The label "Leonard Maltin's favorite movie of the year" is one that any filmmaker, let alone a first-timer like Scott Frank, would crave for their work. Unlike an inordinate number of his counterparts, whose flowery quotes can be seen in ads for a variety of mediocre films (I'm looking at you, Paul Fischer), Maltin has never been one for hyperbole, so when the legendary critic recently bestowed the title on Frank's directorial debut The Lookout, it meant something. For Frank, a longtime screenwriter known for his skillful adaptations of Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Minority Report, the praise signaled that his long-planned transition from the writer's desk to the director's chair was an unqualified success.

In an exclusive interview with ReelzChannel.com, Frank talked about his experience making The Lookout. He also gave us a preview of his sophomore project, How to Talk to a Widower.

You've enjoyed a prolific career as a screenwriter. Why did you decide to make The Lookout your directorial debut? It doesn't seem like the easiest gig for a first-time director.

It's funny because I thought -- maybe naively -- that this seemed small and pretty easy to take on. And for years everyone had been telling me what a small movie it was, which is one of the reasons why it was so hard to get made. So I thought, you know what? If it's so small, then I'll do it myself.

You started the project over a decade ago. Was there ever a point where you thought that it might never happen?

No, because the process wasn't that I was trying to get it going over a decade ago. I pitched it initially and then I started writing it and it took a while to write. And then different directors were in and out of it. It was always kind of "about to happen" but not in a way that was frustrating. I always had so many other things happening at the same time that it wasn't ever discouraging.

Leonard Maltin referred to The Lookout as his favorite movie of the year thus far. Are you the type of person who pays attention to what critics say about your work?

I'm the type of person who says he doesn't care what critics say but is lying. [laughs] There are certain critics in particular that I pay a lot of attention to and who I like reading and listening to. It's a tricky business because you read reviews and one minute you think you're a genius and the next minute you think you're inept. It's very hard to ignore reviews or completely ignore them. I'm not able to. I try and have a good mindset before I read them. I'm probably harder on my movie than any critic though, I think.

You assembled quite a solid cast for this film, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher and Matthew Goode. What made you think of Gordon-Levitt for the lead?

I'd seen Mysterious Skin. Actually I'd just seen an ad for it. And I called my casting director and asked, "Who is that?" She said, "That's Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this guy I've been telling you about." I was completely amazed and devastated by his performance in Mysterious Skin. And then I met him, and literally within two minutes of shaking his hand I knew he was the guy.

I thought it was interesting that you went with Matthew for the villain. You don't see that in Match Point, for example.

You certainly don't. But you see it when he comes into the room. You see it when you meet him, face-to-face. He's more like the guy in The Lookout than he is the guy in Match Point. He came into read and the guy in Match Point was completely absent from his persona and his performance, and I was like, "Wow, he's amazing." He was very raw and had this unbelievable energy that I thought was incredibly compelling and seductive.

The Lookout is a bit more cerebral than the usual popcorn fare. How challenging was it to tell the story the way you wanted to without confusing the audience?

One thing I didn't want is for me to understand the movie in my head and not...a lot of times you get it and other people don't. In terms of the story's sequencing, it was very carefully mapped out. All through shooting I knew what I was going to shoot and how I was going to shoot it, all the time. I was very aware of that.

One area where I let myself down, where I understood better than the audience understood, is what happened to (Isla Fisher's character) Luvlee at the end of the movie. It's an example of me not keeping a good eye on the ball. I knew exactly where she was and what happened to her, but I get more questions from journalists and other people who've seen the movie about "Where did she go?" and "What happened to her?" And I've read a lot of reviews saying that she's just dumped at the end of the movie. No, she leaves. She goes away. It was supposed to be an abrupt ending for her. I think that I was more inside that than the audience, and it was one of those things that I'd love to go back and re-shoot.

I thought it would be dramatic to have her leave abruptly. She didn't know what to do so she was just getting the hell out of there. And I had a scene that I cut because it just felt inelegant and a bit on the nose. At the end when (Gordon-Levitt) is doing that voiceover wrapping up the movie, he says, "I never heard from her again." And we have a shot of her on a bus somewhere. Maybe I should have kept it. At the very least, it might not have been satisfying, but at least I would have addressed it.

Speaking of cut scenes, are you a fan of deleted scenes on a DVD? Did you have anything special in mind for The Lookout?

I tend to like really clean, bare DVDs. I think commentaries are hard to do; sometimes it's like lightning in a bottle, when you have the right two people. What I really wanted to do with the DVD was just have it document my experience and what I wrestled with as a rookie. I included a few interesting things about head trauma, because a lot of people were interested in where all that came from. Beyond that, while I was shooting, I don't think that I was so much aware of the DVD as I was the movie.

When are you planning on directing again?

I'd love to direct tomorrow, but I need to write something first. Right now I'm adapting a novel -- not a crime novel at all, Jonathan Tropper's new novel -- and I'm gonna work on that. It's completely different in tone, a relationship between a 28-year-old and 15-year-old, a father/son type relationship. It's called How to Talk to a Widower. It used to be called After Haley. I'm hoping that that will be the next thing. I've also written a Western that I would love to direct.

It seems like Hollywood goes through little phases where the Western will disappear and then re-appear.

I've been trying to get this made for two years and now I'm hoping that 3:10 to Yuma might help me, if that does well. Hopefully it will help my cause.

The Lookout is available now on DVD.

Check out ReelzChannel.com's The Lookout page for clips, images interviews and more!