Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and screenwriter. He has written two novels, A Simple Plan (1993) and The Ruins (2006). Both were adapted into films - A Simple Plan (1998) and The Ruins (2008), respectively - based on Smith's own screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for the films Siberia (2018) and The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019). His screenplay for A Simple Plan earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Scott B. Smith | |
|---|---|
 Smith in 2006 | |
| Born | July 13, 1965 Summit, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Language | English |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | |
| Genres | Horror, thriller |
| Notable works | A Simple Plan (1993), The Ruins (2006) |
Early life and education edit
Smith was born in Summit, New Jersey in 1965 and moved to Toledo, Ohio as a child.[1] He is the son of Linda and Doug Smith. He told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviewer Regis Behe that, as a child, he read his father's "castoffs," the novels of Clive Cussler and Jack Higgins. "Growing up, I also read Ray Bradbury and Stephen King," he said. "I just had a sense of how to create these places that aren't real world places, but just with this provisional attachment to the real world. It is very much of your imagination, and I felt very much I could do that."[2] After graduating from Dartmouth College and from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing, he took up writing full-time.
Career edit
He has published two novels, A Simple Plan and The Ruins. His screen adaptation of A Simple Plan earned him an Academy Award nomination. The screenplay won a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and a National Board of Review Award.
His second novel, The Ruins, was also adapted into a film, released on April 4, 2008. Stephen King called it "the best horror novel of the new century." King had also called A Simple Plan "simply the best suspense novel of the year."
In 2016 it was announced that TNT had greenlit a pilot for Civil, a new TV series created by Smith about a second American Civil War following a hotly contested presidential election.[3] A TV series adaptation of William Gibson's The Peripheral was commissioned in 2018 by Amazon,[4] with Smith as writer.[5] Smith created the series, and served as executive producer and showrunner. Vincenzo Natali directed the show's pilot.[6]
Bibliography edit
Novels edit
- A Simple Plan (1993), ISBN 0-312-95271-6
- The Ruins (2006), ISBN 1-4000-4387-5
Short stories edit
- "The Egg Man," Open City Magazine, Issue #20 [7](2005)
- "Up in Old Vermont", originally published in Seize the Night: New Tales of Vampiric Terror (2015) by Gallery Books, edited by Christopher Golden
- "Dogs", originally published in Dark Cities (2017) by Titan Books, edited by Christopher Golden
- "Christmas in Barcelona", originally published in Hark! The Herald Angels Scream (2018) by Anchor Books, edited by Christopher Golden
- "The New Boyfriend", originally published in Ten-Word Tragedies (2019) by PS Publishing, edited by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon
Translations edit
- Italian by Mario Biondi, "Un piano semplice", Rizzoli, 1993
- Slovakian (by Katarína Jusková): Ruiny. - Bratislava: Ikar 2006. ISBN 978-80-551-1369-2
- Spanish by Jaume Subira Ciurana, "Las Ruinas", Ediciones B, Barcelona 2007. ISBN 978-84-666-3349-9
- Swedish by Olov Hyllienmark "Ruinerna"
- Danish by Henrik Enemark Sørensen
- Polish by Jan Kraśko - "Prosty Plan"
- Spanish by Rosa Corgatelli "Un plan simple"
Filmography edit
Film
- A Simple Plan (1998)
- The Ruins (2008)
- Siberia (2018)
- The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019)
Television
- The Peripheral (2022)
References edit
- ^ Prince, Tom. "Brief Lives: Making a Killing," New York, August 30, 1993, p. 48. Accessed February 20, 2011.
- ^ Behe, Regis (July 23, 2006). "Author Infuses The Ruins with Social Commentary". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh: Tribune-Review Publishing Company.
- ^ The Hollywood Reporter [1] "TNT Picks Up Young Shakespeare Series, Orders Modern Civil War Drama Pilot"
- ^ Elderkin, Beth (April 17, 2018), The Creators of Westworld Head to Amazon With New Scifi Series The Peripheral, Gizmodo, retrieved November 15, 2019
- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (November 13, 2019), Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy's 'The Peripheral' Picked Up To Series By Amazon, Deadline, retrieved November 15, 2019
- ^ Maas, Jennifer (November 13, 2019), Amazon Greenlights Sci-Fi Series 'The Peripheral' From 'Westworld' Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, The Wrap, retrieved November 15, 2019
- ^ "Open City #20 – Homecoming". Open City. Retrieved 2018-04-17.