Faculty, staff, and students had several opportunities
this fall to rub shoulders with Hollywood luminary
Nicholas Meyer. Meyer is a director and screenwriter
whose work includes many of the most popular movies
of the past few decades, including Star Trek:
The Wrath of Khan and Fatal Attraction. A1968
UI film and theatre arts graduate, Meyer came back
to campus
in September as an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting
Professor for a week of events that included workshops
with students, lectures, and a film festival.
Kristi Robinson-Bontrager, public relations and
marketing coordinator for UI Libraries, talked with
Meyer during his visit to the Special Collections
department in the Main Library.
Though he grew up in New York City and has lived
in Los Angeles for many years, Nicholas Meyer still
considers Iowa City and The University of Iowa his
intellectual home.
“This place created me,” Meyer says. “It
really sharpened my thinking.”
That connection to Iowa led him to establish an
undergraduate scholarship in theater arts and, in
1983, to begin donating his papers to Special Collections
in the University’s Main Library.
The Meyer collection includes manuscripts of his
books and screenplays as well film posters, a radio
broadcast, and film publicity photographs. During
his campus visit last month, Meyer presented to the
library a signed copy of his screenplay for The
Human Stain (2003).
“Schools and libraries are the twin cornerstones
of a civilized society,” Meyer says. “Libraries
are only good if people use them, like books only
exist when someone reads them. Unfortunately, we
are converting to a visual society, and I think the
average person is getting more information from pictures
than from words.”
Meyer admits that contention puts him in a complicated
position as both a writer and a director.
“As a writer, you have control of the words
you put on the page,” he says. “But once
that manuscript leaves your hand, you give control
to the reader. As a director, you are limited by
everything: weather, budget, and egos.”
Although he appreciates the quiet solitude of writing,
by the time he has finished a screenplay, he is ready
to reconnect with the world. Collaboration is what
the filmmaker enjoys most about directing.
“Other people often provoke something good,” Meyer
says. “Art doesn’t just happen by accident.
It is about pulling out new tricks and trying new
things.”
by Kristi Robinson-Bontrager
|
