Thursday, January 22, 2009

CRIMINAL MINDS WRITER MARK BRUNER


Criminal Minds: Last night's episode, "Bloodline" written by Mark Bruner was fantastic. What a terrific first effort. Here is a link to an article written about Mark.

Mark Bruner grew up in exotic countries of the world and in Vienna, graduated from Langley High School and the University of Virginia and, after graduation, moved to Los Angeles to work in the television industry. On Jan. 21, Bruner's debut screenplay will air on CBS'"Criminal Minds."

AT LANGLEY High School, Bruner played soccer, wrote "a lot of personal writing," and watched movies often. "I was just your average nerdy kid," Bruner said.

Bruner's father was a career State Department employee and the Bruner family moved around North Africa and Israel when Bruner was growing up. Bruner, now 23, said he "wrote a lot and watched a lot of movies" during those years he spent overseas. When he was "just a kid," he wanted to make short movies with his camcorder.

"Growing up overseas, my family was so important to me. They were always there for me. Family closeness was sort of an inspiration for my story."

"Bloodline" is Bruner's first produced script, the story of a reclusive, serial-killing family. "We had never done a family of serial killers before," Bruner said. "Basically, the plot is that the team is called into an Alabama town where young girls are being abducted."

Through a contact of Bruner's father, the writer got an internship with "Criminal Minds" in the summer of 2005, between his sophomore and junior years at UVA. Upon graduation, a bachelor of arts in media studies in hand, Bruner took on a full-time position with the program and moved to Los Angeles.

"Now that I'm getting paid to write and watch movies, it's kind of cool."

Rest of the article can be found here:
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=324561&paper=73&cat=104