LEON A. SCHATZ
Leon A. Schatz is a Wyoming-born filmmaker, writer, and storyteller with a lifelong fascination with the people, places, and adventures that shaped the American West.
For more than 25 years, Leon has worked as a professional filmmaker and video producer, telling stories for television, film, documentary, and corporate audiences. His credits include work on Green Lantern, I Am Legend, Celebrity Poker, Snapped: She Made Me Do It, music videos for Bon Jovi and Ashlee Simpson, and the PBS documentary Drawn to Yellowstone. He is also the founder of Wayward Films, a Wyoming-based production company.
Leon is also an accomplished author and screenwriter. He has published two books, The Robber’s Bride and Trap Door Dewey, and wrote the screenplay Butch Cassidy’s Final Heist, continuing his fascination with the characters and untamed spirit of the American West.
But his connection to the West goes deeper than his professional work. Growing up in Wyoming, Leon developed a deep appreciation for the landscape and the people who were willing to venture into the unknown, take risks, and build lives on the frontier. That connection eventually led him to the journals of Byron F. Wickwire.
For more than a decade, Leon researched Wickwire’s life and the world he inhabited, bringing together Byron’s original journal writings with historical research and firsthand accounts. The result is The Wickwire Journals, a trilogy that allows readers to experience the transformation of the American West through the eyes of a man who lived it.
Leon brings a filmmaker’s eye and a writer’s curiosity to the story—looking not only for what happened, but for the human adventure within it. His goal is to preserve these remarkable firsthand accounts and make the people, challenges, humor, risks, and dreams of the Old West feel alive for a new generation of readers.
The Wickwire Journals is his invitation to step into that world—and follow the Wickwire Trail.