# David Ayer

David Ayer (born January 18, 1968) is an American filmmaker known for making crime films that are set in Los Angeles and deal with gangs and police corruption. His screenplays include Training Day (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), and S.W.A.T. (2003). He has also directed Harsh Times (2005), Street Kings (2008), End of Watch (2012), Sabotage (2014), and The Beekeeper (2024). In 2016, he directed the superhero movie Suicide Squad from the DC Extended Universe, and then the urban fantasy film Bright (2017) for Netflix. He has twice collaborated with actor Shia LaBeouf: first with the World War II drama Fury (2014), then the crime thriller The Tax Collector (2020). He has also collaborated with his friend Cle Shaheed Sloan who has appeared in four of his films.

## Early life and education

Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois, on January 18, 1968, and grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager. Ayer lived with his cousin in Los Angeles, California, where his experiences in South Central Los Angeles became the inspiration for many of his films. Ayer dropped out of high school and painted houses for a living. Ayer enlisted in the United States Navy as a submarine sonar technician (STS) aboard the USS Haddo (SSN-604). He has spoken favorably about his time in the Navy and has credited it with his successful film-making career. His grandfather was also in the Navy in the 1950s.

## Career

Ayer's screenplay, U-571 was based on his experiences as a submariner in the U.S. Navy. Ayer collaborated on the screenplay for The Fast and the Furious in 2001. Ayer wrote the screenplay for crime drama Dark Blue, and it was his research into the Los Angeles Police Department that led to his most prominent screenplay, Training Day. Ayer signed a contract to write a screenplay for S.W.A.T., which was based on his original story pitch. The film was directed by Clark Johnson and released in 2003.
In 2006, Ayer admitted that U-571 had distorted history, and said that he would not do it again. He told BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme that he "did not feel good" about suggesting that Americans, rather than the British, had captured the naval Enigma cipher: "It was a distortion ... a mercenary decision ... to create this parallel history in order to drive the film for an American audience. Both my grandparents were officers in the Second World War, and I would be personally offended if somebody distorted their achievements."
Ayer's directorial debut was with the film Harsh Times, an action-drama set on the streets of South Central Los Angeles, showing how drug use and past military experiences affects people's attempts to lead normal lives. He went on to direct the action thriller Street Kings, which was released in 2008.
Ayer later wrote and directed End of Watch, an action thriller about the daily lives of two South Central Los Angeles policemen, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. The film was released in the fall of 2012 to profitable box-office returns and favorable reception from critics, with Roger Ebert naming it as the fourth-best film of 2012, hailing it as "one of the best police movies in recent years". His next film was the action thriller Sabotage, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; the film was released on March 28, 2014. He wrote and directed the World War II-set action film, Fury, starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman; the film was released in October 2014.
Ayer wrote and directed the film adaptation of the comic book Suicide Squad, which was released on August 5, 2016. The film, along with Ayer's directing, received negative reviews, though it became his most commercially successful film to date.
Ayer also directed Bright, "a contemporary cop thriller, but with fantastical elements", starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton with a script penned by Max Landis that Ayer rewrote. Netflix picked up the film for a $90 million deal. The film was released on December 22, 2017. On January 3, 2018, Netflix confirmed they were moving ahead with the sequel for Bright, with Smith and Edgerton reprising their roles and Ayer directing and writing the script with Evan Spiliotopoulos, the filming of which began in March 2019. This ultimately did not happen due to Will Smith's schedule, and on May 5, 2020, he was replaced with Louise Leterrier as David Ayer wanted to focus on The Dirty Dozen for Warner Brothers.
On December 13, 2016, Ayer was brought on board to direct the spin-off of Suicide Squad, Gotham City Sirens, which evolved into Birds of Prey, directed by Cathy Yan, and starring Margot Robbie reprising her role of Harley Quinn. Gotham City Sirens remained in development, but as of April 2021, Gotham City Sirens has been put on pause.
Ayer established Cedar Park Entertainment on January 4, 2018, with former head of programming at Audience Network, Chris Long. Primarily established to produce films and television shows, the first film Cedar Park produced was 2020's The Tax Collector, Ayer's second collaboration with actor Shia LaBeouf. On June 21, 2018, it set a first look deal with Entertainment One, and it will cover television series, both scripted and unscripted.
In May 2022, Ayer signed on to direct action thriller The Beekeeper for Miramax, written by Kurt Wimmer and starring Jason Statham, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer later acquiring domestic distribution rights. In October 2023, it was announced that Ayer and Statham would reunite to work on Levon's Trade, from a screenplay by Sylvester Stallone, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Dixon, with production expected to begin in March 2024.

