Akiva Goldsman

American screenwriter, director and producerTemplate:SHORTDESC:American screenwriter, director and producer

**Akiva J. Goldsman** (born July 7, 1962) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer known for his work on motion pictures and adaptations of popular novels.

Goldsman's filmography as a screenwriter includes *The Client*; *Batman Forever* and its sequel *Batman & Robin*; *I, Robot*; *I Am Legend*; *Cinderella Man,* and numerous rewrites that are both credited and uncredited. He also wrote more than a dozen episodes for the science fiction television series *Fringe*.

In 2002, Goldsman received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay for the 2001 film *A Beautiful Mind*, which also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 2006, Goldsman re-teamed with *A Beautiful Mind* director Ron Howard to adapt Dan Brown's novel *The Da Vinci Code* for Howard's film. He also wrote the screenplay for its 2009 sequel *Angels & Demons*.

## Early life

Akiva Goldsman was born in New York to Jewish parents and raised in Brooklyn Heights. His parents, Tev Goldsman and Mira Rothenberg, were both clinical child psychologists who ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children. After graduating from Saint Ann's School, which is also in Brooklyn Heights, he received his bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University and attended the graduate fiction writing program at New York University. Many of his connections were made at Saint Ann's.

## Career

Goldsman has a production company at Warner Bros. named Weed Road Pictures.

Goldsman produced the Universal Pictures feature *Lone Survivor*, from writer/director Peter Berg, based on the book *Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10* by Marcus Luttrell. It tells the story of Luttrell's Navy SEAL team in 2005 Afghanistan, on a mission to kill a terrorist leader. The movie starred Mark Wahlberg, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Taylor Kitsch, and was released in 2013.

Goldsman made his feature film directing debut with *Winter's Tale*, a film adaption of the Mark Helprin novel, The principal cast consisted of Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly, Will Smith and William Hurt. The film was released on February 14, 2014. He also directed the horror thriller film *Stephanie* (2017), with Frank Grillo in the leading role, and co-wrote and produced the film adaptation of Stephen King's *The Dark Tower* series, which was released on August 4, 2017, and was one of Goldsman's post Apotheosis films.

In June 2015, Paramount Pictures announced that Goldsman would head a team of writers and filmmakers to create a multifilm cinematic universe branching out from Hasbro's *Transformers* franchise. In 2017, his Weed Road company was signed with Paramount.

Goldsman was revealed in September 2018 to have been on the writing staff for *Star Trek: Picard*, revolving around the later years of the character of Jean-Luc Picard.

In 2020, Goldsman was revealed to be the creator and showrunner of the forthcoming CBS series, *Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.*

### *Fringe*

In 2008, Goldsman joined the first season crew of the Fox horror/mystery series *Fringe* as writer, director, and consulting producer. The first episode Goldsman directed and wrote was "Bad Dreams". In its fifth season, Goldsman remained a consulting producer. Episodes he contributed to included:

* "Bad Dreams" (01.17)
* "The Road Not Taken" (01.19) (executive producer Jeff Pinkner and supervising producer J.R. Orci co-wrote a teleplay based on a story by Goldsman)
* "There's More Than One of Everything" (01.20) (co-executive producer J.H. Wyman and Pinkner co-wrote a teleplay based on a story by Goldsman and executive producer Bryan Burk)
* "A New Day in the Old Town" (02.01) (co-written by co-creator J. J. Abrams)
* "Peter" (02.16) (co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman, and supervising producer Josh Singer co-wrote a teleplay based on a story by Pinkner, Goldsman, Singer, and Wyman)
* "Brown Betty" (02.20) (co-written by Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Over There (Part 1)" (02.22) (co-written with Pinkner and Wyman)
* "Over There (Part 2)" (02.23) (co-written by Pinkner and Wyman)
* "Subject 13" (03.15) (co-written with Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Stowaway" (03.17) (Danielle Dispaltro wrote a teleplay based on a story Pinkner, Goldsman, and Wyman)
* "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide" (03.19) (Wyman and Pinkner co-wrote a teleplay based on a story by Wyman, Goldsman, and Pinkner)
* "The Day We Died" (03.22) (Pinkner and Wyman co-wrote a teleplay based on a story Goldsman, Pinkner, and Wyman)
* "Neither Here Nor There" (04.01) (Wyman and Pinkner co-wrote a teleplay based on a story Wyman, Goldsman, and Pinkner)
* "Subject 9" (04.04) (co-written by Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Making Angels" (04.11) (co-written with Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Nothing as It Seems" (04.16) (co-written with Pinkner)
* "Letters of Transit" (04.19) (co-written by Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Brave New World (Part 1)" (04.21) (co-written by Wyman and Pinkner)
* "Brave New World (Part 2)" (04.22) (co-written with Wyman and Pinkner)

## Personal life

Goldsman's first wife, film producer Rebecca Spikings-Goldsman, died of a heart attack on July 6, 2010, at the age of 42. Rebecca was the daughter of producer Barry Spikings.

