Trivia

After arranging for a screening of La soga (1948) at USC as well as an appearance by Hitchcock himself, the director invited the aspiring young filmmaker to come and follow him about on the Topaz (1969) set. Years later he visited mentor Hitchcock for the last time on the set of Trama macabra (1976), the Master's last film.

He was working on his autobiography and a PhD at the time of his death.

Franklin had wanted to do a thriller for children and started to do a remake of the Bobby Driscoll starring vehicle La ventana (1949) which Universal held the rights to. Ultimately the writers abandoned that and ended up writing El joven héroe (1984).

He acquired the movie rights to Henry De Vere Stacpoole's "The Blue Lagoon" from David Begelman once Begelman was sacked from the presidency of Columbia Pictures.

Received a degree in English from Monash University, leaving his native Australia to attend USC Film School in the mid-60s.