Rickmanvisit

Tom Rickman, a 1965 Murray State University graduate and 1981 MSU Distinguished Alumnus recipient, spoke to MSU freshmen at the MSU Convocation as part of the MSU Freshman Reading experience during their first week of classes. During his visit, he will also conduct a screenwriting workshop for students.

In conjunction with these student-related events, Rickman will also host a question and answer presentation Thursday evening from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Freed Curd Auditorium. This event is open to the community and all interested participants are invited to attend this discussion, that will include Rickman speaking of his life as an author.

The screen writer for Tuesdays with Morrie , Rickman discussed Mitch Albom’s four time New York Times bestseller book that garnered Rickman the Writer’s Guild Award and the Humanitas Prize for his teleplay with students Monday in Lovett auditorium.

Albom penned the non-fiction story after he reacquainted himself with Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor and mentor who was dying. Through their weekly visits Albom was able to capture Morrie’s final words of wisdom prior to his death.

When writing the ‘Tuesdays’ teleplay Rickman obtained actual tapes of Morrie from Albom which helped him in creating the main character’s voice in the television movie that starred the late Jack Lemmon. Effective interpretation of the character’s voice is important to Rickman. “I try to convey them in the most accurate way that I can,” he said. “Through listening to the voice it helps in creating the character of the person and also the speech pattern.”

Creating characters by identifying with the actual people Rickman writes about, is a skill that also led him to travel with country music legend, Loretta Lynn, several times on her tour bus when he was writing the Coal Miners Daughter screenplay, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Rickman’s other credits include Everybody's All-America, and The River Rat (which he also directed). His television credits include Truman , nominated for an Emmy Award, and in 2003, he co-authored Reagan , the CBS mini-series, and completed the screenplay for a remake of Culpepper Cattle Company for CBS. Currently he is researching and writing a 12-hour extravaganza on the story of Motown for Universal-NBC, a 12-hour miniseries for NBC to be aired next year.

Jim Carter, MSU vice president for institutional advancement, said MSU will enjoy giving Rickman his share of attention and fame while he is back home. “Tom has had an incredibly successful career in the motion picture and television industry and unfortunately his chosen field doesn’t allow him the same limelight as those in front of the camera,” he said. “We are so proud that it all began for Tom right here at Murray State University and that his loyalty continues to be demonstrated with his recent visit to Murray .”

Rickman’s writing studio that is located directly behind his Encino Calif., home has been his writing haven since early spring. His grueling writing schedule of 12 hour days and seven day work weeks is a rigorous schedule he maintains to meet the Motown history deadline.

A lover of jazz and the music from the 1960s, Rickman has been listening to the sounds of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and The Commodores as a part of his daily activities. “These are the same play lists and music that was popular when I was a student at Murray ,” he said. “This music never left.”

Additionally, his research has afforded him the opportunity to travel to the home of the founder of the Motown record label. “I have had two very long conversations with Berry Gordy in his Bel Air home.”

A native of Sharpe , Ky. , Rickman received an M.A. in English at the University of Illinois , Champaign-Urbana, where he founded The Depot, an off-campus theater that is still in operation.

During graduate school, Rickman’s first movie “Good Blood,” based on a Flannery O’Connor story, resulted in a fellowship to the American Film Institute (AFI) in Beverly Hills , Calif. Filming at his boyhood home and using local talent, Rickman’s AFI film “What Fixed Me” won a national award for student films. While at AFI, Rickman was hired by MGM to write the screenplay for “Kansas City Bomber,” starring Raquel Welch.

A charter trustee of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah, Rickman has continued to mentor hopeful writer/directors there as well as internationally in Cuba, Brazil, France, Italy, Norway, Ireland and other countries. He has taught a master’s course in writing at the University of Southern California and also founded his own screenwriting workshop at the Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference near Lake Tahoe, Calif.

An annual writer’s conference held each summer in Olympic Valley, Calif., Squaw Valley has touted noted authors over the years that include Robert Clark Young, Robert Stone, Ayelet Waldman, Louis B. Jones and Jay Gummerman.

Michael Chabon, (Pultizer Prize recipient for his novel In the Final Solutio n ), and Amy Tan, (The 1989 recipient for the National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book Award recipient for The Joy Luck Club ) have also appeared during the annual conference that hosts weekly workshops in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting and medical writing.

Rickman’s low-key demeanor he has chosen to maintain during his successful writing career in Hollywood , is a trait he obtained while being reared in Kentucky . Rickman says his Kentucky roots have always played a big part in his writing and film making, adding that his father and mother, the late Marshall and Colleen Rickman, were hard-working people who provided him with a strong sense of their rural Kentucky home.

When Rickman participates with the Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference and encounters other acclaimed writers, he says they usually don’t discuss their on-going writing initiatives. “We have a chat and then go on our way,” he said. “There’s a mystique about writing in the movie business, it has to do with how one conveys the essence or the material.”

A seasoned writer who believes writers get taken for granted and learn the same lesson over and over, said writing drama parts for actors and actresses is a skill that requires conveying a message on paper. “If it ain’t on the page it ain’t on stage,” he said. “The script has to be good.”

Returning home to Rickman’s alma mater is an exciting and refreshing time, where Rickman will recapture many of the core morals and common sense values he says “that’s not here,” of his California home. “It’s always good to return home,” he said.

Dr. F. King Alexander, MSU president, announced to the freshman audience that Rickman had just been contacted by ABC to adapt a Tsunami screen play to for a future air date.