Akiva Goldsman
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Akiva Goldsman (born July 7, 1962) is an American screenwriter and producer in the motion picture industry. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Goldsman has been involved specifically with high budget Hollywood movies. His filmography includes the films Lost in Space, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, as well as more serious dramas, and numerous rewrites both credited and uncredited. In 2006 Goldsman re-teamed with A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard for a high profile project, adapting Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code for Howard's much-anticipated film version, receiving mixed reviews for his work.
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[edit] Life and career
Akiva Goldsman was born in New York City on July 7, 1962 to parents Tev Goldsman and Mira Rothenberg. Tev Goldsman was a therapist, and Mira Rothenberg was a child psychologist.[1] Both parents ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children. Goldsman's parents were occupied with their work, and Goldsman said, "By the time I was 10 or 12, I realized they had taken my parents away from me. I wanted nothing more to do with that world. I wanted to be a writer. I had a fantasy that someday I'd see my name on a book." In 1983, Goldsman attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.[2] After graduation, Goldsman studied creative writing at New York University. He began writing screenplays, and in 1994, he wrote the screenplay that would become the film Silent Fall.[1] Afterward, director Joel Schumacher hired Goldsman to write The Client.[2]
In the late 1990s, Akiva Goldsman wrote screenplays of subpar quality for A Time to Kill and Batman & Robin, which got him nominated for the Golden Raspberry Awards. Goldsman came to the realization, "I sort of got lost. I was writing away from what I knew. It's a little like a cat chasing its tail. Once you start making movies that are less than satisfying, you start to lose your opportunity to make the satisfying ones. People are not serving them up to you, saying, 'You're the guy we want for this.'" Goldsman appealed to producer Brian Grazer to write the screenplay for A Beautiful Mind and ultimately won an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. The star of A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe, later invited Goldsman and director Ron Howard to film Cinderella Man, and Goldsman wrote the film's screenplay.[3]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The Client | Writer | |
| Silent Fall | Writer | ||
| 1995 | Batman Forever | Writer | Co-wrote with Lee Batchler and Janet Scott Batchler |
| 1996 | A Time to Kill | Writer | Nominated Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million |
| 1997 | Batman & Robin | Writer | Nominated Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay |
| 1998 | Lost in Space | Producer, writer | |
| Practical Magic | Writer | ||
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | Writer | Won Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay |
| 2004 | Starsky & Hutch | Producer | |
| Mindhunters | Producer | ||
| I, Robot | Writer | Co-wrote with Jeff Vintar | |
| 2005 | Constantine | Producer | |
| Cinderella Man | Writer | ||
| Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Producer | ||
| 2006 | I'm Reed Fish | Executive producer | |
| Poseidon | Producer | ||
| The Da Vinci Code | Writer | ||
| 2007 | The Cure | Executive producer | TV pilot |
| I Am Legend | Producer, writer | ||
| 2008 | Hancock | Producer | |
| 2009 | Angels & Demons | Writer | Filming |
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Goldsman, Akiva" (September 2004). Current Biography 65 (9): 36-40. H. W. Wilson Company.
- ^ a b Levine, Bettijane. "A book signing, a big moment", The Record, North Jersey Media Group, 2002-03-31.
- ^ Covert, Colin. "Cinderella scribe", Star Tribune, Avista Capital Partners, 2005-06-05.
[edit] Further reading
- Thane, Christopher (November 1999). "Swimming with sharks". Fade In 5 (3): 17. Fade In Publishing Group Inc.
- Divine, Christian (January 2002). "Peace of mind". Creative Screenwriting 9 (1): 69,71-74. Inside Information Group, Ltd.
- Fleming, Michael (June 2006). "Good as Goldsman". Fade In 9 (2): [50]-52. Fade In Publishing Group Inc.
