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Gary Goldman (screenwriter)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 172.119.249.54 (talk) at 05:37, 12 January 2019 (There is no reason to illustrate that the feature film "Next" was not a commercial success other than to defame Gary Goldman. In the director's Wikipedia inclusion of the film there is no such text that would suggest it was anything other than an artistic endeavor. This, I think is fair considering subjective opinion, especially if one has not seen the feature to make proper judgment for themselves. And no one defines them-self by the loss of a lawsuit. The presence of this section is offensive.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For film director and producer with same name, see Gary Goldman.

Gary L. Goldman is an American screenwriter. His film credits include Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Total Recall (1990) and Navy SEALs (1990).

Career

Gary Goldman's first big screen writing credit was for John Carpenter's fantasy martial arts film, Big Trouble in Little China, which he co-wrote with David Weinstein. Originally set in the old west, the script was later adapted by Carpenter's former classmate at USC film school, W. D. Richter, to take place in modern times.[1]

Goldman's next major writing job came in 1989 for the science fiction action film Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Originally written by Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon, director Paul Verhoeven had problems with the third act and hired Goldman to help fix the screenplay. According to the director, the problem was that the last forty minutes of the film was one long action sequence and had abandoned the "mental theme." Working with Shusett, Goldman was able to reintroduce this mental theme by adding a plot twist where the audience discovers that Schwarzenegger's character, who is assumed to be a good guy, had his memory wiped and is actually a bad guy.[2]

Shortly after the success of Total Recall, Goldman and Shusett co-wrote a screen adaptation of Philip K. Dick's story, The Minority Report, to serve as a possible sequel to the film.[3] Although their screenplay was not used, the 2002 film, Minority Report, has a sequence set in a car factory, which was adapted from their early script. In the end, Goldman didn't receive a writing credit, but was listed as an executive producer of the film.[4]

In 2003, Lenny Beckerman suggested that he adapt another Philip K. Dick story. Goldman had a good relationship with the Dick estate and was able to acquire the rights to his 1954 short story, The Golden Man.[5] The completed script was sold to Nicolas Cage's production company, Saturn Films, and eventually became the 2007 film, Next, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Cage, along with Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel.[6]

  1. ^ Muir, John Kenneth. The Films of John Carpenter. McFarland. ISBN 9780786422692.
  2. ^ Duchovnay, Gerald. Film Voices: Interviews from Post Script. SUNY Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780791484753. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  3. ^ Ong, Germaine (10 May 2017). "MovieAxis". GameAxis Unwired (45). SPH Magazines: 77. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  4. ^ Loder, Kurt. The Good, the Bad and the Godawful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781429938655. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  5. ^ Chad, Gervich. How to Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation. CRC Press. p. 178. ISBN 9781136070945.
  6. ^ Barsanti, Chris. The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz. Visible Ink Press. p. 264. ISBN 9781578595334. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
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