Amy Holden Jones

It was her script, however, for "Mystic Pizza" (1988), the film of life amongst teens in a Connecticut town, that moved Jones' star up a notch. Although additional writers were credited on the final screenplay, the original story was hers and studios took notice. She wrote the family hit "Beethoven" (1992), then reversed gears and wrote the controversial morality play "Indecent Proposal" (1993), which starred Robert Redford as a man willing to pay $1 million to sleep with a married Demi Moore. In 1996, Jones got a chance to direct with a budget greater than her Corman days, although the result, "The Rich Man's Wife" (1996), which she also wrote, did less than stellar business. It featured Halle Berry as the prime suspect in her husband's murder. The following year, Jones co-wrote the sleeper hit thriller "The Relic."