Mark L. Smith

For the surgeon, see Mark L. Smith (physician).

Mark L. Smith
Born	Colorado, U.S. [1]
Occupations	Screenwriter film director film producer
Years active	2005–present

Mark L. Smith is an American screenwriter, film producer, and director. His screenwriting credits includes Vacancy (2007), The Revenant (2015), Overlord (2018), The Midnight Sky (2020), The Boys in the Boat (2023), and Twisters (2024), and the TV miniseries American Primeval and Untamed (both 2025).

Career

Smith wrote and directed the 2006 film Séance, which won the Festival Prize at the Eureka Springs Digital Film Festival and the Horror Genre Award at ShockFest. Since then, he has worked as a screenwriter.

Smith's writing credits include the 2007 horror film Vacancy and its prequel, Vacancy 2: The First Cut , ^[2] and the 2009 Joe Dante film The Hole . ^[3] Together with Alejandro González Iñárritu, he co-wrote The Revenant , based in part on the novel of the same name by Michael Punke. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and Will Poulter. Shooting began in September 2014. The film was released on December 25, 2015.

Smith was hired by Paramount to write the script for the fourth film in the rebooted Star Trek series in December 2017. ^[4]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Writer	Producer	Director	Notes
2006	Séance	Yes	No	Himself
2007	Vacancy	Yes	No	Nimród Antal
2008	Vacancy 2: The First Cut	Yes	No	Eric Bross
2009	The Hole	Yes	No	Joe Dante
2015	Martyrs	Yes	No	Kevin Goetz Michael Goetz
	The Revenant	Yes	No	Alejandro G. Iñárritu
2018	Overlord	Yes	No	Julius Avery
2020	The Midnight Sky	Yes	No	George Clooney
2022	Lou	Yes	No	Anna Foerster	Additional literary material
2023	The Marsh King's Daughter	Yes	Yes	Neil Burger
	The Boys in the Boat	Yes	No	George Clooney
2024	Twisters	Yes	No	Lee Isaac Chung
2026	The Dog Stars †	Yes	Yes	Ridley Scott	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Writer	Creator	Executive Producer	Notes
2025	American Primeval	Yes	Yes	Yes	Miniseries
2025–present	Untamed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-created with Elle Smith

References

1. Swinson, Brock (26 February 2024). ""Find the Character" Mark L. Smith, Screenwriter 'The Revenant' & 'The Boys in the Boat'". Creative Screenwriting. Retrieved 2025-12-05.
2. Mark Smith Talks New Untitled Platinum Dunes / Room 101 Project
3. Mark Smith Talks Untitled Paramount/Platinum Dunes Feature
4. Fleming, Mike Jr. (December 21, 2017). "Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek Firms The Revenant Writer Mark L. Smith As Screenwriter". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved December 21, 2017.

External links

• Mark L. Smith at IMDb