Born in Fort Walton Beach, Florida (c. 1960), but raised in Los Gatos, California, Scott Frank graduated from college with a degree in film studies (1982). The screenwriter got started in the industry doing research for documentaries. His first writing efforts found their way to the screen in impressively short order. His teen comedy Plain Clothes (1988) was made into a modest feature helmed by Martha College. By contrast, Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), a more ambitious and sophisticated effort, was an imaginative and highly romantic thriller with past life complications. Frank, moving into the big leagues, next sold a very different screenplay, one he had written in college, for Jodie Foster's directorial debut, Little Man Tate (1991). Despite his genre-hopping, Frank's study of a child prodigy suggested ongoing interest in precocious (if sometimes scheming) types and intriguing plot twists. These later manifested themselves in his work on the standardized thriller fare of Malice (1993) and his well-regarded adaptation of Elmore Leonard's tangy, satirical novel about Hollywood, Get Shorty (1995). A few years later, Frank took a second crack at Elmore Leonard when he adapted Out Of Sight for Steven Soderbergh, garnering him an Academy Award nomination. Shortly thereafter, he teamed with Steven Spielberg and co-wrote Minority Report.
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