San Diego Magazine Forecast 1997
Top 50 People to Watch

Wally Schlotter
         When he abruptly quit last spring after nearly two decades at the helm of San Diego's film commission, many San Diegans saw it as the end of a road. Burnout. Wally Schlotter saw it as the beginning. "The film commission had reached maturity," he says. "It seemed a good time to go from the proven to the unknown." Schlotter knew this much about the unknown: It would involve consulting and charity work.
         Today, the charity work has him commuting to Las Vegas, where he's developing a marketing effort for St. Jude's Ranch for abused children. The consulting has him involved in international business. As a director of the CinemaStar Luxury Theaters, he expects the chain to go from 54 to nearly 200 screens with expansions into Hawaii and Mexico this year. Borrego Springs has retained Schlotter to spearhead an economic development program for the desert community.
         And on the artistic side, he's signed an exclusive video-production deal with American Dream Cinema and is developing an original screenplay, Dick Shaffer's Texas Toast, for theatrical release. Burnout?