Scott Derrickson

Horror/Science Fiction specialist Scott Derrickson is known for juggling tasks on successful projects including The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and Doctor Strange (2016). He frequently writes, directs, and produces his films, including The Black Phone (2022), with Ethan Hawke and Jeremy Davies. Scott Derrickson established his name in the increasingly hot genre of horror genre with his script for Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), and in the same year, came out with his writing-directing debut, Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), with Craig Sheffer.

Derrickson’s next work as screenwriter shifted in a non-genre direction, with a script for Wim Wenders’ contemporary Western, Land of Plenty (2004), but then returned successfully to horror as writer-director of box office hit, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, with Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Campbell Scott. Derrickson’s first assignment purely as director (and his first on a big-budget movie) was the top-earning remake, The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), with Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, and John Cleese.

Derrickson’s first collaboration with Ethan Hawke was the horror film, Sinister (2012), with Juliet Rylance and James Ransome, followed by another variation on the exorcism theme, Deliver Us from Evil (2014), with Eric Bana and Edgar Ramirez. In between, Derrickson co-wrote the script for Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot (2013), based on the trial case of “The West Memphis Three,” with Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon.

Scott Derrickson graduated to the big-budget Marvel Comics Universe in 2016 with Doctor Strange, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, and Michael Stuhlbarg, reaching a worldwide gross of nearly $678 million. Similarly, as he did on Sinister 2 (2015), in which he opted not to direct and instead write and produce, Derrickson chose to serve only as executive producer for the sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Instead, he worked as writer-producer-director on the Blumhouse-produced child abduction drama, The Black Phone, reuniting with Hawke and Ransome, along with Jeremy Davies. Derrickson’s reported next directing-producing assignment is The Gorge, based on Zach Dean’s screenplay and being co-produced by Derrickson’s company, Crooked Highway. He is also set to direct a sequel to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986), being produced by TriStar Pictures.