Frank Beddor

Frank Beddor (July 31, 1958) is an American former world champion freestyle skier, film producer, actor, stuntman, and author. He is best known for his work as producer on There's Something About Mary and Wicked,[1] and as author of The New York Times best seller,[2] The Looking Glass Wars.

Frank Beddor, speaking at Arizona State University in 2016

Life and career
Beddor being interviewed at the 2017 Phoenix Comicon

Beddor grew up in Excelsior in Minnesota. His parents often traveled and by age 12 Beddor already knew how to barefoot-ski.[3] After winning nationals Beddor was invited to join the Olympic ski team. He went on tour in Europe for competitive skiing.[3] Beddor was World Champion freestyler skier in 1981 and 1982.[1] He seemed to be following in his father’s footsteps, as his father had also been a well-known skier and had set a world record by skiing the length of Mississippi river.

In 1985 Beddor played John Cusack's skiing stunt double in Better Off Dead.[1] Beddor moved to Los Angeles during this period and studied with acting coach Stella Adler.[3] Part of Adler's method was encouraging her students to write the scene the character is in before stepping onstage. Beddor became frustrated with the lack of good scripts he was being given and began to try producing.[3] His most notable work as a producer was on the 1998 film There's Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller.[1]

However, Beddor found not being the creative force behind projects frustrating and then turned to writing. Beddor spent five years writing The Looking Glass Wars after being inspired by playing cards in the Museum of London.[2] The book was rejected by every major publisher in the US before Beddor was accepted by Egmont Books in the UK.[3]

The Looking Glass Wars became popular and was on The New York Times Bestseller list.[2] The books are a re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland. The premise of the novels is that the character of Alice in Alice in Wonderland is real. as is the world of Wonderland, but that Carroll rewrote the events and made Wonderland seem childlike and did not reflect the reality of Wonderland.[2]

Beddor has written two more books in The Looking Glass Wars series, Seeing Redd and ArchEnemy. The book has also inspired a spin-off comic book called Hatter Madigan, also written by Beddor and co-authored by Liz Cavalier with the art by Ben Templesmith. The spin-off focuses on Hatter Madigan, a character in The Looking Glass Wars. A script has also been written for the series to be created as a movie with Chuck Roven having signed on as a producer. However, since the release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the film has been in "wait and see" mode.[4]

Beddor was also involved in the development of two video games, Card Soldiers Wars in 2008, a free MMORG and The Looking Glass Wars Card Game in 2009.[5] There has also been a deck of Hatter M playing cards produced with images from the novels.[6]

Beddor manages Automatic Games and Automatic Publishing.

He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for producing There's Something About Mary.

References
  1. "Frank Beddor". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
  2. "Good Morning America w/ Frank Beddor". YouTube. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  3. "Frank Beddor : Resume" (PDF). Lookingglasswars.com. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
  4. Steven Horn. "Exclusive Interview: Frank Beddor (Part One of Two) - Movies Feature at IGN". Movies.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  5. "Frank Beddor : Producer : Actor : Writer". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
  6. Best Selling Author Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier Talk The Ever Expanding World of The Looking Glass Wars and Offer a Free Giveaway
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