Gillian Flynn
Gillian Schieber Flynn[1][2][3] (/ˈɡɪliən/;[4] born February 24, 1971) is an American author, screenwriter, and producer. She is known for writing the thriller and mystery novels, Sharp Objects (2006), Dark Places (2009), and Gone Girl (2012), which are all critically acclaimed.[5] Her books have been published in 40 languages[6] and according to The Washington Post, as of 2016 Gone Girl alone has sold more than 15 million copies.[7]
Gillian Flynn | |
|---|---|
Flynn at the 52nd New York Film Festival, September 2014 | |
| Born | February 24, 1971 Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | |
| Period | 2007–present |
| Genre | |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | Brett Nolan (m. 2007) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| gillian-flynn | |
Flynn wrote the script for the 2014 film adaptation of Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher. For it she won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, among others.
The author also wrote and produced the HBO limited series adaptation of Sharp Objects—for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award—and co-wrote with director Steve McQueen the film Widows (2018).
Flynn also worked as a showrunner, writer, and executive producer on Amazon Prime Video's sci-fi thriller series Utopia (2020), which ran for one season.
She is currently writing her fourth novel; it is set to be published by Penguin Random House.[8]
Early life and education
Flynn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in midtown Kansas City's Coleman Highlands neighborhood.[9][10] Both of her parents were professors at Metropolitan Community College–Penn Valley: her mother, Judith Ann (née Schieber), was a reading-comprehension professor, and her father, Edwin Matthew Flynn, was a film professor.[10][11][12][13] She has an older brother, Travis, who is a railroad machinist.[10] Her uncle is Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Robert Schieber.[10] Flynn was "painfully shy" and found escape in reading and writing.[10] When she was growing up, Flynn's father would take her to watch horror movies.[10][11]
Flynn attended Bishop Miege High School and graduated in 1989.[10][14] As a young woman, she worked odd jobs which required her to do things such as dress up as a giant "yogurt cone who wore a tuxedo."[14][15]
She attended the University of Kansas, where she received her undergraduate degrees in English and journalism.[15] She spent two years in California, writing at a trade magazine for human resources professionals, before moving to Chicago and attending Northwestern University[14] for a master's degree at its Medill School of Journalism in 1997.[16][17] Flynn initially wanted to work as a police reporter, but she chose to focus on her own writing, as she discovered she had "no aptitude" for police reporting.[18][19]
Career
After graduating from Northwestern, Flynn worked freelance briefly at U.S. News & World Report before being hired as a feature writer in 1998 at Entertainment Weekly.[10] She was promoted to television critic and wrote about films but was laid off in December 2008.[10][19][20][21]
She attributes her craft to her 15-some years in journalism. She said, "I could not have written a novel if I hadn't been a journalist first, because it taught me that there's no muse that's going to come down and bestow upon you the mood to write. You just have to do it. I'm definitely not precious."[22]
Some critics have accused Flynn of misogyny due to the often unflattering depiction of female characters in her books.[5] Flynn identifies as a feminist. She feels that feminism allows for women to be bad characters in literature. She states, "The one thing that really frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good, innately nurturing." Flynn also said people will dismiss "trampy, vampy, bitchy types – but there's still a big pushback against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad, and selfish."[5] In 2015, Flynn explained her decision to write cruel female characters, saying, "I've grown quite weary of the spunky heroines, brave rape victims, soul-searching fashionistas that stock so many books. I particularly mourn the lack of female villains – good, potent female villains."[23]
In 2021, it was announced that Flynn would be running a book imprint for the newly founded independent publisher Zando.[24][25]
Books
When Flynn was working for Entertainment Weekly, she was also writing novels during her free time.[12] She has written three novels and one short story.
