Mark L. Smith
Mark L. Smith is an American screenwriter and director best known for co-writing the screenplay for the critically acclaimed survival drama The Revenant (2015), which earned three Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director, and grossed over $533 million worldwide.[1] Born and raised in Colorado, Smith grew up working on his family's 2000-acre dude ranch adjacent to vast national forests, an environment that later influenced his storytelling with themes of isolation and nature.[1] After college in the mid-1990s, he began writing as a hobby during ranch off-seasons, initially creating stories for his children before self-teaching screenwriting through books and attending a workshop at the American Film Institute.[1] Smith sold his first screenplay in 2001 to Paramount Pictures for a project intended to star Mel Gibson, marking his entry into Hollywood, though it ultimately went unproduced.[1] He debuted as a feature director and writer with the independent horror film Séance (2006), followed by writing the thriller Vacancy (2007) starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson, and its direct-to-video sequel Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2009).[1] His career shifted toward higher-profile projects with the co-writing of The Revenant, a collaboration with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu based on Michael Punke's novel, which also secured three Golden Globe wins and five BAFTA Awards.[1][2] In the late 2010s and 2020s, Smith expanded into diverse genres, penning the World War II horror-action film Overlord (2018) and the George Clooney-directed sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky (2020), both of which highlighted his versatility in blending tension with character-driven narratives.[2] He also wrote the historical sports drama The Boys in the Boat (2023), directed by George Clooney, and the disaster sequel Twisters (2024), a standalone follow-up to the 1996 film Twister that became a box office success.[2][3] In 2025, Smith continued his television work with the Netflix limited series Untamed starring Eric Bana and the Western miniseries American Primeval. He has the post-apocalyptic adaptation The Dog Stars slated for 2026, underscoring his growing influence in both film and television.[4][5][6]Early life and education
Upbringing and family background
Mark L. Smith was born in Colorado in a year not publicly disclosed. He was raised there, growing up working on his family's 2,000-acre dude ranch adjacent to vast national forest lands, which provided guests with activities like horseback riding and stagecoach trails during the summer season from May to October. After completing college in the mid-1990s, he joined the family business, working there during the off-seasons amid the ranch's remote, isolated winters. This period of downtime in the rugged Colorado setting marked the beginning of his creative pursuits.[1] The ranch life profoundly shaped Smith's early interest in storytelling, as he began writing short tales for his young children to pass the long, cold months. Self-taught in his thirties, he developed a writing hobby inspired by the ranch's natural surroundings and solitude, initially submitting ideas for children's books before shifting toward screenplays. No further details are available regarding his siblings or parents' professions beyond their involvement in ranch operations. These formative experiences in rural isolation fostered a narrative style attuned to themes of survival and human resilience, subtly influencing his later work.[1]Academic pursuits
After completing college at an institution not publicly disclosed, Mark L. Smith returned to work on his family's ranch in Colorado.[1] Initially self-taught in screenwriting, Smith developed his skills through dedicated practice during the ranch's off-seasons, beginning in the mid-1990s by crafting stories for his children before progressing to full scripts.[1] He supplemented this independent learning by attending workshops, notably one at the American Film Institute, where an instructor's critique on narrative structure provided pivotal guidance.[1] This blend of formal undergraduate education and self-directed study, influenced by his rural upbringing's emphasis on storytelling, marked Smith's transition from academic pursuits to viewing writing as a serious hobby with professional potential.[1]Career
Early screenwriting and directorial debut
In 2001, Smith sold his first screenplay, a Western thriller titled "Devil's Kiss," to Paramount Pictures for a project intended to star Mel Gibson, though it remained unproduced.[1] Mark L. Smith entered the Hollywood scene in 2001, focusing initially on horror screenplays amid a wave of genre interest in independent cinema.[1] His self-taught background, honed through workshops including one at the American Film Institute, facilitated this early indie entry by enabling him to craft marketable spec scripts without formal industry connections.[1] Smith's directorial debut came with the low-budget horror feature Séance (2006), which he also wrote and co-produced through his Wind Chill Productions.[7] The film, centering on college students summoning a malevolent spirit during a dormitory séance, was shot rapidly—often 10–12 pages per day—using a skeleton crew that included film students in key roles, such as operating the camera without a dedicated dolly.[1] Production faced logistical hurdles, including mismatched set designs like painted walls that clashed with wardrobe choices, underscoring the constraints of its independent scope.[1] Following completion, Séance premiered on the festival circuit, earning the Festival Prize at the Eureka Springs Digital Film Festival and the Horror Genre Award for Best Picture at ShockerFest in 2006.[8] In the years immediately following, Smith built his screenwriting portfolio with studio-backed horror projects, including the screenplay for Vacancy (2007), a thriller about a couple terrorized at a remote motel, based on a spec script he completed in early 2006.[9] He followed with Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2008), a prequel exploring the origins of the motel's snuff-film operation, and sold his supernatural horror script The Hole in 2007, which became a 2009 release directed by Joe Dante.[10] Additionally, Smith penned the English-language remake of Martyrs shortly after Vacancy, adapting the French extremity horror classic for a 2015 American production.[11] After directing only Séance, Smith transitioned to concentrating on screenwriting for major studios, leveraging his horror successes to secure assignments in broader genres while stepping back from the director's chair.[1] This shift marked the end of his initial indie phase, allowing him to collaborate on higher-profile productions.[12]Breakthrough and major adaptations
