Macdonald has an undergraduate degree from
Georgetown University and a
Juris Doctor degree from the
Fordham University School of Law in New York. Macdonald worked in international trade and business affairs. Eventually he rose to run Hollywood producer
Robert Evans' production company at
Paramount Pictures. Macdonald has a producer, co-producer or executive producer credit on
Sliver,
Jade,
An Occasional Hell,
Rough Riders,
Molly and ''
One Man's Hero. He co-wrote one episode for the TNT series, Witchblade'', which ran from 2001–2002. He was also a co-creator of the HBO original series
Rome (in association of the
BBC) along with
John Milius and
Bruno Heller. MacDonald served as an executive producer and writer on the series. The episode "
Caesarion" (2005) was written by Macdonald. Macdonald also wrote a drama series about the history of
New Orleans called
Storyville that had begun filming a pilot by January 2016. Macdonald wrote an unproduced screenplay based on
Iris Chang's novel
The Rape of Nanking. ==Filmography==