Caroline Thompson (born April 23, 1956) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for theTim Burton-directed filmsEdward Scissorhands andCorpse Bride and the Burton-producedThe Nightmare Before Christmas. She co-wrote the story forEdward Scissorhands and co-adapted a new stage version of the film with director and choreographerMatthew Bourne. Thompson also adapted the screenplay for the film version ofWicked Lovely, a bestselling fantasy series, in 2011, but the production was put intoturnaround. She directedBlack Beauty (1994);Buddy (1997), which she also wrote; and the television filmSnow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001), also as producer and co-writer.

Thompson was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Bettie Marshall (née Warner), a teacher, and Thomas Carlton Thompson, Jr., a lawyer.^[1] She received her early education in Washington. She later moved toCambridge, Massachusetts to attendRadcliffe College, and eventually graduated fromAmherst College in 1978 with a degree in English and classic literature.^[2]

Thompson moved to Los Angeles, supporting herself as a freelance book reviewer and writer. In 1983, she published a novelFirst Born which directorPenelope Spheeris chose to adapt into a film, and from whom she started learning scriptwriting while writing the drafts of the film's screenplay.^[3] Though the movie was never made, the project inspired her to pursue a career as a screenwriter.^[4] Tim Burton was impressed with the novel, which was "about a monster fetus". He feltFirst Born had the same psychological elements he wanted to showcase inEdward Scissorhands, and hired her to write its screenplay as aspec script.^[5]

Her other works includeSnow White: The Fairest of Them All,The Secret Garden,Buddy,Black Beauty,Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, andThe Addams Family. Though she is best known for having written the screenplays forEdward Scissorhands andThe Nightmare Before Christmas, she has had more than a dozen movies made, includingCity of Ember andThe Addams Family.

From the above, she directedBlack Beauty (1994) as her directorial debut,^[6] followed bySnow White in 2001 for TV^[7] andBuddy. She was the producer forSnow White and the associate producer forThe Secret Garden andEdward Scissorhands.

Her screenplay forWicked Lovely, intended to be directed byMary Harron, was inturnaround in 2011.^[8]

Thompson was the first woman to be presented with theDistinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2011Austin Film Festival.^[9]

Her first marriage was to Henry Bromell, a fellow novelist and screenwriter. She later married Steve Nicolaides, a film and TV producer.^[10][11]

As herself

• Prop Culture (2020) episode: "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas"
• The Holiday Movies That Made Us (2020) episode: "Nightmare Before Christmas"

• First born, Published by Coward-McCann, 1983.ISBN 0-698-11224-5.
• Edward Scissorhands, by Thompson & Tim Burton. Published by distributed by Cinestore, 1990.
• The Secret Garden, Adapted by Thompson. Published by s.n., 1991.
• The Addams Family: A Novelization, by Elizabeth Faucher, Thompson, & Larry Wilson. Published by Scholastic Inc., 1991.ISBN 0-590-45541-9.
• Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: A Novel, by Daphne Skinner, Thompson, Michael McDowell, & Tim Burton. Published by Puffin Books, 1994.ISBN 0-14-037121-4.
• Snow White, by Thompson & Julie Hickson. Published by s.n, 2000.
• Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, the Art, the Vision, by Frank Thompson, Tim Burton. Published by Disney Editions, 2002.ISBN 0-7868-5378-6.Caroline Thompson – Page 179.
• Salisbury, Mark;Burton, Tim (2006).Burton on Burton.Faber and Faber.ISBN 0-571-22926-3.

• Caroline Thompson atIMDb
• Caroline Thompson Video Interview

• 1956 births
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American women novelists
• 21st-century American novelists
• 21st-century American women novelists
• American women screenwriters
• Amherst College alumni
• Hugo Award–winning writers
• Living people
• Radcliffe College alumni
• Screenwriters from Washington, D.C.

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