The film rights were quickly scooped up, but the project languished in development hell for decades.
“I was too young, and I didn’t quite understand what I was writing about.
“I realized that what’s challenging about it is making it into a movie,” he explains.
Phil Bray/Netflix
Once greenlit, however, there were plenty of other challenges to surmount.
One of the biggest: how to stage the many, many chess matches that the story required.
“The chess was my biggest worry,” admits Frank, who’s an experienced player himself.
Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘The Queen’s Gambit’.CHARLIE GRAY/NETFLIX
“It was the thing I spent the most amount of time on in prep.
So the vibe of each tournament became different the feeling, the look, everything.
We would start with, here’s the drama of this game, when this happens.
Here, star Taylor-Joy’s physicality as an actor came into play.
“She has eyes in the back of her head,” says Frank of theSplitactress.
“If the camera moves, she knows how she needs to move.
“They’re always real moves and it’s always very accurate,” Frank says.
“you could freeze frame anything, and it’s a real chess setup.
The actors always knew exactly where every piece was supposed to go.”
The image is so beautiful, and it had five or six colors in it.
I said, ‘This is what we’re going to use for the whole palette of the show.’
We would kind of amplify it or turn it down, but it was basically the palette.
I kept saying, ‘We’re making aDouglas Sirkchess movie.’
So it’s saying a lot,” he says.
Normally I’m afraid to ever say that,” he adds with a chuckle.
The Queen’s Gambitis currently streaming on Netflix.
