Jeff Vintar was born in Oak Park, Illinois. After short careers as a cabinet-maker, an industrial laborer, a college English instructor, a cartoonist and a bus driver, he broke into the film business by selling three spec scripts within six months: "The Long Hello and Short Good-bye," a modern noir released in Germany by Warner Bros. in 1999; "Spaceless," a twist-filled sci-fi love story now at Universal with Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean") directing; and "Hardwired," an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that made it to the screen in 2004 as the big budget 20th Century Fox film "I, Robot" starring Will Smith. Mr. Vintar has written screenplays for Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and New Line Cinema. His current projects include a special event series on NatGeo telling the terrifying story of Ebola, The Hot Zone; and a feature film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's classic mind-bending sci-fi novel Ubik.