- Gavin Scott (screenwriter)
Gavin Scott (born 1950) is a novelist, broadcaster and writer of the Emmy-winning mini-series The Mists of Avalon,
DreamWorks ’Small Soldiers , Working Title’s The Borrowers and Sci Fi’sLegend of Earthsea , spent ten years making films for British television before becoming a screenwriter, creating more than two hundred documentaries and short films for BBC and the commercial TV, including UK’s prestigiousChannel 4 . His first assignment in the United States was withGeorge Lucas , developing and scriptingThe Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .His work ranges from family entertainment (
Dangerous Archeologists ) to comedy (The Suit ,The Book, The Film and the T-Shirt ) science fiction and historical dramas.Scott wrote “Krakatoa”, a Titanic-style movie for National Geographic Feature Films, and has recently completed an eight hour adaptation of
War and Peace forLux Vida SPA , directed byRobert Dornhelm (Into the West,The Ten Commandments ).For
Castle Rock he scripted "Brooke", the saga of an emotionally damaged young 19th century Englishman who set up a dynasty of white rajahs inSarawak , and “First American”, the story of revolutionary war heroDaniel Boone , who rose above personal tragedy to save America’s western settlements during the Revolutionary War.He created and executive produced a 22 part television series set in the nineteenth century about the origins of the creative ideas of
Jules Verne , which was broadcast around the world.His children's film "Pirates of Treasure Island" [AKA "Battle of Treasure Islnad"] starring Randy Quaid, is released on DVD this year and promoted in an unusual website Gavin created with Jeff Ali: www.treasureislandsummer.com
Born in Hull,
Yorkshire , Gavin emigrated with his family toNew Zealand in 1961. At 17 he spent a year as a volunteer teacher in the jungles ofBorneo , working with the children of head-hunters, after which he studied history and political science atVictoria University of Wellington , and journalism at theWellington Polytechnic . He returned to Britain overland across Asia in 1973, traveling throughSri Lanka ,Kashmir ,Afghanistan andIran , and worked for Shelter, the British housing charity, before joining theTimes Educational Supplement , from which base he also wrote features forThe Times .After five years as a reporter and program anchor for BBC Radio Gavin began in 1980 making films for BBC Television’s
Newsnight , covering literary as well as political subjects: among his interviewees,J.B. Priestley ,Christopher Isherwood ,Iris Murdoch andJohn Fowles . He then made documentaries on science and culture for series such as Horizon and Man Alive before joiningChannel 4 News , for which he made films until 1990.It was during this time that he started writing novels, including “Hot Pursuit” (about a Russian satellite that crashed in New Zealand) and “A Flight of Lies” (about the hunt for the bones of Peking Man). These were published by Collins, Andre Deutsch, St Martin’s Press and Penguin Books). His novel “Small Soldiers” was a bestseller for Grosset and Dunlap in 1998, and he has recently written a Dickensian historical novel set in the nineteenth century, “The Adventures of Toby Wey”.
Gavin is also a sculptor, creating shadow boxes similar to those of Joseph Cornell, using mass-produced toys as his medium. He lives with his family in Santa Monica, California.
External links
* [http://www.gavinscott.com/ Official website]
*imdb name|0779170|Gavin Scott
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