The Queen's Gambit co-creator and showrunner Scott Frank has spent the last 33 years as a Hollywood screenwriter. With two dozen writing credits to his name thus far, Frank found footing in the industry with his debut screenplay Plain Clothes in 1987, which was directed by Martha Coolidge. A decade later, Frank's resume included some of the most popular crime films of the 1990s.
After working with the top-tier likes of Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack, Steven Soderbergh, and Barry Sonnenfeld, Scott made his directorial debut with the 2007 crime film The Lookout. Although he continues to write for other directors, Scott has never looked back.
The Wolverine (2013)
After a five-year absence from 2008-2013, Frank returned with a bang to cowrite James Mangold's marvelous The Wolverine. The sprawling international blockbuster grossed more than $414 million globally against a $120 million budget.
Story-wise, the action finds Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in Japan, where his reunion with an old friend leads to a complex conspiracy involving the Yakuza crime lords. The fish-out-of-water scenario leaves Logan vulnerable in ways previously unseen as he gauges his own sense of morality against the longstanding Samurai tradition.
Marley & Me (2008)
Prior to The Wolverine, Frank and Don Roos penned the tear-jerking breakout hit Marley & Me, based on the John Grogan book of the same name. The heartwarming film about the worst pet dog known to man stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston.
Upon moving to Florida with his wife, news reporter John gives Jenny a new yellow labrador retriever puppy named Marley. When Marley grows up, he retains his wild and mischievous puppy attitude, much to the chagrin of John and Jenny. But when tragedy strikes, the couple learns profound life lessons from their beloved family pet.
The Interpreter (2005)
Along with Oscar-winners Charles Randolph and Steve Zaillian, Frank co-wrote the screenplay for The Interpreter, the late great director Sydney Pollack's final feature film.
The tale of political intrigue follows Silvia Broome, a United Nations interpreter who becomes embroiled in a vast conspiracy upon overhearing a plan to assassinate an African leader. When the assassins catch wind of Broome's knowledge, they attempt to keep her quiet by any means necessary. Broome turns to government agent Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) for help, but matters only worsen.
Dead Again (1991)
Scott Frank earned an Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for his second feature film script, Dead Again, a riveting thriller directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh.
Branagh plays Mike Church, a gumshoe specializing in missing person cases. When a mute amnesiac who goes by the name Grace (Emma Thompson) hires Church to find Roman Strauss (also played by Branagh), a man who murdered his wife Margaret in 1949, a complex web of deceit is spun. To help solve the mystery, Church turns to a hypnotherapist, Dr. Carlisle (Robin Williams).
The Lookout (2007)
Scott Frank made his directorial debut with the superb character-driven crime-thriller The Lookout, starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, and Matthew Goode.
Gordon-Levitt plays Chris, a once-promising star athlete who suffers severe brain damage in a near-fatal car accident. Afterward, the only job Chris can get is as a custodian for a local bank. With a fleeting memory that requires Chris to jot down notes to himself, he becomes unwittingly involved as the lookout man for a heist in the bank he works at. The film features one of the best twist-endings of the last two decades.
Little Man Tate (1991)
In a story vastly different from his other 1991 script for Dead Again, Frank penned the intimate Little Man Tate, a character-driven drama directed by and starring Jodie Foster.
Foster plays Dede Tate, a loving single-mother of Fred (Adam Hann-Byrd), a young boy who is discovered to be an intellectual genius. As Fred becomes famous for his prodigious abilities, his mother does whatever necessary to ensure her son isn't exploited by those in power. Foster's directorial debut drew critical plaudits while netting north of $15 million at the box-office.
Minority Report (2002)
Four years after adapting Elmore Leonard for Steven Soderbergh, Frank adapted Philip K. Dick for Steven Spielberg via the futuristic crime-thriller Minority Report.
Set in the year 2054, the film stars Tom Cruise as police chief John Anderton, who specializes in arresting criminals before they commit illegal acts. However, when Anderton himself is accused of committing "precrime," he's thrown into a 36-hour whirlwind of harrowing intrigue in the race to clear his name.
Get Shorty (1995)
Scott Frank's brilliant adaptation of the novel Get Shorty was the first film to really prove Elmore Leonard's stories can translate to the big screen. In addition to earning a Golden Globe nod for his script and a win for star John Travolta, the film inspired the 2017 spinoff series of the same name.
Get Shorty follows Chili Palmer (Travolta), a tough-talking lone-shark and cinephile desperate to break into the movie business. But when he muscles his way into the film industry, Palmer realizes it's no less cutthroat than the mafia life.
Logan (2017)
Frank scored his second Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay by co-writing Logan with director James Mangold. Hailed for being far more than a popcorn superhero movie, Logan drew plaudits for its profound meditation on the character's morality and mortality.
Set in a future where mutants are gravely endangered, Logan is drawn out of his reclusive existence to assist Laura (Dafne Keene), a child mutant who is being hunted by venal scientists, only to face his evil doppelganger X-24. Logan currently ranks #218 on IMDB's Top 250.
Out Of Sight (1998)
The best movie most people fail to realize Scott Frank wrote was the stylish heist film Out of Sight, his second adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel. The Steven Soderbergh film features a stellar cast of colorful characters led by George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.
Clooney plays Jack Foley, a career bank robber who gets pinched during his latest robbery attempt. While in jail, Foley meets like-minded criminals who help him plot a scheme to steal diamonds from a rich residence in Detroit. When federal marshall Karen Sisco is assigned to the case, Foley can't help but fall in love with her. For his work, Scott landed his first Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.