Scott Frank

Last updated
Scott Frank
Born
A. Scott Frank

(1960-03-10) March 10, 1960 (age 63)
Fort Walton Beach, Florida, U.S.
Education University of California, Santa Barbara (BA)
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter, author

A. Scott Frank (born March 10, 1960) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Frank has received two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Out of Sight (1998) and Logan (2017). His film work, credited and uncredited, extends to dozens of films. [1] In recent years, he has worked for Netflix on television miniseries, most prominently writing and directing The Queen's Gambit .

Contents

Early life and education

Frank was born to a Jewish family [2] in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on March 10, 1960. [3] His family moved to Los Gatos, California where he attended high school while his father worked as a pilot for Pan Am. [4] He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts in film studies. [5] [6] [7]

Career

While a student at the University of California, Frank first had the idea for what would become the script for Little Man Tate in 1981, thinking that, in the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis that there was "a slight petulance to world events at the time" and envisioning "an eight year old who was making more sense of the world than Ted Koppel." [8] After graduation he worked as a bartender while attempting to sell the script, which eventually led to his hiring an agent, and subsequently being hired by Paramount Pictures in 1984. It would take several years before the script was made, with Frank's first produced screenwriting work in the meantime being the 1987 film Plain Clothes , which he would later describe as "terrible." Little Man Tate was ultimately made in 1991 as the directorial debut of actress Jodie Foster. [9]

In the years to follow, Frank's filmography included scripts for Dead Again , Malice , Heaven's Prisoners , and Get Shorty . The latter earned him his first award nominations with both the Writers Guild and the Golden Globes. [10] He credited the success of Get Shorty with reviving his interest in the job after a bad experience on Malice, and was particularly pleased as a longtime fan of Elmore Leonard's novels that he felt had not received satisfactory film adaptations previously. This success led to his being asked to work on another Elmore Leonard adaptation, Steven Soderbergh's 1998 film Out of Sight starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. The film was not a commercial success, but earned warm critical plaudits. [9] Frank won both the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Frank was recruited by Steven Spielberg to work on the script for Minority Report , a Philip K. Dick adaptation, which he would later say was "a very difficult screenplay to write because it was loaded with so much technical detail." [1] He performed second unit directing duties for one segment of the film, an area of filmmaking he had contemplated moving into for some time. [8] Minority Report earned him the Saturn Award for Best Writing and several other nominations, including for Hugo and Nebula awards. Other credits from this period included The Interpreter and Marley & Me, the latter described as a film he would not have imagined himself working on but which he developed "a big soft spot for." [1] By 2024, Frank had worked on nearly 60 films, including uncredited rewrites on films such as Saving Private Ryan , Entrapment , Dawn of the Dead , Night at the Museum and Gravity . [4] [1]

Frank made his directorial debut in 2007 on The Lookout , whose script he had begun in 1998 and which was originally meant to be directed by Sam Mendes, who eventually departed the project to make Road to Perdition while encouraging Frank to take on the task himself. [8] He had also attempted to recruit Sydney Pollack, the director of The Interpreter whom he considered a mentor, to direct the project. [1] He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for his work on the film. His second film as a director, 2014's A Walk Among the Tombstones , had a more mixed reception. In January 2016, Frank published his first novel, Shaker, a crime mystery published by Penguin Random House. [11] [12] [13] He also worked in the burgeoning superhero genre, making two films with director James Mangold, The Wolverine (2013) and Logan (2017). For the latter, he received his second Academy Award nomination. [9]

Having had previous experience working for network television, Frank had begun to develop Godless , previously intended as a film, into a miniseries for HBO. However, Netflix outbid HBO for the project, which Frank both wrote and directed. [9] The miniseries earned Frank numerous award nominations, including from the Directors Guild and three Primetime Emmy Awards. The success of Godless led Frank to pitch further projects to Netflix, several of which were rejected, until they expressed interest in The Queen's Gambit , an adaptation of a Walter Tevis novel that Frank had previously attempted to make as a film. [14] [15] Frank said that he viewed the novel as exploring "the cost of genius", a theme that he had first intended to explore in Little Man Tate but "didn't quite get there with it." [16]

Frank won the 2021 Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Filmography

Film

Screenwriter

YearTitleDirectorNotes
1988 Plain Clothes Martha Coolidge
1991 Dead Again Kenneth Branagh
Little Man Tate Jodie Foster
The Walter Ego John Putch Short film
1993 Malice Harold Becker
1995 Get Shorty Barry Sonnenfeld
1996 Heaven's Prisoners Phil Joanou
1998 Out of Sight Steven Soderbergh
2002 Minority Report Steven Spielberg
2004 Flight of the Phoenix John Moore
2005 The Interpreter Sydney Pollack
2008 Marley & Me David Frankel
2013 The Wolverine James Mangold
2017 Logan

Director

YearTitleDirectorWriterNotesRef
2007 The Lookout YesYes
2014 A Walk Among the Tombstones YesYes

