Career Highlights
Creator of five produced one-hour drama series... Chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences... Winner of the Writers Guild Award... PBS Investigative Reporter... CNN correspondent...
Fresh from winning the WGA award for “Outstanding Longform Original,” CNN correspondent-turned-writer/producer Bryce Zabel saw both a miniseries and a film produced in 2009. He has several projects in active development in 2010, including one with long-time friend and Marvel legend Stan Lee, plus several features based on true stories and optioned material, including a very high-concept (and secret) project that superstition prevents discussing in a blog post.
In 2009, Bryce wrote and co-produced the cutting-edge Animal Planet limited series, "Animal Armageddon," an eight-part documentary about mass extinctions, the biggest project the cable network had ever attempted. He also scripted the produced "Chasing a Dream," a Hallmark special event film he co-wrote with his wife, Jackie, about a high school athlete who runs a sub four-minute mile.
In the three previous years, Bryce scripted a trio of miniseries which aired in the U.S. market and were distributed worldwide. They include the medical thriller “Pandemic” (2007, Hallmark, WGA Award), the pirate adventure "Blackbeard" (2006, Hallmark), and the disaster epic "The Poseidon Adventure" (2005, NBC).
From 2001 to 2003, Bryce served as Chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences -- the first writer/producer elected to this position since his boyhood idol, Rod Serling. He presided over the most tumultuous and transformational time in Academy history, taking office at a time when 9/11 forced the cancellation of the Primetime Emmys, not once, but twice. He also led the negotiations which resulted in a 250% increase in the Emmy telecast license fee. As he left office, "Television Week" featured him in an article, "Bryce Zabel: Agent of Change." As a volunteer in the Academy position, Bryce continued an active television and film career, writing multiple scripts during his term, including the network pilots "Hearts and Minds" at HBO, “McMurdo” for DreamWorks and “Black River Falls” for CBS.
Several television series that Bryce created and executive produced have recently been released into the DVD market as well. “The Crow: Stairway to Heaven,” which he developed for television from the comic book and feature franchise, was introduced at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con and is now in distribution. His Fox Television cult-hit about an African-American superhero, "M.A.N.T.I.S.” was just released as a DVD set in January 2009.
He's also working with SONY to prep his other science-fiction series, NBC's "Dark Skies" for DVD release, although license issues for the period music used in the series have held up progress so far. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of that turbulent decade against the backdrop of UFO secrecy, invoking such key events as the Kennedy assassination, the arrival of the Beatles, Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement.
Following their original runs in network and syndication, all three series ("The Crow," "M.A.N.T.I.S.," "Dark Skies") had significant exposure as Sci-Fi (SyFy) Channel staples.
In addition to those science-fiction series, Zabel has also received the Writers Guild on-screen "created by" or "developed by" credit on two other TV drama series including: "E.N.G.” and "Kay O'Brien.” His other series work includes "L.A. Law,” "Life Goes On" and "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” As an executive producer, he's been responsible for series production budgets in excess of $40-million per season.
In the world of features and long-form, he has received writing credit on two produced films, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" ($53-million box office) which opened as the #1 box office film in the week of its release, and the hit Disney animated film, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" ($186-million box office). His spec script "Official Denial" -- which explained UFOs as humans from the future -- became the first original movie produced by the Sci-Fi Channel. He also launched the “Unsolved Mysteries” movie franchise with an NBC MOW, “Victim of Love.”
Most recently, he wrote “Fall From Grace” for the USA Network based on a story he optioned a full nine months before the journalist who broke it won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. As of 2010, however, Bryce has reacquired the rights and is developing the project for the feature market.
Bryce is one of the most informed writers working in Hollywood today on the subject of UFOs or unidentified flying objects, a subject that he does not take lightly or dismiss as fantasy. Besides "Dark Skies" and "Official Denial," Bryce also was chosen, because of his expertise in the field, to work on the development team for the Spielberg-produced abduction miniseries, "Taken." He also contributed the flying saucer origin of Superman to "Lois & Clark." If you've gotten this far, you may be interested to know that the "secret project" mentioned in the first paragraph has something to do with this knowledge and Bryce's passion for the subject.
On a lighter and brighter note, Bryce is also raising funds to produce the period comedy, "Let's Do It," about the first full-length student film ever made, "Ed's Co-Ed" -- based on the true story of two students who talked Cecil B. DeMille into loaning them a film camera. DeMille sent his personal cinematographer to Eugene, Oregon where he supervised their production and was the only non-student involved.
As a native Oregonian who received a BA in Broadcast Journalism from University of Oregon where the film was produced, this project is personal but the script is funny, too.
Bryce began his career as a television news reporter in both Oregon and Arizona. He came to Los Angeles as an on-air correspondent for CNN where he covered presidential campaigns and space shuttle landings, among other stories. He met his wife in the office of the LA mayor during a news conference. As an on-air PBS reporter, he won several awards of his own for investigative journalism. He was one of the original group of producer/directors on ABC's cutting edge reality magazine series, "Eye on LA."
Bryce started his screenwriting career by combining that passion for journalism and television into his first script, “E.N.G.” -- and it changed his life. The spec pilot about “electronic news gathering” (TV news) launched 108 episodes of the hour drama for the CTV network, led to an overall development deal as a writer/producer for Orion TV and created the lingering suspicion that Bryce, who was born in the U.S. coastal city of Newport, Oregon, was somehow a Canadian.
His production company, Stellar Productions, has been incorporated in the state of California since 1984. It has served as a loan-out for Bryce's services to ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, HBO, Showtime, SONY, Warner Brothers, Disney and other companies, and it has also produced shows in its own right, including the NBC series, "Dark Skies."
Twice nominated by the WGA for outstanding screenwriting, Bryce's work has also been nominated by the Mystery Writers of America, Environmental Media Association, and LA Area Emmy Awards. His nominated work includes the fan-favorite "L.A. Law" where Jimmy Smits’ character defends baby-killers who get away with murder; and the “Dark Skies” pilot about the Kennedy assassination which launched the NBC “Thrillogy” Saturday night programming concept.
In 2000, Bryce was elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, west, and served one term. On the eve of the 2001 contract expiration, he was asked by the WGA leadership to speak for the WGA before national and local media while a news blackout kept the Negotiating Committee silent.
Bryce is an accomplished public speaker, appearing on each of the three Emmy shows (introducing Tom Hanks and Walter Cronkite, respectively) in which he served as the TV Academy leader. He has also been a guest on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Politically Incorrect, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, etc. and been quoted in Time, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. As an essayist, he has written for Daily Variety, Television Week, The Los Angeles Times, the WGA’s Written By and Emmy Magazine.
Inspired by his work on the three Emmy telecasts, his alma mater, the University of Oregon, asked him to produce "Lights, Camera, Oregon!" -- the 2005 campaign launch to start the public phase of the $600-million goal for "Transforming Lives."
His reputation as a producer caught the attention of the USC School of Cinematic Arts which, in 2007, made him an adjunct professor and asked him to teach "Produce or Perish!,” a graduate level class dealing with all aspects of a film producer's life.
Bryce created and edits a film review site, "Movie Smackdown!" which pits films in theaters against similar films (usually out on DVD) and is known for its catch phrase, "Two Films, One Review, No Holds Barred."
He also edits the blog, "For What It's Worth: Dispatches from the Culture War" which comments on news, politics, technology, trends and other issues.
