Tom is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he received a Bachelors Degree with Individual Concentration in Film, mentored by the photographer Jerome Liebling. He studied photography with the painter Jerrold Maddox at Amherst College, art history at the Ecole du Louvre, film history, cinematography, directing, film aesthetics and structure (with the film theoretician Noel Burch) at L’Institut de Formation Cinematographique in Paris and is a graduate of the director’s program at the American Film Institute. He has written and rewritten screenplays for Robert Zemeckis, Lawrence Kasdan, Lili Fini Zanuck & Richard Zanuck, David Brown, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack, Richard Rush, Harold Ramis, Lauren Schuler Donner & Richard Donner, Ray Stark, Brian Grazer, Working Title, Jersey Film, Chris Blackwell and many others. He is a member of Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He wrote the screenplays for Cocoon, Free Willy, Zeus and Roxanne, The Adventures of Pinocchio and other films. He teaches screenwriting at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he is a James Gindin Visiting Artist.