Producer

YearTitleDirectorNotes
2001 The Caveman's Valentine Kasi Lemmons
2022 No Exit Damien Power

Television

YearTitleDirectorWriterExecutive
producer		CreatorNotes
1988 The Wonder Years NoYesNoNoEpisode "The Phone Call"
1993 Fallen Angels NoYesNoNoEpisode "Dead End for Delia"
1994 Birdland NoYesYesYesEpisodes "Pilot" and "Plan B"
2004 Karen Sisco NoYesNoNoEpisode "He Was a Friend of Mine"
2011 Shameless YesNoNoNoEpisode "It's Time to Kill the Turtle"
2017 Godless YesYesYesYesMiniseries
2020 The Queen's Gambit YesYesYesYes
2024 Monsieur Spade YesYesYesYes

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.
1992 Edgar Awards Best Motion Picture Screenplay Dead Again Nominated [17]
1996 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Get Shorty Nominated
USC Scripter Awards FilmNominated
Edgar Awards Best Motion Picture Screenplay Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Screenplay Nominated
1998 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Screenplay Out of Sight Won
1999 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Won
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Screenplay Won
Edgar Awards Best Motion Picture Screenplay Won
Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated
2002 Bram Stoker Awards Best Screenplay Minority Report Nominated
2003 Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated
Hugo Awards Best Dramatic Presentation — Long Form Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Writing Won
2004 Nebula Awards Best Script Nominated
2007 Satellite Awards Best Adapted Screenplay The Lookout Nominated
2008 Independent Spirit Awards Best First Feature Won
Edgar Awards Best Motion Picture Screenplay Nominated
2017 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Logan Nominated
2018 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated
Long Form – Original Godless Nominated
USC Scripter Awards Film Logan Nominated
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film Godless Nominated
Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay Logan Nominated
Nebula Awards Outstanding Dramatic Presentation Nominated
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series Godless Nominated [18]
Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series Nominated
Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Writing Logan Nominated [19]
2021 Golden Globe Awards Best Miniseries or Television Film The Queen's Gambit Won [20]
Writers Guild of America Awards Long Form – Adapted Won [21]
Producers Guild of America Awards Best Limited Series Television Won [22]
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film Won [23]
USC Scripter Awards Television The Queen's Gambit (Episode: "Openings")Won [24]
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series (together with William Horberg and Allan Scott ) The Queen's Gambit Won [25]
Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Won
Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Nominated

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Scott Frank: Screenwriters' Lecture". guru.bafta.org. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Bloom, Nate (March 6, 2018). "Anton Yelchin's final role lands in 'Thoroughbreds'; Appatow's 'Love' returns". The Jewish News of Northern California.
  3. ↑ "Scott Frank biography". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . New York City, New York. 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Keefe, Patrick Radden (December 25, 2023). "How a Script Doctor Found His Own Voice". The New Yorker . ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Scott Frank bio". Penguin Random House . University of California, Santa Barbara . Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  6. ↑ Bazer, Mark (March 25, 2007). "Screenwriter Frank takes action After years spent creating scripts, he's directing". The Boston Globe . Boston, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Miller & Son — AFI". Miller & Son. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 "Screenwriting Chat: Scott Frank". Screenplay.com. 2002. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Full transcript: Screenwriter, novelist and director Scott Frank on Recode Media". Vox . 3 March 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  10. ↑ "Scott Frank". www.goldenglobes.com. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "Shaker". Penguin Random House . Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Shaker". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "Interview: Scott Frank on Finishing His Debut Novel 'Shaker' Fifteen Years After He Began". /Film. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  14. ↑ "For Queen's Gambit Creator, the Vineyard Is a Creative Force". The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  15. ↑ "An interview with Scott Frank: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT". Writers Guild of America, East. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "The Queen's Gambit creator on 'bringing sexy back to chess' and the series' long journey to TV". Entertainment Weekly . 25 October 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  17. ↑ "Scott Frank". IMDb. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "Winners & Nominees 2018". Primetime Emmy Awards . September 17, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Here Are the 44th Annual Saturn Awards Nominations". Bleeding Cool . 15 March 2018.
  20. ↑ "Winners & Nominees 2021". Golden Globe Awards . February 28, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  21. ↑ "'The Great,' 'Queen's Gambit,' 'Mrs. America' Take Early Wins at Writers Guild Awards 2021 (Updating Live)". Variety . 21 March 2021.
  22. ↑ "Producers Guild Awards Winners (Updating Live)". Variety . 24 March 2021.
  23. ↑ "DGA Awards: Chloe Zhao and 'Nomadland' Take Top Honor". The Hollywood Reporter . April 10, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  24. ↑ Feinberg, Scott (14 March 2021). "USC Scripter Awards: 'Nomadland' and 'Queen's Gambit' Named Best Adaptations". The Hollywood Reporter .
  25. ↑ Hipes, Patrick (July 13, 2021). "Emmy Nominations: 'The Crown', 'The Mandalorian' Top List; HBO/HBO Max Edges Netflix For Top Spot – Full List Of Nominees". Deadline. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
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