Opie Cooper

A military brat for the first years of his life, Opie Cooper's parents settled in Biloxi Mississippi when he was 7 years old. A "career" Boy Scout, Opie went from Tiger Cub to Eagle Scout, and was one of the first 100 scouts to earn the Cinematography Merit Badge, which was co-created by Steven Spielberg. In fact, Opie was among the first in line at the 1989 National Scout Jamboree, where Spielberg unveiled the badge. At this Jamboree, Opie had an opportunity (along with about 50 other scouts acting as "home town reporters) to ask Spielberg a question. When his turn came around, Opie froze up and missed his opportunity. Years later he would get another opportunity to be seen by Spielberg. Opie started in filmmaking by shooting weddings (poorly, he will tell you) and making cable-channel commercials. This led to a Creative Producer position at Mississippi's highest rated news channel, WLOX TV13 in Biloxi. Today Opie is the Creative Director for Eyevox Entertainment, Mississippi's largest film and video production company. In 2007 Opie Cooper was named one of the worlds 50 best undiscovered filmmakers by Steven Spielberg's and Mark Burnett's director competition, "On The Lot." Though he was told Spielberg personally chose him from among 12,000 entries, Opie still never got to speak to him. He has not given up hope.