Gavin Scott is a novelist, broadcaster and writer of the Emmy-winning mini-series “Mists of Avalon”, Dreamworks’ “Small Soldiers”, Working
Title’s “The Borrowers” and Sci Fi’s “Legends of Earthsea” He produced
and directed more than two hundred documentaries and short films for BBC and the commercial TV in the UK before moving to the United States,
where his first assignment was with George Lucas, developing and
scripting “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”.
His screenplay “The Last Summer”, a thriller about how World War One
began is being produced by Aristos Films, to be directed by Downton
Abbey’s Philip John.
He wrote and directed the New Zealand film “Battle of Treasure Island”, starring Randy Quaid, for Limelight Films.
“Absolutely Anything”, the script he wrote with Terry Jones starring
Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale, with Eddie Izzard, Rob Riggle and Joanna Lumley and the voices of Robin Williams and most of the Python team,
will be released in the US this year by Lionsgate.
Archetype Productions and Lucas Foster (“Mr and Mrs Smith”) are set
to produce Gavin’s World War Two supernatural adventure “Lost Squad”, a
combination of “The Matrix” and “Where Eagles Dare”, inspired by the
graphic novels of Chris Kirby.
For Germany’s Gruppe 5 productions he will be show-running a ten part series about Dona Gracia Nasi, a 16th century female Schindler who negotiated with Popes, Sultans and
Emperors, set up a continent-wide escape route, set up a colony on the
coast of what had been ancient Israel and saved thousands of Jews from
the Inquisition.
He created and executive produced “The Secret Adventures of Jules
Verne” a 22 part sci-fi adventure series set in the nineteenth century
about, which was broadcast around the world.
He has appeared on Spike TV ‘s “Deadliest Warrior” as an expert on
the Arab Revolt and also featured in Ridley Scott’s “Prophets of Science Fiction” series, and in British documentaries about Jules Verne and
Harry Potter.
Gavin’s 8 hour adaptation of “War and Peace” for Lux Vida SPA,
starred Malcolm McDowell and Clement Poesy and was directed by Robert
Dornhelm (“Into the West”, “The Ten Commandments”).
For Castle Rock he scripted “Brooke”, the saga of a young 19th
century Englishman who set up a dynasty of white rajahs in Sarawak, and
“First American”, the story of revolutionary war hero Daniel Boone, who
rose above personal tragedy to save America’s western settlements during the Revolutionary War.
Born in Hull, Yorkshire, Gavin emigrated with his family to New
Zealand in 1961. At 17 he spent a year as a volunteer teacher in the
jungles of Borneo, working with the children of head-hunters, after
which he studied history and political science at Victoria University of Wellington and journalism at the Wellington Polytechnic. He returned to Britain overland across Asia in 1973, traveling through Sri Lanka,
Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iran, and worked for Shelter, the British
housing charity, before joining the Times Educational Supplement, from
which base he also wrote features for the London 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 and John Fowles. He then
made documentaries on science and culture for series such as Horizon and Man Alive before joining Channel Four 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). His novel “Small Soldiers” was a bestseller for Grosset and Dunlap, and he
has recently written a Dickensian historical novel set in the nineteenth century, “The Adventures of Toby Wey” and “The Age of Treachery” for
Titan Books.
