

In 1989, Lynda started her own production company and moved to Columbia Pictures where she produced The Fisher King (with Debra Hill): starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, directed by Terry Gilliam. She also produced Nora Ephron's directing debut This Is My Life for 20th Century Fox and executive produced Nora Ephron's smash film, Sleepless in Seattle, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, released by Tri-Star Pictures.

In 1993, Lynda signed an extensive multi-picture deal with Peter Chernin, Fox's newly installed Chairman. She has so far produced four films for Fox, including Bad Girls, and One Fine Day, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, directed by Michael Hoffman. She is in post-production on Hope Floats, directed by Forest Whitaker, starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick, Jr. And in January 1998, Lynda will begin production on Holy War to be directed by Ed Zwick and starring Denzel Washington.

In addition to her projects at Fox Lynda produced the Warner Brothers summer blockbuster Contact, starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this film is based on Carl Sagan's novel about a female astronomer's search for extra - terrestrial life.

Currently Lynda is developing a number of projects including Ghetto Fabulous, an "action-musical" written by supermodel Veronica Webb; Ten Percent Man, a Woody Harrelson thriller; an adaptation of Animal Husbandry: Me und My Boy, with Nora Ephron, Repo Girls, with Drew Barrymore; Crisis in the Hot Zone, based on Richard Preston's best-selling book and his New Yorker Magazine article; This Town by Sidney Blumenthal, who was recently appointed assistant to President Clinton: Richard Jewell, based on Marie Brenner's Vanity Fair article about the Olympic Park bombing, to be written by award-winning playwright David Mamet and an adaptation of the book Wishbones by Tom Perotta. For Warner Brothers, Lynda is developing Above the Fold with Dustin Hoffman to star.

Lynda's best-selling non-fiction book, Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths From the Hollywood Trenches, her personal Hollywood survival guide, was published in 1996 by W, Brown and Co., a division of Time/Life Books. Having just been released in paperback in the Fall of 1997, it has once again made the best-seller list. Lynda also writes book reviews and comedic essays about the film business for such publication as The New York Times, California Magazine, Harper's, American Film. And Premiere.