So how does a UT alum go about getting one of his screenplays turned into a movie by a director as well-respected as Sidney Lumet? It sounds easy if you ask Stephen Schwartz, whose adaptation of Richard Dooling's Critical Care is currently playing in theaters. It just takes a lot of persistence and talent.

Schwartz, who graduated from the UT Business School in 1977, entered the entertainment industry on the business side. He worked for the Children's Television Workshop and eventually became head of Sesame Street Records.

"We wanted to go more towards film and television production, so a partner and I set up our own production company," Schwartz said. "We produced about 200 hours of television and film programs. We won an Ace award for best documentary series for Ordinary People, and we were nominated for multiple awards for our adaptation of Raisin in the Sun with Danny Glover."

The scripts Schwartz reviewed for the production company eventually inspired him to try his own hand at screenwriting.

"I was seeing a lot of material coming in that I didn't think was very good. At some point I just decided that I could do better, or if I couldn't do better, I should prove that to myself so I would have more respect for what people were bringing in. I sat down and I did a script and I just loved doing it."

A director and distribution company quickly latched on to Schwartz's first script. During the delay before they could begin working on it, Schwartz started working on Critical Care. In the meantime, the distribution company changed hands and the plan unraveled, but Schwartz had already realized his potential as a screenwriter.

"I'd been involved with other projects, and nothing had ever moved through the system that quickly. So I thought, I'm enjoying this and I'm doing work that is being reasonably well received, so I'm going to keep on going this way."

Schwartz chose to work on Critical Care because it dealt with a topic that struck close to home for him.

"My father had started a lengthy dying process," Schwartz explained. "He had been near death a couple of times, and he had been brought back by CPR. But his health continued to decline. I was very familiar with some of the travails of people in the later stages of life.

"At the same time that the environment is very stressful, strange and alien, there's also stuff that's happening that's wildly comic. There's a very logical madness that creeps into that world."

Schwartz greatly admired the work of Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the screenplay for Sidney Lumet's Network.

"There was a spirit that Paddy had that I haven't seen in movies in a long time, and I wanted somehow to find that spirit again," he said. "I thought this environment is kind of strange and a good starting place for it. The thing about comedy, at its best (in my opinion), it comes out of reality. Dealing with a very dark and serious reality, the comedy has the opportunity to be dark and profound."

With its unconventional approach, Critical Care is definitely not the type of movie most people expect from Hollywood. Both Schwartz and Lumet considered the story's distinctive edge an asset that justified the risk of making a movie that wasn't aimed at raking it in at the box office.

"The typical Hollywood product these days is designed to be coddling. It's designed to be slick, the least objectionable programming for an international audience. We do stuff in Critical Care that is deliberately jarring because in a certain way that's what the world is. The world I live in is a combination of stuff that is funny, dramatic, tragic and absurd. I think in terms of trying to capture real life; I try to merge all these together."

Schwartz admits that the resulting film will not be easy for all audiences to digest, but he hopes that discerning viewers will appreciate his efforts.

"We think there is an audience who will want to see it because it is a little challenging to them. If my brain hasn't been exercised a little bit in a movie I feel cheated. There are people who won't like this movie, who will resent that it's thought-provoking. Some people don't go to the movies to think; they go to get away from everything. That's perfectly valid, and they probably shouldn't go see this."

Whether or not his film is widely received by audiences, Schwartz has accomplished quite a feat in taking a story he feels strongly about all the way to completion.