From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment.

I'm Elvis Mitchell.

The show can also be heard at KCRW.com.

My guest, screenwriter, Scott Frank, is Elmore Leonard's favorite screenwriter.

And there's a reason for that. You see the movies out of sight and get surety. You know that he has an understanding of translating novels into film, but also understanding the emotional truth in those characters as presented in those books.

His newest film and his first film as director is The Lookout. Scott, first of all, thanks so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

If you can describe the lookout for the audience a little bit first.

Well, it's a story of a guy who, when he was 18 years old, was a star athlete in his high school,

came from a very wealthy family, pretty much on top of the world. And one night, prom night, he's driving with his girlfriend and his best friend and his

best friend's girlfriend and is in a horrible accident, kills the two in the back, maim's

girlfriend, and suffers himself a rather severe head injury, is in a coma for a bit and wakes

up an entirely new guy.

And when our movie starts, it's four years later.

And whereas before he was kind of defined by his physicality, you know, being a star athlete and great hockey player and all of that, now he walks rather flat-footed.

He has trouble sequencing.

He can't keep things in proper order.

You know, he put on a pair of shoes and probably

forget to put on one sock, things like that. His memory is failing him constantly. He has to

write things down to keep track of his day and leave Daimo labels everywhere to remind him to turn

off the shower and to use soap and to shave and so on. And he's rooming with an older guy who's blind and the Center for Independent Living.

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