Scott Schneid

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Scott arrived in Hollywood shortly after receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard University. Landing a job in the William Morris Agency's training program, he worked evenings and weekends to develop the screenplay for what became Tri-Star's infamous "Silent Night, Deadly Night," receiving executive producer credit on the Yuletide horror picture, the film going on to spawn four sequels for LIVE Home Video and a 2012 Anchor Bay " re-make." Bitten by the creative bug, Scott formed a decade-long partnership with Tony Michelman, a former Morris trainee. Together they received writing credit on produced episodes of "Hardcastle & McCormack," "Rugrats," and "Friday The Thirteenth - The Series," the latter submitted for Emmy consideration by the producers. This was followed by the motion picture "Phantom Of The Mall," starring Pauly Shore, Rob Estes and Morgan Fairchild, which was released theatrically in the U.S. by Fries Entertainment. Development deals and close calls followed. An action/thriller of theirs was optioned by Baer Entertainment/Orion Pictures, FX genius Stan Winston and producer Gale Anne Hurd got into business with them on one of their horror specs, they partnered with director Jon Turtletaub and producer Chuck Gordon on a comedy they developed, CBS green-lit an MOW they wrote that Burt Reynolds was attached to star in, and IRS Films - in conjunction with the Chiodo Bros. - hired them to write an original. Scott's decade-long roller coaster ride ended when he decided to pursue a welling interest in directing. Financing a 9-minute short, he was accepted into the American Film Institute's highly competitive MFA program. After his stint at the AFI, and 3 more shorts under his belt, Scott quickly optioned his first solo writing effort to producer Dale Pollock (Scott was the only director in his class of 24 that Pollock, former co-chair of the AFI producing program, got into business with). Although Pollock shut his company to become Dean of the North Carolina School Of The Arts, Scott once again optioned the project, this time to Beverly Hills-based Crusader Entertainment. Crusader attached Scott to direct the $8 million picture and placed it on the schedule for pre-production, but the film was scuttled at the last minute. Scott wrote his next feature based on a childhood experience. A coming-of-age comedy, it was one of 20 American projects chosen as a "No Borders" selection by the Independent Film Project (IFP NY) with Scott attached to direct, and was showcased at their annual International Co-Production market in Manhattan. Post IFP, Scott produced and developed writer/director Rufus Williams' "Butterfly Dreaming," which made its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival and was the opening night picture of the Santa Monica Film Festival, winning the Jury Prize for Best Thriller. "Butterfly Dreaming" was picked up for domestic distribution by Vanguard Cinema and released on DVD May 2010. While developing "Butterfly," Scott connected up with famed Hollywood producer David Foster on an action/horror pic. With Peter O'toole committed to playing one of the leads and ICM representing the package, the film began casting, the likes of Zac Efron, Emma Stone, Kaley Cuoco, Michael Cera and Amanda Seyfried all coming in to read for the teen leads, but things were put on hold when a portion of the financing fell out. Currently, Scott is partnered with Orwo Studios, Black Hangar Studios and Masi Media on a reboot of his and Dennis Whitehead's cult Santa-slasher "Silent Night, Deadly Night" for a 2022 release, is working on "Dark Corners," a Psycho-like thriller he developed with "Saw's" Tobin Bell and Lorne Cameron, and is attached to direct the tween horror film "Red Racer," which he also wrote.