Age: 64
male
Ted Elliott (born 1961) is an American screenwriter. Along with his writing partner Terry Rossio, Elliott has written some of the most successful American films of the past 15 years, including Aladdin, Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2004, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America; his term on the board ended in 2006. Along with fellow former board member Craig Mazin, Elliott runs The Artful Writer, a website aimed at professional screenwriters. He is also a co-founder with Terry Rossio of Wordplay a.k.a. Wordplayer.com, one of the premier screenwriting sites on the Internet. In 2005, Elliott ran for president of the Writers Guild of America, west, but lost to animation writer and historical figurine maker Patric Verrone. Verrone received 1301 votes; Elliott received 591.
In the late 1880s, an English couple and their infant son escape a shipwreck, ending up near uncharted rainforests off the coast of Africa. The couple craft themselves a treehouse from their ship's wreckage, but are subsequently killed by Sabor, a leopardess. Kala, a female western gorilla who recently lost her own child to Sabor, hears the cries of the orphaned infant and finds him in the ruined treehouse. Though she is attacked by Sabor, Kala and the baby manage to escape. Kala takes the baby back to the jungle to raise as her own, an action of which the leader and her mate, Kerchak, grudgingly disapproves. Kala raises the human child, naming him Tarzan. Years later, Tarzan begins to befriend other gorillas and animals, including a young female gorilla named Terk and the paranoid male elephant Tantor. Tarzan finds himself treated differently because of his different physique, so he makes great efforts to improve himself. As a young man, Tarzan manages to kill Sabor with a crude spear he made, gaining Kerchak's reluctant respect.
