Richard Chapman


Senior lecturer, film & media studies

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Senior lecturer Richard Chapman is a veteran screenwriter and producer in film and television. He has created, produced and written more than 200 hours of network series, including such credits as “Simon & Simon” (CBS), “The New Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (NBC), Disney’s “Absentminded Professor” and the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated HBO Original Movie,”Live from Baghdad.”

His career in motion pictures features “My Fellow Americans” and an adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s novel “Thank You for Smoking.” Chapman has written over twenty motion picture screenplays for such stars as Mel Gibson, Meg Ryan, Alec Baldwin and Bette Midler. He has also produced a feature length documentary, “Dateline-Saigon,” the behind-the-scenes story of media coverage of the Vietnam War. It is a comprehensive and controversial study of how journalists reported the war and is culled from more than 50 hours of interviews with such icons as Walter Cronkite and the late David Halberstam.

Stories

WashU Expert: Play it again, Uncle Sam

WashU Expert: Play it again, Uncle Sam

Rick and Ilsa, “Casablanca’s” ill-fated lovers, will always have Paris. Uncle Sam will always have Kabul. And Saigon. And Baghdad. In the long-running tragedy of American foreign entanglements, Uncle Sam has become less a hapless romantic idealist and more a cynical “love ’em and leave ’em” serial abuser, says veteran filmmaker Richard Chapman.
War, reporting and the Tower of Babel

War, reporting and the Tower of Babel

Richard Chapman, executive producer of “Dateline-Saigon,” discusses the documentary, the dangers journalists faced during the early years of the Vietnam War, and lessons for contemporary reporters and readers.
Chapman’s ‘Dateline–Saigon’ now streaming

Chapman’s ‘Dateline–Saigon’ now streaming

“Dateline­–Saigon,” a documentary about Vietnam War reporting produced by Richard Chapman, senior lecturer in film and media studies in Arts & Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has been released for streaming on iTunes, Amazon Prime and other platforms.
WashU Expert: The reality TV election

WashU Expert: The reality TV election

Long before the 2016 presidential campaign, millions of Americans watched Donald Trump play the successful businessman on NBC’s hit reality show “The Apprentice.” Both the exposure and the experience served him well, said Richard Chapman, senior lecturer in film & media studies in Arts & Sciences.

Richard Chapman nominated for Emmy Award for Live From Baghdad

Sigrid EstradaChapman, lecturer in film & media studies, co-wrote HBO’s *Live From Baghdad*.Richard Chapman, lecturer in screenwriting in Washington University’s Film & Media Studies Program in Arts & Sciences, has been nominated for a 2003 Emmy Award for the HBO original film Live From Baghdad.