Angels and Demons

Above the Line

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Writer

Akiva Goldsman

Bio

AKIVA GOLDSMAN received the 2001 Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and Writers Guild Award for his screenplay A Beautiful Mind. Focusing on the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the film was directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer, starred Russell Crowe, and won four Oscars®, including Best Picture. Goldsman also earned BAFTA and WGA nominations for his screenplay Cinderella Man, which re-teamed him with Howard, Grazer, and Crowe. Goldsman most recently produced the worldwide smash Hancock, starring Will Smith, which has earned over $625,000,000 around the world. Goldsman also wrote and produced the megahit I Am Legend, which also starred Smith and took in more than $250,000,000 domestically and more than $580,000,000 worldwide. In 2006, his adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, directed by Howard, produced by Grazer, and starring Tom Hanks, became an international phenomenon, taking in more than $750,000,000 worldwide. Goldsman’s many other writing credits include The Client, starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones, Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, and Tommy Lee Jones, A Time to Kill, starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock, Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock, and I Robot, starring Will Smith. As a producer, Goldsman founded Weed Road Pictures. Goldsman produced the smash hit action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and directed by Doug Liman. One of the top hits of summer 2005, the film took in more than $450 million worldwide. Through Weed Road Pictures, Goldsman also produced the hit films Deep Blue Sea, Starsky & Hutch, and Constantine. Weed Road is currently in production on Fair Game, starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, and JONAH HEX, starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich. Goldsman grew up in Brooklyn Heights, the son of two psychotherapists, who ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children. His experiences there inspired him to become a writer, and, ultimately, informed his adaptation of A Beautiful Mind, due to his deep connection to the material. Goldsman graduated from Wesleyan University and attended the graduate program in creative writing at New York University. He splits his time between Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Rebecca, and their dogs, Fizz, Mouse and Echo.

Writer- Job Description

A general term for someone who creates a written work, be it a novel, script, screenplay, or teleplay.