About me

Gary Goldman has written or executive produced a number of successful Hollywood films. He was the final writer of TOTAL RECALL (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Verhoeven) and Verhoeven’s script doctor on BASIC INSTINCT (starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone), which was the highest grossing film worldwide in the year of its release. Gary optioned the short story “MINORITY REPORT” by Philip K. Dick and then, together with Ron Shusett, wrote the first three drafts of the screenplay and executive produced the film, which was directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise. Gary similarly developed NEXT, released in April, 2007, which is based on another Philip K. Dick short story, “The Golden Man.” Gary optioned the property, wrote the screenplay, and them teamed with Nicolas Cage and Saturn Films for the production. Goldman’s work in science fiction explores the themes of identity, free will, and self-definition.

A native of New Orleans, Gary received a B.A. in English Literature from Brandeis University, 1975, magna cum laude. In 1973, he spent his junior year abroad in Jerusalem, where he read Holocaust diaries with the goal of making movies on the subject. After the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Gary volunteered as an orderly in the operating rooms at Hadassah Hospital. Goldman studied filmmaking at NYU and the UCLA graduate program of film production. He directed two award-winning documentaries: DEGAS IN NEW ORLEANS, which was invited to the Cannes Film Festival (1978), and YES, MA’AM, a precursor to THE HELP, about race relations in New Orleans, which won first prize at the American Film Festival in New York (1980). A protégé of novelist Walker Percy, Gary started his feature film career as apprentice to the French director, Louis Malle, on PRETTY BABY. He followed this with a two-year term as production and development executive with producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver, at Paramount. Gary then sat down (with his partner David Weinstein) to write his first screenplay, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, starring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall, directed by John Carpenter.

Gary has worked for every major film studio and collaborated on projects with directors James Cameron, Ridley Scott, David Fincher, and comic book legend Stan Lee. Gary was the first writer/producer to adapt the “X-Men” comic book franchise for the screen. Gary has lectured or taught at the University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Chapman University, and the Wolf Institute in Berlin. He is currently writing a book on the moral necessity of Zionism. The research for this book led Gary to read the Diaries of James G. McDonald, and Gary is currently developing a mini-series based on these diaries that will dramatize the little known political and diplomatic history of the Holocaust.