Mark L. Smith's breakthrough came with his adaptation of Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge into a screenplay for the 2015 film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The project originated in 2006 when Smith began developing the script as a spec, drawing on the historical survival tale of frontiersman Hugh Glass, and he completed around 12 drafts by early 2011 to attract potential directors and actors.[13][14] The adaptation emphasized visual and thematic elements, such as cultural clashes between trappers and Native Americans, while incorporating fictional additions like Glass's son to heighten emotional stakes, all while Punke consulted on historical accuracy regarding 1820s frontier details.[14] Smith's collaboration with Iñárritu, which began after the director signed on in 2010, involved a structured four-step ritual: Smith would draft 5-6 page segments, exchange them with Iñárritu for review, discuss revisions, and argue points until resolution, often with Iñárritu prevailing. This process produced a dialogue-sparse script prioritizing visual storytelling, challenging Smith to convey isolation and survival through evocative imagery like flowing rivers and harsh wilderness without relying on exposition. Their joint revisions refined the narrative into a visceral exploration of revenge and endurance, showcasing Smith's skill in adapting historical fiction for cinematic intensity.[14][13] In December 2017, Paramount Pictures hired Smith to write the screenplay for the fourth installment in the Star Trek reboot series, based on a story idea from Quentin Tarantino, aiming for an R-rated take on the franchise. The project was ultimately canceled in 2025 amid development challenges, with Paramount pursuing new Star Trek films.[15][16] Building on his adaptation expertise in historical and survival genres, Smith co-wrote the original script for Overlord (2018), a horror-action film set during World War II that fused gritty warfare with supernatural Nazi experiments on the eve of D-Day. His early experience with indie horror films informed the hybrid tone, blending tense paratrooper missions with grotesque body horror elements.[1][17]Recent projects and television ventures
In 2020, Mark L. Smith adapted Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel Good Morning, Midnight into the screenplay for The Midnight Sky, a post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by and starring George Clooney, which was released on Netflix.[18] Smith continued his collaboration with Clooney in 2023 by adapting Daniel James Brown's nonfiction book The Boys in the Boat into a sports drama screenplay, focusing on the University of Washington rowing team's improbable victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.[19] That same year, Smith wrote the screenplay and served as a producer on The Marsh King's Daughter, an adaptation of Karen Dionne's thriller novel about a woman confronting her survivalist father after years in captivity.[20] In 2024, Smith penned the screenplay for Twisters, a standalone sequel to the 1996 disaster film Twister, updating the story of tornado chasers with advanced technology and intensified storm sequences reflective of 21st-century weather patterns.[21] Smith created, wrote, and executive produced the Netflix miniseries American Primeval (2025), a gritty Western set during the 1857 Utah War that draws on historical events involving Mormon settlers and frontiersmen, which premiered on January 9, 2025.[22] He also co-created, co-wrote, and executive produced the Netflix limited series Untamed (2025) alongside his daughter Elle Smith, a mystery thriller following a National Parks Service agent investigating a death in Yosemite that uncovers personal and environmental secrets, which premiered on July 17, 2025.[3] Looking ahead, Smith is writing the screenplay and producing the 2026 post-apocalyptic adaptation of Peter Heller's novel The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Paul Mescal and Margaret Qualley.[23] These projects reflect Smith's evolving role as a multi-hyphenate filmmaker, increasingly taking on producing duties and expanding into television creation while leveraging his expertise in novel adaptations honed on earlier works like The Revenant.[12]Personal life
Smith is married and has children, including a daughter, Lauren Elle Smith (also known as Elle Smith), with whom he has collaborated on screenplays such as The Marsh King's Daughter (2023) and the Netflix series Untamed (2025).[1][24] He resides in North Carolina.[25][26]Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Eureka Springs Digital Film Festival | Festival Prize for Best Feature Drama | Séance (as director and writer) | Won |
| 2006 | ShockFest Film Festival | Horror Genre Award | Séance (as director and writer) | Won |
| 2016 | Satellite Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay | The Revenant (shared with Alejandro G. Iñárritu) | Nominated[27] |
| 2016 | Western Writers of America | Spur Award for Best Western Drama Script | The Revenant (shared with Alejandro G. Iñárritu) | Nominated[27] |
Filmography
Films
- Séance (2006): Writer and director (original horror).[7]
- Vacancy (2007): Writer (original thriller).[28]
- Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2008): Writer (original thriller prequel).[29]
- The Hole (2009): Writer (original horror).[30]
- Martyrs (2015): Writer (remake).[31]
- The Revenant (2015): Writer (adaptation).[32]
- Overlord (2018): Writer (original).[33]
- The Midnight Sky (2020): Writer (adaptation).[34]
- The Marsh King's Daughter (2023): Writer and producer (adaptation).[35]
- The Boys in the Boat (2023): Writer (adaptation).[36]
- Twisters (2024): Writer (sequel with original elements).[37]
- The Dog Stars (2026): Writer and producer (adaptation, upcoming).[6]