Ted Tally

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Ted Tally (born April 9, 1952, as Theodore Tally) is an American playwright and screenwriter, best known for the play Terra Nova and the screenplay for the film The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Screenplay as well as the WGA Screen Award, Chicago Film Critics Award and an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

In addition to Terra Nova, which won an Obie Award, and Coming Attractions, which won the New York Outer Critics Circle Award, his plays include Hooters, Little Footsteps and Silver Linings. His television scripts include "The Comedy Zone," "Hooters," "Terra Nova" (BBC-TV) and "The Father Clements Story" (Christopher Award).

Born in North Carolina, Tally was educated at Yale College and the Yale School of Drama, and has also taught at each of them. His other honors include fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. He lives with his wife and two children in Pennsylvania.

Other scripts include White Palace, Before and After, Outbreak, and All the Pretty Horses.

After declining to write the screenplay for Hannibal, Tally returned to the Hannibal Lecter franchise to write Red Dragon. Tally was asked by Inside Film Online magazine why he decided not to write the screenplay for Hannibal:

"For a lot of reasons. I didn't like the book. The director, Jonathon Demme, and I read it and were horrified. We didn't see how we could make a movie from it that we could be proud of and not feel sleazy about it, without making it a totally different story, which we could have done on our own. It was upsetting because we had a friendship with Tom Harris and felt we owed him a lot. But he was defensive and didn't want anything changed and it was frustrating because it would have been the biggest payday for all of us, putting us up there in Spielberg territory."

Tally is also credited as an associate producer for "Mission to Mars" (2000), as well as creative consultant for "Madagascar" (2005) and story consultant for "Shrek 2" (2004).