Clive Barker began his career in the arts as a playwright, actor and director, but was first recognized as a master of storytelling when he sold his first collection of short stories, The Books of Blood in the U.S., in 1984. In 1987 he directed the cult hit Hellraiser (1987), adapted by Barker from his novella The Hellbound Heart. Although hailed as a visionary innovator of the genre, Barker has reached outside horror with fantasy (Weaveworld 1987; The Great and Secret Show 1989) and the children's book, The Thief of Always (1992), which features 27 of his own illustrations.

Barker returned to the director's chair for Lord of Illusions (1995), an unusual film noir inflected story of how real and deadly magic sometimes fuels the art of illusion. Barker also served as producer and adapted his 1985 story The Last Illusion. He has continued to alternate between film and book projects.

Barker has also applied his narrative skill to videogames, with The Undying (2001). He is currently at work on the game Jericho, scheduled for release this fall.

Wednesday Keynote:
Driving Mythology Forward

Thomas Tull
Chairman, Legendary Pictures

with Mitch Davis
Chairman and CEO, Brash Entertainment

As Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, financier Thomas Tull has developed a strong track record of how to serve the interests of commerce and creativity, through films including Batman Begins, Superman Returns and 300. With the debut of his latest venture, Brash Entertainment, Tull brings those skills to the gaming industry. A self-professed "movie and videogame geek", Tull will discuss the parallels between film and games: how the gaming sensibility has made films more experiential at the same time as cinema has inspired gamers to increasingly adopt a sense of story. He is joined by Brash Entertainment CEO, Mitch Davis, who describes how his film-centric game studio synchronizes with the movie industry to complete
the audience's experience. 

Thomas Tull is the Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, which recently entered into a five-year, 25-picture deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.  Legendary Pictures was awarded the prestigious Deal of the Year in the entertainment industry in 2005 by IDD Magazine.  Legendary’s first release was the hit film Batman Begins, followed by Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. In December of 2006 Legendary released We Are Marshall, directed by McG and starring Matthew McConaughey. Most recently Legebdary created the smash hit, 300, directed by Zack Snyder from Frank Miller’s graphic novel.

Among Legendary’s upcoming projects are: Trick'R Treat, written and directed by Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty and produced by Bryan Singer; Roland Emmerich’s  10,000 B.C.; Where the Wild Things Are, based on the Maurice Sendak and directed by Spike Jonze; and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the highly anticipated follow-up to Batman Begins.

Tull was previously president and a director of The Convex Group, a media and entertainment holding company in Atlanta that invests in new media networks, launched by WebMD founder Jeff Arnold.  He executed M&A activity, including the acquisitions of content company How Stuff Works and content distribution platforms LidRock and FlexPlay, and developed the company’s relationships and partnerships with motion picture, music and videogame companies.  Prior to Convex, Tull was a principal at the Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, the largest venture-capital IT fund in the Southeast.