- Sharp Objects (2006) revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned to her hometown from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families, violence and self-harm. The book was partly inspired by Dennis Lehane's Mystic River.[26] In 2007, the book was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories.[16] Sharp Objects was adapted into a 2018 television miniseries, starring Amy Adams.[27]
- Dark Places (2009) is about a woman who investigates whether or not her incarcerated brother was truly responsible for the murder of their family in the 1980s, which happened when she was a child during the era of panic about Satanic ritual abuse. Dark Places was adapted into a feature film, written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner. The cast included Charlize Theron,[28] Nicholas Hoult,[29] Christina Hendricks,[30] Drea de Matteo,[31] Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sean Bridgers. The film was released on August 7, 2015. Flynn made a cameo appearance in the film.[32]
- Gone Girl (2012) was released in June 2012 and concerns Nick Dunne, a small town Missouri creative writing professor whose wife, Amy, disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary. Gone Girl was No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list for eight weeks.[33] Culture writer Dave Itzkoff wrote that the novel was, except for the Fifty Shades trilogy, the biggest literary phenomenon of 2012. By the end of that year, Gone Girl had sold over two million copies in print and digital editions, according to the book's publisher.[33] Flynn wrote the script for a film adaptation of Gone Girl after 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights for $1.5 million.[34] The film was directed by David Fincher, who also collaborated with Flynn on the screenplay, and starred Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy[35] and was released on October 3, 2014 to both critical acclaim and box office success.
- The Grownup (2015) was originally published as a short story in the 2014 anthology Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, under the title "What Do You Do?". The story is about a sex worker who becomes a fake psychic and aura reader, and is then hired by a woman with a failing marriage and a disturbing stepson to purify her Victorian home. The story won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.[36] Flynn herself currently writing the film adaptation, as she mentioned in the Chanel Connects podcast in June 2022.[37]
Comic book
Flynn was an avid reader of comic and graphic novels when she was a child.[38] She collaborated with illustrator Dave Gibbons and wrote a comic book story called Masks. It is part of the anthology series Dark Horse Presents and was published by Dark Horse Comics in February 2015.[39]
Television writing
Flynn was executive producer and cowriter, along with Marti Noxon, on the HBO adaptation of her novel Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams.[40] The miniseries was released in 2018 and received critical acclaim.
In February 2014, it was reported that Flynn would be writing the scripts for Utopia, an HBO drama series adapted from the acclaimed British series Utopia. The HBO series was to be directed and executive produced by David Fincher. In July 2015 the project was cancelled due to budget disputes between Fincher and HBO.[41][42] However, the project received second life at Amazon, with the streamer ordering the project to series with a 2020 release. Flynn wrote all eight episodes and served as the project's showrunner. Utopia was released on Amazon Prime Video on September 25, 2020.[43] In November 2020, the series was canceled after one season.[44]
Film
For her Gone Girl screenplay, Flynn was nominated for the Golden Globe, Writers Guild of America Award and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Flynn and filmmaker Steve McQueen co-wrote a film adaptation of the ITV series Widows. The film stars Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Daniel Kaluuya, and Robert Duvall, and was released in November 2018 to critical acclaim.[45]
Personal life
Flynn married lawyer Brett Nolan in 2007.[46] They met during graduate school at Northwestern,[47] and began a relationship in their thirties.[22] They have two children.[12][48] Their son Flynn was born in 2010 and their daughter Veronica was born in 2014.[49] They reside in Chicago.[5][50]
Bibliography
Fiction
- Sharp Objects (2006)
- Dark Places (2009)
- Gone Girl (2012)
- The Grownup (short story) (2014)
Non-fiction
- "Gillian Flynn: A Howl". Time. Ideas. Dec 6, 2017.
The outrages and allegations flash through my brain like a nasty, ludicrous slide show of twisted male power.
- "Gillian Flynn on Emma Thompson Reading The Turn of the Screw". The New York Times. Audiobooks. May 18, 2016.
The Turn of the Screw is one of the most chilling ghost stories ever, largely because it is so deliciously elusive.
- "Be kind to people dressed as food ("Costume drama")". The New Yorker. Work for Hire. Oct 10, 2016. p. 78.
In the late eighties, my job involved going out in public dressed as a tuxedoed dairy product. Children ran from me.
- "I Was Not a Nice Little Girl". Powell's Books. Jul 17, 2015.
