Melissa Mathison

Melissa Marie Mathison June 3 1950 November 4 2015 was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion 1979 and ET the ExtraTerrestrial 1982 the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Mathison later wrote The Indian in the Cupboard 1995 based on Lynne Reid Bankss 1980 childrens novel of the same name and Kundun 1997 a biographicaldrama film about the Dalai Lama Her final film credit was The BFG 2016 which marked her third collaboration with film director Steven Spielberg Description above from the Wikipedia article Melissa Mathison licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia