Screenwriter Profile: Scott Frank

The Writer:

Scott Frank is one of those writers whose name you should definitely know. He’s up there with the greats like Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, and the Epsteins. A few years back, Scott gave a great lecture for BAFTA that is well worth the listen. In it, you’ll get Scott’s rules of screenwriting.

Scott is the scribe behind such classics as Out of Sight, Minority Report, and Get Shorty.

Credits:

Assassin’s Creed (pre-production) - 2015

A Walk Among the Tombstones (screenplay) (completed) - 2014

Hoke (TV Movie) - 2014

The Wolverine (screenplay) - 2013

Marley & Me (screenplay) - 2008

The Lookout (written by) - 2007

The Interpreter (screenplay) - 2005

Flight of the Phoenix (screenplay) - 2004

Minority Report (screenplay) - 2002

Out of Sight (screenplay) - 1998

Heaven’s Prisoners (screenplay) - 1996

Get Shorty (screenplay) - 1995

Malice (screenplay) - 1993

Fallen Angels (TV Series) (teleplay - 1 episode) - 1993

The Walter Ego (Short) - 1991

Little Man Tate (written by) - 1991

Dead Again (written by) - 1991

The Wonder Years (TV Series) (written by - 1 episode) - 1988

Plain Clothes (screenplay - as A. Scott Frank) - 1987

Quotes:

[On using theme to pull a story together] “In the case of Get Shorty, there was this terrific theme of identity: everybody in Los Angeles wants to reinvent themselves. This loan shark from Miami was no exception. Focus on that, and it helps you organize the book….With Out of Sight, the thematic idea was ‘road not taken’: This man who had early on chosen to be a bank robber meets the one person he really falls in love with—and he’s not realizing he can’t have a life with her because of the road he took. And that becomes sort of a sad story for me.”