Al Reinert

Al Reinert (1947 – December 31, 2018) was an American journalist, film director, screenwriter and producer. He co-wrote the screenplays for the Ron Howard film Apollo 13 and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, but is best known for directing and producing For All Mankind, an award-winning 1989 documentary about NASA's Apollo program. He died of lung cancer at his home in Wimberley, Texas on December 31, 2018.

Early life Reinert was born in Tokyo, Japan to American parents. He went to high school in Fort Worth, Texas and attended West Point for a year before dropping out with the aim of playing professional baseball. On a scholarship to Texas A&M, Reinert played ball and studied geology. When the lure of pro sports subsided, he turned his attention to student government, winning the college's student body presidency. His grade point average, however, was too low for him to serve. In 2024, the Former Journalism Students Association of A&M inducted him posthumously into its Hall of Honor. A plaque of Reinert hangs in the newsroom of The Battalion, Texas A&M's student newspaper.

After graduation, Reinert moved to Houston. In 1972, he was arrested on a marijuana charge. As part of his probation, Reinert was required to have steady employment. Billy Lee, an ode to the brilliant, but drug-addicted, political writer and staffer Billy Lee Brammer; and The Secret World of Walter Cronkite, a day in the life of "the most trusted man in America." The Chicken Ranch article was reprinted by The Washington Post.

Reinert also contributed to Rolling Stone, Esquire and The New York Times Magazine. For a brief time he served as press secretary to the flamboyant Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson.

The documentary received high praise. New York Post critic David Edelstein wrote, "It amounts to an ode to space travel, and it's awesomely beautiful." For All Mankind received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

Apollo 13 (1995) In the mid-1990s, Reinert teamed up with his former editor Bill Broyles to write the screenplay for the space docudrama Apollo 13. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, the movie dramatizes the aborted 1970 lunar mission. In 1996, the film was nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay, but Broyles' and Reinert's effort lost to Emma Thompson's work on Sense and Sensibility.

Reinert eventually moved to Los Angeles to continue his screen writing career. He would spend 15 years there. Projects included a two-year stint on an unrealized James Cameron movie about Mars, an uncredited rewrite on the 1998 film Armageddon and preliminary work on the 2013 film Gravity. He co-wrote and shared an Emmy Award for the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. During this time frame, Reinert also traveled to Japan, where he co-wrote the screenplay for the video game-to-film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It was later picked up by CNN Films.

Audubon (2016) In 2016, Reinert's film Audubon was released. Also known as Rara Avis: John James Audubon and the Birds of America, the documentary tells the story of John James Audubon, the 19th century ornithologist, naturalist and self-taught painter. It shows various locations in Audubon's life and interviews experts about his contributions to ornithology and the impact his art had on how nature was viewed. Reinert took the film across the U.S. where he showed it in private screenings at Audubon Society meetings and museums. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has since aired the documentary several times and sells it in DVD format through the PBS website.

Above It All At the time of his death, Reinert was working on another space-based documentary, Above It All, about the International Space Station. A sponsored project of the International Documentary Association, the yet-to-be-finished film is described as a "profound example of human cooperation...circling our planet every day. Men and women from 24 countries have flown on the International Space Station, living together in outer space for months at a time. Not only peacefully but constructively, resolutely pursuing a shared dream. It is the model for a hopeful human future, and Above It All is an effort to tell the story."

Personal life Reinert married the actress Lisa Hart Carroll in 1989. She is best known for her role as Patsy in the 1983 film Terms of Endearment. He died from lung cancer at his home in Wimberley, Texas on December 31, 2018.

Awards and nominations

1989 International Documentary Association Won – IDA Award – For All Mankind

1989 Sundance Film Festival Won – Audience Award, Documentary – For All Mankind Won – Grand Jury Prize, Documentary – For All Mankind

1990 Academy Awards Nominated – Best Documentary, Features – For All Mankind (shared with Betsy Broyles Breier)

1996 Academy Awards Nominated – Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published – Apollo 13 (shared with William Broyles, Jr.)

1996 PEN Center USA West Literary Awards Won – Literary Award, Screenplay – Apollo 13 (shared with William Broyles, Jr.)

1996 USC Scripter Award Nominated – Apollo 13 (Shared with William Broyles, Jr.)

1996 Writers Guild of America, USA Awards Nominated – Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published – Apollo 13 (shared with William Broyles, Jr.)

2013 SXSW Film Festival Won – Audience Award – An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story