### Unrealized projects

In November 2005, Ayer was set to write and direct a modern-day remake of The Wild Bunch for Warner Bros. Pictures, but the film never materalized. Ayer had written his own script, "updating the tale", according to Film Review. Ayer was later hired in October 2008 for Armored, the American remake of the 2004 French thriller Cash Truck with Andrew Kevin Walker as co-writer and F. Gary Gray to direct. The film would eventually be directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie and released as Wrath of Man.
In February 2009, Ayer was set to write the feature film adaptation of the Wired article "Deep Sea Cowboys," about a deep-sea salvage crew. The next month, he was announced as the writer and director for the science fiction action film Last Man for New Regency and 20th Century Fox.
Ayer was attached to a reboot of Commando for 20th Century Fox in April 2010. In May, he was also set to direct a remake of Scarface for Universal Pictures from a screenplay by Jon Herman and the Coen brothers, but he left the project that July. In November 2017, Ayer was set to direct, write, and executive produce the Latina crime drama series Family Crimes for Starz alongside executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, and KristieAnne Reed. Starz passed on the series the following April.
Ayer was set to executive produce a television series adaptation of Stephen King's poem "The Bone Church" with Chris Long in February 2018. That October, he was also set to direct the pilot episode of and produce the television adaptation of Bruce Anderson's World War 2 novel Sons and Soldiers.
In August 2019, Ayer was set to direct a war film about the Second Battle of El Alamein for Lionsgate Films from a screenplay by James Coyne; filming was planned to begin in early 2020. In December 2019, Ayer was announced as the director and writer for a contemporary-set reboot of The Dirty Dozen as a co-production between Genre Films and Warner Bros. Pictures; the film was scheduled to start production in 2020.
In May 2020, a feature film adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel Six Years with Ayer writing and directing was announced for Netflix, with Ayer also set to produce the film with his Cedar Point Entertainment partner Chris Long. In February 2022, Ayer was set to executive produce and co-write a pilot for a television adaptation of his film End of Watch for Fox.

## Filmography

Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
| 2000 | U-571 | No | Yes | No |
| 2001 | Training Day | No | Yes | Co-producer |
| 2001 | The Fast and the Furious | No | Yes | No |
| 2002 | Dark Blue | No | Yes | No |
| 2003 | S.W.A.T. | No | Yes | No |
| 2005 | Harsh Times | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2008 | Street Kings | Yes | No | No |
| 2012 | End of Watch | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | Sabotage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2014 | Fury | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2016 | Suicide Squad | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2017 | Bright | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2020 | The Tax Collector | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | The Beekeeper | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2025 | A Working Man | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TBA | Heart of the Beast | Yes | No | Yes |
Cameo roles
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2001 | Training Day | Russian mafia hitman |
| 2008 | Street Kings | Gang member prisoner in L.A. County Jail |
| 2016 | Suicide Squad | Belle Reve prison guard (Extended Cut) |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Executive Producer | Note |
| 2020 | Deputy | Yes | Yes | Episodes "Graduation Day" and "10-8 Outlaws" |
Other roles
| Year | Title | Role |
| 2001 | Training Day | Stunts |
| 2004 | Taking Lives | Uncredited script revisions |
| 2008 | HBO First Look | Special production footage |
| 2020 | Birds of Prey | Executive producer |
| 2021 | The Suicide Squad | Special thanks |