David M. Evans

Virtually unknown screenwriter of low-budget films ("Open House" and "Terminal Entry" both 1987) whose screenplay for "Radio Flyer," a drama about child abuse, created a bidding war among Hollywood studios before Michael Douglas' Stonebridge Entertainment and Columbia Pictures purchased the hot property in 1989 for an estimated $1.1 million. As part of the sale, Evans was to make his debut directing the film as well, but early in production was replaced by veteran action/adventure director Richard Donner and his producer-wife Lauren Shuler-Donner who replaced the initial cast and after test screenings added a more upbeat ending, resulting in what was dubbed an innately noncommercial "expensive flop" and the "first feel-good movie about child abuse." Evans was executive producer of the film. He made his belated directorial debut with "The Sandlot" (1993), a nostalgic tale of childhood and baseball.