I was not a nice little girl. My favorite summertime hobby was stunning ants and feeding them to spiders. My preferred indoor diversion was a game called Mean Aunt Rosie, in which I pretended to be a witchy caregiver and my cousins tried to escape me.
- "Why Gillian Flynn Buys Her Purses from the Liquor Store". Elle. Personal Style. Oct 24, 2013.
Let me give you an idea of my personal aesthetic: Until last year, I had no purse. I carried a wine bag.
- Gillian Flynn's Entertainment Weekly articles
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Credited as | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Producer | Notes | |||
| 2014 | Gone Girl | Yes | No | Directed by David Fincher | |
| 2018 | Widows | Yes | No | Co-wrote with director Steve McQueen | |
TV
| Year | Title | Credited as | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writer | Executive producer | Creator | Showrunner | Notes | ||
| 2018 | Sharp Objects | Yes | Yes | No | No | Network: HBO |
| 2020 | Utopia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Network: Amazon Prime Video |
Awards and nominations
Literature
Won
- 2015 Edgar Award for Best Short Story for The Grownup
Film and TV
Gone Girl
Won (selected):
- Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
- Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominations (selected):
- BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
- Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
- USC Scripter Award
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay[51]
Sharp Objects
Nominations (selected):
- Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Series – Long Form
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
- Producers Guild of America Award for Best Limited Series Television
- USC Scripter Award (shared with Marti Noxon; for the episode "Vanish")
- Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Long Form – Adapted[52]
Widows
Nominations (selected):
- Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay (shared with director Steve McQueen)
- London Film Critics' Circle Award for Screenwriter of the Year (shared with director Steve McQueen)
- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with director Steve McQueen)[53]
References
- ^ "Perdida (Movie Tie-In Edition) (Gone Girl-Spanish Language) (Vintage Espanol) (2014)". Best Little Bookshop. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- ^ "Heridas abiertas: (Sharp Objects Spanish-language Edition)". Abebooks. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- ^ "Heridas Abiertas: (Sharp Objects Spanish-Language Edition)". Rediff.com. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- ^ "Gillian Flynn Talks About Dark Places". YouTube. Orion Publishing. September 25, 2009. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Burkeman, Oliver (May 1, 2013). "Gillian Flynn on her bestseller Gone Girl and accusations of misogyny". The Guardian.
- ^ "Gillian Flynn". PRH Speakers Bureau. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
- ^ "Meet the writers who still sell millions of books. Actually, hundreds of millions". The Washingtpon Post. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (21 September 2021). "Lena Waithe, Gillian Flynn to Become Book Publishers With Zando". New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ McClurg, Jocelyn (September 27, 2006). "New voices: Gillian Flynn makes thriller debut". USA Today.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Steve (November 11, 2012). . The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on October 4, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Parsi, Novid (February 7, 2013). "Gillian Flynn on Gone Girl – Interview". Time Out. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ a b c Anolik, Lili (October 10, 2014). "Inside the Dangerous Mind of Gone Girl's Gillian Flynn I". Elle. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ . Archived from the original on 2014-11-28. Retrieved 2014-11-15.
- ^ a b c Lewis, Keith (October 20, 2013). "'Gone Girl' author talks about her Missouri roots". Southeast Missourian. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ a b LowFatDesigns.com, Low Fat Designs – Healthy Website for Growing Businesses -. . gillian-flynn.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
{{cite web}}:|first=has generic name (help) - ^ a b . Crime Writers' Association. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2008.
- ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (October 1, 2012). "Medill alumna sells screen rights to best-selling novel". The Daily Northwestern. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ Thigpen, David E. (October 29, 2006). "Police beat's loss is book readers' gain". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ a b Butta, Philup (January 25, 2011). . North by Northwestern. Archived from the original on January 21, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ Thomas, Mike (July 16, 2012). . Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ Nance, Kevin (July 28, 2012). "Peeking in Gillian Flynn's vault of horror". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Brockes, Emma (October 3, 2014). "The Gone Girl phenomenon: Gillian Flynn speaks out". The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
- ^ Flynn, Gillians (July 17, 2015). "I Was Not a Nice Little Girl…". Medium. from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ^ Milliot |, Jim. "Molly Stern Launches Zando". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
- ^ Evans |, Greg (21 September 2021). "Publisher Zando Announces Imprints From Lena Waithe and 'Gone Girl' Author Gillian Flynn". Deadline.com. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ Charney, Noah (November 21, 2012). "Gillian Flynn: How I Write". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ^ Li, Shirley (December 6, 2017). "Sharp Objects first look: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson bring Gillian Flynn's debut novel to life". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (7 February 2013). "Berlin TOLDJA! Charlize Theron Locked For 'Dark Places'".
- ^ Patten, Dominic (3 April 2013). "'Dark Places' Adds 'Jack The Giant Slayer's' Nicholas Hoult". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ "Christina Hendricks In 'Dark Places': Actress To Portray Stripper In Adaptation Of Acclaimed Gillian Flynn Novel". Huffington Post. August 21, 2013.
- ^ Patten, Dominic (September 3, 2013). "UPDATE: 'Mad Men's Christina Hendricks Lands New 'Dark Places' Role". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ Lee, Stephan (January 10, 2014). "'Dark Places' preview: Charlize Theron on playing the 'complicated' Libby Day". Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ a b Itzkoff, Dave (15 November 2012). "New Two-Book Deal for 'Gone Girl' Author Gillian Flynn". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
- ^ Butler, Robert W. (September 27, 2014). "Author Gillian Flynn says filming 'Gone Girl' went much better than expected". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (November 30, 2012). "Hollywood's Most Powerful Authors: Gillian Flynn on Adapting 'Gone Girl,' Being Too 'Wimpy' for Crime Reporting and Her Best Advice to Writers (Q&A)". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ "2015 Edgar Award Winners | Mystery Writers of America". mysterywriters.org. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
- ^ "CHANEL Connects - Season 2, episode 6 - Emerald Fennell & Gillian Flynn, the Comedy in Tragedy". YouTube. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
- ^ Flynn, Gillian; Gibbons, Dave (April 25, 2014). "Weekend comics special: Gillian Flynn and Dave Gibbons". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- ^ Gustines, George Gene (November 11, 2014). "Gillian Flynn's Comic-Book Story". The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2014.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Daniel Holloway (2016-04-01). "HBO Orders 'Sharp Objects' Series Starring Amy Adams". Variety. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (February 12, 2014). "'Utopia' Remake From 'Gone Girl's' David Fincher, Gillian Flynn Gets HBO Series Order". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ^ Zemler, Emily (November 17, 2014). "Did Gillian Flynn Have 'Full Frontal Ben' Written Into Her 'Gone Girl' Contract?". Elle. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- ^ Yang, Rachel (August 18, 2020). "Watch Rainn Wilson and John Cusack tackle a pandemic in Utopia trailer". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (November 27, 2020). "'Utopia' Canceled at Amazon". The Hollywood Reporter. from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
- ^ McNary, Dave (March 27, 2015). "Gillian Flynn, Steve McQueen Partner on Heist Thriller". Variety. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ . ReCapo.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ^ Borrelli, Christopher (September 25, 2014). "'Gone Girl' author Gillian Flynn makes confident leap into screenwriting". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
- ^ Tauber, Michelle (October 3, 2014). "5 Things to Know About Gone Girl Author Gillian Flynn". People. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ^ Tauber, Michelle (October 3, 2014). "5 Things to Know About Gone Girl Author Gillian Flynn". People. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
- ^ Bhattacharji, Alex (2020-10-16). "Why Gillian Flynn Gets Her Best Writing Done After Midnight". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ "Gone Girl - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ "Sharp Objects - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ "Widows - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
Further reading
- Stratton, Beth. "Altering the Hypermasculine through the Feminine: Female Masculinity in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl." Clues: A Journal of Detection, vol. 38, no. 1, 2020, pp. 19–27.
External links
- Official website
- Gillian Flynn at IMDb