Laura Harkcom is working as a studio executive at Warner Bros. Studios when she gets the call.
"I don't know if you remember me; this is Chris Leone."
Leone, like Harkcom, had been a creative writing major at Carnegie Mellon. Both earned their degrees in 1993.
"Of course, I remember you!" Harkcom replies, recalling that Leone was one of the best writers in a screenwriting class they both took. She learns he, too, has relocated to L.A. and works in visual effects. Not knowing many people in the city, he says he decided to call because he heard she was working at Warner Bros.
During the next few years, the two stay in touch, and Harkcom, remembering Leone's writing ability, suggests he pitch an idea for a script to her. "He did, and it was the best idea that I had ever heard," Harkcom recalls.
They develop the script together, kind of an American anime movie, and in 2000 Harkcom leaves her position at Warner Bros. to write with Leone full-time. They sell the script to Columbia Pictures, though it's never produced. Undaunted, they continue to write together and eventually co-write and co-produce the Sci-Fi Channel's The Lost Room 2006 miniseries that starred Peter Krause, Julianna Margulies, and Kevin Pollak. It earns several award nominations, including one from the Writers Guild.
Their similar writing sensibilities in developing "strange, high-concept" ideas that blend sci-fi, horror, comedy, and fantastical elements have led them to their next project—the recently published serial comic book We Kill Monsters, where two brothers find out there really are monsters under the bed—and everywhere else. The first few issues have received nearly unanimous praise. Believing in the comic's adaptability to film, TV, and games—not unlike Spiderman and Batman—Harkcom and Leone have created their own intellectual property Monstrosity label.
—Danielle Commisso (HS'06)
