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Memory Alpha
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(written from a production point of view)

Akiva Goldsman (born 7 July 1962; age 62) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director who worked as executive producer on the first season, and as consulting producer on the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, as well as executive producer on Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

He joined the creative team of Star Trek: Discovery after executive producer Bryan Fuller stepped down as showrunner. [1]

Besides his producing work, Goldsman also wrote and directed episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard.

Goldsman made a cameo appearances as a Vulcan council member in Star Trek and as a Starfleet admiral in Star Trek Into Darkness.

He won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay of the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind. Goldsman was once rumored to be writing a Star Trek film in 2000, but this was revealed to be false. [2]

Goldsman is friends with Star Trek producer and director J.J. Abrams. In 2001, Goldsman made a cameo in an episode of Abrams' first series, Felicity. More recently, Goldsman wrote or co-wrote three episodes of Abrams' series, Fringe, which was co-created by Star Trek writers and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and starred John Noble. Goldsman's work for Fringe was his first foray into episodic television. He also made his directorial debut on the first episode he wrote, entitled "Bad Dreams".

In TRR: "Maps and Legends" Goldsman revealed that he had been a near first generation "Trekkie", frequenting the 1970s Star Trek convention circuit.

Writing and directing career[]

One of Goldsman's first screenwriting project was the 1994 film adaptation of John Grisham's novel, The Client. That film's director, Joel Schumacher, later called upon Goldsman to adapt another Grisham novel, this time A Time to Kill. Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star Ashley Judd was ultimately cast in the latter film. Judd incidentally, also appeared in all three outings of the Divergent-trilogy, for whose second outing, Insurgent (2015), Goldman had also co-written the screenplay.

Goldsman also wrote the screenplays for the superhero films Batman Forever (1995, with René Auberjonois and Ed Begley, Jr.) and Batman & Robin (1997, with John Glover).

Goldsman often collaborated with director Ron Howard. He wrote the screenplay for Howard's A Beautiful Mind, which earned Goldsman not only an Academy Award, but a Golden Globe and a Writers Guild of America Award, as well. Christopher Plummer and Anthony Rapp had major supporting roles in A Beautiful Mind, and the film was scored by James Horner.

Goldsman next worked with Howard on Cinderella Man (2005, featuring Bruce McGill). Their collaboration continued with The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009). In addition, Goldsman has written I, Robot (2004, featuring James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood) and I Am Legend (2007, co-starring Salli Elise Richardson).

More recently, Goldsman wrote the screenplays for The 5th Wave (2016, with Terry Serpico), Rings (2017, with Bonnie Morgan), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017, with Glenn Morshower, Barbara Eve Harris, Ross Carter, and the voices of Frank Welker, Tom Kenny, and Jess Harnell), and The Dark Tower (2017, starring Idris Elba, with Paul Riley Fox).

In 2014, Goldsman made Winter's Tale, his first feature film as director. Previously he helmed four episodes of Fringe and one episode of King.

Producing career[]

The first movie Goldsman produced was Lost in Space (1998), which he also wrote. He then produced Deep Blue Sea (1999, which featured Ronny Cox.

Since then, Goldsman has produced such films as Starsky & Hutch (2004, co-starring Fred Williamson, Rachael Harris, and featuring a cameo by David Soul), Mindhunters (starring Clifton Collins, Jr. and Christian Slater), Constantine (2005, featuring Larry Cedar), and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005, featuring Jennifer Morrison), I Am Legend (film) I Am Legend (2007, for which he wrote the screenplay) and Hancock (2008).

Goldsman has worked on several other films including Jonah Hex, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. He also produced The Losers, which is also based on a DC Comics book. This latter film starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoë Saldana.

Star Trek credits[]

Writer[]

Director[]

Producer[]

  • DIS:
    • Season 1 (all episodes) (Executive Producer)
    • Season 2 (all episodes) (Consulting Producer)
  • ST: – All episodes (Executive Producer)
  • PIC: – All episodes (Executive Producer)
  • SNW: – All episodes (Executive Producer)

External links[]

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