Jim Maceda

NBC Universal - Comcast (retired)
Screenwriter

Lisbon, Portugal

Member Since:
November 2017

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

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About Jim

Jim was born in Queens, New York in the early years of the Baby Boom. His father had a bread route until a dog bit through his hand. His mother worked for a Chinese accountant on the 82nd floor of the Empire State Building. She told young Jimmy her job was to open and close all the windows in the morning to let in the clouds, then repeat the process before going home. He believed it for years.

He took up trumpet at age 9, beginning what he hoped would one day be a career in music. Soon after, his family moved to Los Angeles in search of the Great Orange Grove. Instead, Dad landed a job as a UPI teletype operator and the seeds of journalism were duly planted.

Jim graduated from Stanford at the height of the Vietnam War with a BA in English and Creative Writing, despite on-campus revolts, a draft lottery, and the infamous Leland Stanford Jr. Band.

He left America and a dumb marriage for Europe, became a street busker in the Paris Metro — often the only white jazz man in black groups. By the time Henry Kissinger came to Paris to talk peace with Vietnam, Jim was hungry — knocked on many doors on the Champs-Elysée — until CBS News hired him as a gofer. He packed up his trumpet and picked up a reporter’s notebook.

Et voilà! Over the next 40 years — 35 with NBC News — Jim covered more than 100 countries and almost as many conflicts, terrorist attacks and natural disasters; interviewed dozens of world leaders including 3 US Presidents; and reported from the front lines of Beirut, Belfast, Bosnia and Beijing... to name a few B’s.

As NBC’s Man in Moscow he covered the fall of the Soviet Union and was the first Westerner inside the secret Siberian city called K-26 — and as it turned out the world’s largest plutonium weapons factory.

He’s a veteran reporter on Iraq and Afghanistan. His scores of embeds with U.S. military as well as profiles of insurgents and civilians torn apart by war inspired his multiple award-winning screenplay, WAR KEEPERS.

He retired in 2015 with an Edward R. Morrow Award, 7 Emmys and nominations as well as many Overseas Press Club and National Headliner Citations for his brand of story-telling.

Hence began a second career in peaceful Portugal, where he’s pursued a lifelong dream of stage- and screenwriting. published his SCYTHES & ROUNDS (2015), THE DREADMILL (2016) and KAMILA & YOSSI (2017).

LAST TO FALL — the tragic, true story of Harry Gunther, America’s least known WWI hero — has won or placed as a finalist in a dozen US and international screenplay contests since 2018 -- the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1.

Jim is currently optioning film rights to the WW2 memoir, EVA & OTTO — RESISTANCE, REFUGEES, AND LOVE IN THE TIME OF HITLER, which he plans to adapt into a limited TV series.

Unique traits: Thanks to good genes, visibly younger than my age. Polyglot, able to survive in 6 languages. A strong journalistic background influences my choice of screenplay genres -- I gravitate to historical dramas and true stories.

Gender:
Male

Height:
6' 1"

Weight:
175

Body type:
Average

Hair:
Receding

Hair color:
Brown

Eyes:
Blue

Ethnicity:
Caucasian

Badges

Photos

Loglines

LAST TO FALL Budget: $10M - $30M | Historical The tragic story of the last soldier killed on the battlefield in WWI -- just as the guns go quiet -- and how a gung-ho U.S. Army reporter uncovers his former comrade's troubling secret: he didn't have to die. Based on true characters and events.
WAR KEEPERS Budget: $10M - $30M | Action 2010, in Southern Afghanistan… during a cat-and-mouse chase across Taliban Country, a kick-ass Marine Platoon Leader and a fugitive Afghan bomb-maker come to respect -- even feel for one another -- until the reality of war strikes back. Inspired by true events.

Credits

WAR KEEPERS
Film WRITER/PRODUCER

Awards

Coverfly Top 1% in Action/Adventure Features All Time (WAR KEEPERS)
(2022)
Finalist, PAGE Awards - PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition (LAST TO FALL)
(2022)
Bronze Prize, PAGE Awards - PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition (WAR KEEPERS)
(2021)
Finalist, ScreenCraft Action & Adventure Screenplay Competition (WAR KEEPERS)
(2019)
Winner, WeScreenplay Feature Screenwriting Awards (LAST TO FALL)
(2018)