Billy Frolick

Last updated
Billy Frolick
Born
William Frolick

(1959-02-12) February 12, 1959 (age 65)
Alma mater New York University
Occupations
  • Screenwriter
  • director
Years active2005–present
Notable work Madagascar
Monster Island
PAW Patrol: The Movie

William Frolick (born 1959) is an American screenwriter and film director.

Contents

Biography

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Frolick graduated from NYU film school, where he studied under professor (and Martin Scorsese mentor) Haig Manoogian. In the eighties, Frolick moved to Los Angeles and worked at various agencies, studios and production companies as a script reader, agency assistant, and development executive. When the Writers Guild of America, west went on strike in 1988, his career as a journalist began.

His first Premiere Magazine story, “Sink or Float,” served as the prototype for the magazine's popular “Life at the Bottom” column. Frolick's work has also appeared in The New Yorker , Movieline, TV Guide , The Huffington Post, and the Los Angeles Times , for which he interviewed such personalities as Milton Berle and Richard Pryor. He also conducted dozens of videotaped interviews with survivors of the Holocaust for Steven Spielberg’s "Survivors of the Shoah" project.

Frolick has served as the pseudonymous author of several book-length parodies, including The Philistine Prophecy, Dumpisms, and The Ditches of Edison County, a national bestseller which was translated into Japanese and Italian. In 2005, Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, released The Five People You Meet in Hell ; the latest, 2013's Downtrodden Abbey, a spoof of the award-winning TV series, is from St. Martin's Press. Frolick's 1995 Dutton book What I Really Want to Do is Direct tracked seven film school graduates over three years. Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh wrote, “If you are reading my words right now, you need to buy this book. Billy Frolick has produced the definitive text on what it's like to make a start in the film business. I found it absolutely riveting.” And from Publishers Weekly : “Essential reading.”

Frolick's directing debut, It is What it Is, a full-length feature from his original screenplay, stars Jonathan Silverman (Weekend at Bernie's) and featured Stephen Tobolowsky (Memento) and Joshua Malina (The West Wing). It is What it Is screened at several global festivals, including the 2003 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Picture, as well as prizes for Best Screenplay and Best Directorial Debut. The film's cultural significance was noted by William Safire in his March 5, 2006 New York Times Sunday Magazine column "On Language," entitled "It Is What It Is." "A burst of the sentence's activity," Safire wrote, "followed Billy Frolick's movie with that title in 2001."

For DreamWorks Animation, Frolick has written the feature screenplays Holy Cow (with Chicken Run writer Karey Kirkpatrick) and Madagascar (with directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, and Mark Burton, co-writer of Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit ). Madagascar stars the voice talents of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith, and grossed over a half a billion dollars worldwide during its 2005 theatrical release. Frolick's recent credits include Monster Island from Ánima Estudios in 2017, The Big Trip in 2019, and the 2021 film adaptation of the Nick Jr. Channel's animated series, PAW Patrol .

In addition to moderating and appearing on many international film school and festival panels, Frolick spent five years an adjunct instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he taught screenwriting.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Bob Thornton</span> American actor, filmmaker and musician

Billy Bob Thornton is an American film actor, writer and director. He received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his role in A Simple Plan (1998) he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also known for his film roles in One False Move (1992), Dead Man (1995), U Turn (1997), Primary Colors (1998), Armageddon (1998), Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Bad Santa (2003), and Friday Night Lights (2004). He has written a variety of films including A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000) and has directed films such as Daddy and Them (2001), All the Pretty Horses (2000), and Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Wilder</span> Austrian-American filmmaker (1906–2002)

Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hollywood cinema. He received seven Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nora Ephron</span> American writer and filmmaker (1941–2012)

Nora Ephron was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films and received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award and three Writers Guild of America Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. L. Doctorow</span> Novelist, editor, professor

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Safire</span> American journalist and presidential speechwriter (1929–2009)

William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He was a long-time syndicated political columnist for The New York Times and wrote the "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine about popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike White (filmmaker)</span> American actor, writer and producer (born 1970)

