Steven Knight's 'Two Computers' Took Him From 'Millionaire' to Bond

Steven Knight, the writer hired by Amazon MGM to pen the 26th James Bond film, told the RTS London Convention on Tuesday that the secret behind his leap from quiz shows to prestige drama was having "two computers."

Knight co-created the global smash hit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in the late 1990s — his first major breakthrough in the industry. While the show was starting to make a splash, he was also writing radio and radio commercials, comedy for stand-ups including Frankie Howard, Ken Dodd and Jasper Carrot, and novels.

"I'd had a couple of novels published, and at the time of 'Millionaire' I was writing a fourth novel, and it was going to be 'Dirty Pretty Things,'" Knight said. "It was going to be a novel, but I was writing it in present tense, which is how you write a script. So I thought, 'Well, I might as well do the script.'"

That script reached director Stephen Frears and became the acclaimed 2002 film "Dirty Pretty Things," starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou.

"And then I was in. I went to Hollywood on the back of that," Knight said. Even so, he noted he was still "introduced in every meeting I went to as the man who helped make 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'"

Nearly a quarter-century later, Knight ranks among the most in-demand writers working today. His credits include "Peaky Blinders," "SAS: Rogue Heroes," "House of Guinness" and "A Thousand Blows." He has recently been hired by Noel and Liam Gallagher to shape the Oasis tour documentary "Don't Look Back in Anger," and by Amazon MGM to write the long-awaited 26th James Bond film and 007 franchise reboot.

Bond — which has not yet started filming — loomed over the RTS conversation without being discussed directly. Host Gaby Roslin referenced it as "the unmentionable thing" and asked whether it felt like a "heavy weight" on his shoulder.

"Not at all…. I'm not saying anything," Knight said. He may have had his wrists slapped by Amazon after recently revealing that the first draft of the script was finished. "But it's a wonderful thing."

With the first draft reportedly complete and a franchise reboot riding on his screenplay, Knight's game-show-to-Bond trajectory now stands as one of the unlikeliest career arcs in contemporary screenwriting.