David Kirschner

David Maxwell Kirschner (born May 29, 1955) is an American film and television producer and screenwriter. His producing credits include Don Bluth's An American Tail (also wrote) and Titan A.E. animated features as well as the Child's Play horror franchise.

Career

After studying at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Kirschner began his career designing album cover art for Neil Diamond, most notably Neil Diamond's The Jazz Singer, and illustrating characters for the Muppets and Sesame Street. In 1983, Kirschner created and released children's book series Rose Petal Place, which spawned two Television specials, toys, clothing, and a wide array of licensed consumer products. In 1986, Kirschner created and executive produced An American Tail, which was co-executive produced by Steven Spielberg, and, at its release, was the highest-grossing non-Disney produced animated feature of all time. It was followed by its theatrical sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), the television series Fievel's American Tails, and two direct-to-video sequels. In 1986, David Kirschner signed a deal with United Artists Pictures and MGM/UA Television for development, production and distribution of major motion picture and television projects for a two-year deal. Kirschner was appointed chairman of Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1989, where he wrote / created and executive produced many films, specials and shows, including Wake, Rattle & Roll, Gravedale High and The Pirates of Dark Water.

Kirschner is also creator of the Chucky animatronic doll which is featured in the Chucky series. He has produced all seven films in the original franchise, including the recent Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, direct-to-video films made by Universal 1440 Entertainment. Other notable productions include 1997's Cats Don't Dance, winner of the 25th annual Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, 2006's Curious George, based upon the book series of the same name, Martian Child, and Golden Globe-nominated Miss Potter. His 2010s/2020s work includes executive producer on Curious George, Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney+), Cult of Chucky (for Universal 1440 Entertainment), Random (In Pre-Production for The Weinstein Company) and Garden District (In-Development for Dimension Films). Kirschner is currently head of his own production company, David Kirschner Productions.

Filmography

Films

Title	Year	Functioned as			Notes
		Producer	Executive producer	Writer
An American Tail	1986	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Animated
Child's Play	1988	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls
Child's Play 2	1990	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls
Child's Play 3	1991	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Also created dolls
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West	1991	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Animated
Once Upon a Forest	1993	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated
Hocus Pocus	1993	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
The Flintstones	1994	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
The Pagemaster	1994	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Live action / animated
Cats Don't Dance	1997	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated
Bride of Chucky	1998	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls
Titan A.E.	2000	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated
Frailty	2001	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Secondhand Lions	2003	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Seed of Chucky	2004	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls
Thru the Moebius Strip	2005	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated
Curious George	2006	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated
Miss Potter	2006	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Martian Child	2007	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!	2009	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated / Direct-to-DVD
Curse of Chucky	2013	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls / Direct-to-DVD
Kristy	2014	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle	2015	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated / Direct-to-DVD
Cult of Chucky	2017	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also created dolls / Direct-to-DVD
Curious George: Royal Monkey	2019	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated / Direct-to-DVD
Curious George: Go West, Go Wild	2020	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated / Direct-to-streaming
Curious George: Cape Ahoy	2021	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated / Direct-to-streaming
Hocus Pocus 2	2022	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Direct-to-streaming

Television films and specials

Title	Year	Functioned as			Notes
		Producer	Executive producer	Writer
Rose Petal Place	1984	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Animated special
Rose Petal Place: Real Friends	1985	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Animated special
...Where's Rodney?	1990	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Unsold pilot
Poochinski	1990	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Unsold pilot
The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story	1990	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
The Last Halloween	1991	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Live action / animated special
Monster in My Pocket: The Big Scream	1992	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated special
The Halloween Tree	1993	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated
The Town Santa Forgot	1993	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated special

Television series

Title	Year(s)	Functioned as			Notes
		Creator	Executive producer	Writer
Gravedale High	1990	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (13 episodes)
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures	1990	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (13 episodes)
Wake, Rattle and Roll	1990–1991	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Live action / animated (50 episodes)
The Pirates of Dark Water	1991–1993	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (21 episodes)
Fievel's American Tails	1992	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Animated (13 episodes) / Also creative consultant
Fish Police	1992	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (6 episodes)
The Addams Family	1992–1993	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (21 episodes)
Capitol Critters	1992–1996	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (13 episodes)
Earth: Final Conflict	1997–2002	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Executive producer (110 episodes) / Teleplay (Episode: "Law & Order")
Five Days to Midnight	2004	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Mini-series (5 episodes)
Curious George	2006–2022	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animated (198 episodes + 3 specials)
Chucky	2021–2024	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	24 episodes / Also created dolls

External links

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