Michael Christopher White is an American writer, actor, and producer for television and film. He has won numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for the 2000 film Chuck & Buck, which he wrote and starred in. He has written the screenplays for films such as School of Rock (2003) and has directed several films that he has written, such as Brad's Status (2017). He was a co-creator, executive producer, writer, director, and actor on the HBO series Enlightened. White is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of The Amazing Race and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on Survivor: David vs. Goliath. He created, writes, and directs the ongoing HBO satire comedy anthology series The White Lotus, for which he has won three Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Farrelly</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter

Peter John Farrelly is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and novelist. Along with his brother Bobby, the Farrelly brothers are mostly famous for directing and producing quirky comedy and romantic comedy films such as Dumb and Dumber; Outside Providence; Shallow Hal; Me, Myself and Irene; There's Something About Mary; and the 2007 remake of The Heartbreak Kid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Baumbach</span> American filmmaker

Noah Baumbach is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for making comedies set in New York City and his works are inspired by writer-directors such as Woody Allen and Whit Stillman. His frequent collaborators include Wes Anderson, Adam Driver, and his wife, Greta Gerwig.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Schamus</span> American filmmaker (born 1959)

James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.

Edward Summer was an American painter, motion picture director, screenwriter, internet publisher, magazine editor, journalist and science writer, comic book writer, novelist, book designer, actor, cinematographer, motion picture editor, documentary filmmaker, film festival founder, and educator. He died on November 13, 2014.

Marc Norman is an American screenwriter, novelist and playwright.

Chris Terrio is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2012 film Argo, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay of 2012 and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a BAFTA, and the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robb White</span> American novelist

Robb White III was an American writer of screenplays, television scripts, and adventure novels. Most of the latter had a maritime setting, often the Pacific Navy during World War II. White was best known for juvenile fiction, though he has proven popular with adults as well. Nearly all his books are out of print; nevertheless, White has a devoted following among baby boomers, many of whom were introduced to him through inexpensive paperbacks available in American schools in the mid-20th century.

P. J. Pesce is an American film director and writer. He is also the co-creator of the MTV cartoon The Adventures of Chico and Guapo, as well as the voice actor of Guapo and Mr. Angelo.

<i>Madagascar</i> (2005 film) DreamWorks Animation film

Madagascar is a 2005 American animated survival comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG and PDI/DreamWorks, and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The film was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and written by Darnell, McGrath, Mark Burton, and Billy Frolick. The film stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter. It centers around a group of animals from the Central Park Zoo who find themselves stranded on the island of Madagascar and must adjust to living in the wild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Wingard</span> American filmmaker (born 1982)

Adam Wingard is an American filmmaker. He has served as a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, actor, and composer on numerous American films.

Jessica Sharzer is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Barlen</span> Canadian screenwriter and producer (born 1980)

Robert George Barlen is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He is best known for having co-written The Weinstein Company's animated film Escape from Planet Earth (2013), The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017), and Nickelodeon's PAW Patrol: The Movie (2021) and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), all are in collaboration with his business partner Cal Brunker, who served as the director for these films.

<i>PAW Patrol: The Movie</i> 2021 animated film by Cal Brunker

PAW Patrol: The Movie is a 2021 Canadian animated action-adventure comedy film based on the television series PAW Patrol created by Keith Chapman. It is directed by Cal Brunker, who co-wrote the screenplay with Billy Frolick and Bob Barlen from a story by Frolick. Several cast members from the main series reprised their roles, including Kingsley Marshall, Keegan Hedley, Shayle Simons, Lilly Bartlam, and Ron Pardo. They are joined by Iain Armitage, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Kim Kardashian, Randall Park, Dax Shepard, Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler Perry, and introducing Will Brisbin in his film debut as Ryder. In the film, Ryder and the PAW Patrol pups are called to Adventure City in order to stop the recently-elected Mayor Humdinger from wreaking havoc.

Callan Stuart "Cal" Brunker is a Canadian animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, and film director. He is best known for directing The Weinstein Company's animated film Escape from Planet Earth (2013), The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017), Nickelodeon's PAW Patrol: The Movie (2021) and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023) all are in collaboration with his business partner Bob Barlen, who served as a co-writer for these films.

References