In 2012, Akiva met his second wife Joann Richter. The couple were married in 2014 and have two daughters, and divide their time between Los Angeles and New York.

## Filmography

### Film

* *Deep Blue Sea* (1999)
* *Starsky & Hutch* (2004)
* *Mindhunters* (2004)
* *Mr. & Mrs. Smith* (2005)
* *Poseidon* (2006)
* *Hancock* (2008)
* *The Losers* (2010)
* *Fair Game* (2010)
* *Jonah Hex* (2010)
* *Lone Survivor* (2013)
* *King Arthur: Legend of the Sword* (2017)
* *The Map of Tiny Perfect Things* (2021)
* *Without Remorse* (2021)
* *Meet Cute* (TBA)
* *I'm Reed Fish* (2006)
* *Brooklyn Rules* (2007)
* *Paranormal Activity 2* (2010)
* *Paranormal Activity 3* (2011)
* *Paranormal Activity 4* (2012)
* *Doctor Sleep* (2019)
* *Back to the Outback* (2021)

### Acting credits

 2009
 2013

## Upcoming works

In 2016, it was announced that Goldsman would script an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's *The Caves of Steel*. Its final release date is still unknown. In July 2017, Paramount Pictures announced plans to make a film adaptation of the novel *Rainbow Six* by Tom Clancy with Goldsman as producer.

## References

1. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>McNary, Dave (July 12, 2017). "Akiva Goldsman Signs First-Look Deal With Paramount, Leaves Warner Bros". *Variety*. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
2. ↑ A Beautiful Journey to Professional Nirvana (March 10, 2002).
3. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
4. ↑ Kroll, Justin (August 13, 2012). Eric Bana circling 'Lone Survivor': Thesp in talks to join case of Peter Berg-helmed SEAL drama. *Chicago Tribune*.
5. ↑ Fleming, Mike (August 1, 2012). William Hurt Joins Akiva Goldsman's 'Winter's Tale'. *Deadline Hollywood*.
6. ↑ Fleming, Mike (January 27, 2015). Frank Grillo to Star in Akiva Goldsman's Horror-Thriller 'Stephanie'. *The Wrap*.
7. ↑ Fleming, Mike (January 27, 2015). Frank Grillo to Court Stephanie. *Dread Central*.
8. ↑ Sony Sets a Date For Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'. *Bloody Disgusting* (January 27, 2015).
9. ↑ McNary, Dave (2017-07-12). Akiva Goldsman Signs First-Look Deal With Paramount, Leaves Warner Bros. (en-US).
10. ↑ Stewart, Patrick (September 24, 2018). The journey has begun. Kirsten Beyer, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, Diandra Pendleton-Thompson, James Duff, and yours truly. #StarTrek.
11. ↑ IMDB Filmography of Akiva Goldsman.
12. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Fringe: The Definitive and Exhaustive Chat with John Noble". *Los Angeles Times*. September 2009.
13. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Producer Spikings-Goldsman dies of heart attack". *Variety*. July 7, 2010. Archived from the original on July 15, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
14. ↑ http://www.zimbio.com/Akiva+Goldsman+Joann+Goldsman/pictures/pro http://guestofaguest.com/directory/akiva-goldsman/217301
15. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Sperling, Nicole (August 1, 2021). "Can Paramount+ Succeed? One Producer Hopes to Make It So". *The New York Times*. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
16. ↑ Akiva Goldsman to Script The Caves of Steel Movie (July 26, 2016).
17. ↑ Akiva Goldsman Moves To Paramount; 'Rainbow Six,' 'Ologies' & 'Avengelyne' On Menu (July 11, 2017).

## Further reading

* Template:Cite magazine
* Template:Cite magazine
* Template:Cite magazine

## External links

* Akiva Goldsman at IMDb

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