From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Gregory Widen is an American screenwriter and film director. A student in UCLA's screenwriting program, he sold his script for Highlander while still an undergraduate. Before entering the UCLA program, Widen attended Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. Widen worked as a firefighter for three years. He witnessed a person killed by an explosive backdraft, which became the basis for the screenplay for the movie Backdraft. In 1995 he wrote and directed the supernatural thriller The Prophecy starring Christopher Walken. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gregory Widen licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.