Scott Bechtel Smith (born July 13, 1965) is an American author and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. 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 Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

'' (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 The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, mus ...

Early life and education

Smith was born in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is the northernmost City (New Jersey), city of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the New York metropolitan area. Situated on a ridge in north Jersey, northern–central Jersey, centra ...

in 1965 and moved to

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

as a child. He is the son of Linda and Doug Smith. He told the ''

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib", is the second-largest daily newspaper serving the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. It transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, but rema ...

'' reviewer Regis Behe that, as a child, he read his father's "castoffs," the novels of

Clive Cussler Clive Eric Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have been listed on ''The New York Times'' fiction best-sell ...

and

Jack Higgins Henry Patterson (27 July 1929 – 9 April 2022), commonly known by his pen name Jack Higgins, was a British author. He was a best-selling author of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His novel '' The Eagle Has Landed'' (1975) sold more t ...

. "Growing up, I also read

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

and

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

," 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." After graduating from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

with a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

degree in writing, he took up writing full-time.

Career

He has published two novels, '' A Simple Plan'' and '' The Ruins''. His screen adaptation of ''A Simple Plan'' earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

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.

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. A TV series adaptation of

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

's '' The Peripheral'' was commissioned in 2018 by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, with Smith as writer. Smith created the series, and served as executive producer and

showrunner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

Vincenzo Natali Vincenzo Natali (born 1969) is an American-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, known for writing and directing science fiction and horror films such as ''Cube'', '' Cypher'', ''Nothing'', and '' Splice''. Early life and education Natal ...

directed the show's pilot.

Bibliography

Novels

*'' A Simple Plan'' (1993), *'' The Ruins'' (2006),

Short stories

* "The Egg Man," Open City Magazine, Issue #20 (2005) * "Up in Old Vermont", originally published in ''Seize the Night: New Tales of Vampiric Terror'' (2015) by Gallery Books, edited by

Christopher Golden Christopher Golden (born July 15, 1967) is an American writer. Early life Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. He graduated from Tufts University. Career As well as novels, Golden has written com ...

* "Dogs", originally published in ''Dark Cities'' (2017) by

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of the British entertainment company Titan Entertainment, which was established as Titan Books in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cine ...

, edited by Christopher Golden * "Christmas in Barcelona", originally published in ''Hark! The Herald Angels Scream'' (2018) by

Anchor Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...

, edited by Christopher Golden * "The New Boyfriend", originally published in ''Ten-Word Tragedies'' (2019) by PS Publishing, edited by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon

Translations

*Italian by Mario Biondi, "Un piano semplice", Rizzoli, 1993 *Slovakian (by Katarína Jusková): ''Ruiny''. - Bratislava: Ikar 2006. *Spanish by Jaume Subira Ciurana, "Las Ruinas", Ediciones B, Barcelona 2007. *Swedish by Olov Hyllienmark "Ruinerna" *Danish by Henrik Enemark Sørensen *Polish by Jan Kraśko - "Prosty Plan" *Spanish by Rosa Corgatelli "Un plan simple"

Filmography

Film * '' A Simple Plan'' (1998) * '' The Ruins'' (2008) * ''

'' (2018) * '' The Burnt Orange Heresy'' (2019) Television * '' The Peripheral'' (2022)

References

External links

*
Online interview from CBC Words at Large

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Scott 1965 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American male screenwriters Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Dartmouth College alumni Living people Writers from Summit, New Jersey 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New Jersey Screenwriters from New Jersey