Frank Beddor

Film Producer, Author, Game Developer, World Creator and Founder of Automatic Pictures, Frank Beddor has scaled the heights of professional skiing (two-time freestyle world champion), the world of filmmaking, and the New York Times Bestseller list. Beddor is the producer of several hit films including the smash comedy, There's Something About Mary (1998), Wicked (1998), and his upcoming film entitled, The Juliet with renowned Producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight (2008)) and _Alex Gartner_, and director _Rupert Sanders_ (Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)). The Juliet is currently in development with Sony Pictures and New Regency. Beddor is also the New York Times bestselling author of the "The Looking Glass Wars" trilogy and "Hatter M" graphic novel series. Out of his success with There's Something About Mary, he formed Automatic Pictures and Automatic Games in order to develop creative properties for a multitude of platforms. Frank Beddor was raised in Excelsior, Minn. so his roots are in small-town Midwest. His mother performed in a number of college productions, and during Frank's early years, the Beddor family availed itself of The Old Log, the nearby Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and Minneapolis' famed Guthrie Theater. Frank's father was an entrepreneur and impresario. One of his many pursuits - a traveling water-ski show (featuring ice-follies girls, a one-legged boy and a death-defying jump through fire) - suggests what Frank calls his "charismatic and adventurous" nature. Among other feats of daring-do, the senior Beddor is known for having set a world record skiing the length of the Mississippi River dressed as Paul Bunyan (to promote Minneapolis' Paul Bunyan Land) and motorcycling to South America with his 150-lb. Great Dane riding in a specially outfitted box mounted above the rear wheel. Having learned how to snow ski at four and water ski at six, Frank began training for his professional skiing career close to home. After winning the Nationals, he was invited to join the Olympic ski team (though freestyle skiing would not become an official Olympic event until years later). He retired from skiing at 23 for a variety of reasons, not least of which, he says, "because I'd done it." As an international sports star, Beddor was afforded endorsement opportunities, which found him appearing in commercials for national brands like Northwest Airlines, Nikon and Juicy Fruit. Beddor found his way into the heart of Hollywood when he appeared as John Cusack's skiing stunt double in the beloved teen comedy "Better Off Dead" (1985) and opposite Carrie Fisher in the "Kentucky Fried Movie" sequel "Amazon Women on the Moon" (1987), directed by Joe Dante. He moved to Los Angeles during this period and acted in several theater productions, for which he earned favorable reviews. He also studied with revered acting coach Stella Adler. As an exercise, Adler encouraged her students to write the previously unwritten scene their characters are in before they actually step onstage. As Beddor soon discovered, much of being an actor is waiting for the right script to come along. This frustrated him and ultimately set him on his path to producing. Adhering to the time-tested adage "Write what you know," he came up with a ski story based on the World War II exploits of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, which he would later pitch as "'The Dirty Dozen' on skis." He did get one of his film projects green lit in 1998 when he produced, Wicked (1998). He affirms the film is most notable for introducing actress Julia Stiles and the film's success at the Sundance Film Festival. Then along came "Mary," - a critical and box-office success ($360 million worldwide) which remains a perennial rental favorite. The film launched an enduring pop-cultural touchstone about stuck zippers and hair gel. After the success of "Mary," Beddor labored for two years, essentially in secret to avoid explanations and expectations, and mapped out his next hit, "The Looking Glass Wars" book trilogy. This bestselling series would be rejected by every major publisher in the U.S. until it was released in 2004 by the U.K. publisher Egmont Books, when it became a sensation. Later the series was published in the U.S. by Penguin (who originally passed on the project four times before it's triumph in the U.K.) The ever-creative Beddor continues to focus on a multitude of projects with his successful Automatic Pictures and Automatic Game companies. Beddor's game company just released "Rings of Orbis" a Sci-Fi online RPG based on the award winning "Softwire" series by acclaimed author, P.J. Haarsma.