D. B. Weiss

Early life

Weiss was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His family is Jewish, with ancestral roots in Germany. He graduated from Wesleyan University. He earned a Master of Philosophy in Irish literature from Trinity College Dublin, where he wrote his thesis, "Understanding the (Net) Wake." It explores James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake. Weiss later earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Career

Weiss worked as personal assistant on films such as The Viking Sagas for New Line Cinema. For a brief period, he also worked as a personal assistant for musician Glenn Frey.

When Weiss went to Dublin in 1995 to study Anglo-Irish literature, he met David Benioff, the screenwriter of Troy. Three years later, around 1998, they met again after his return to the US in Santa Monica, California.

Weiss and Benioff co-wrote a screenplay for a film titled The Headmaster, but it was never made. In 2003, they were hired to collaborate on a new script based on Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game, in consultation with the then-designated director Wolfgang Petersen. It was not used.

Weiss's 2003 debut novel, Lucky Wander Boy, is themed around video games. In 2006, he said he had written a second novel that "needs a second draft". The same year, Weiss completed a screenplay for a film adaptation of the video game series Halo, based on a script by Alex Garland. Director Neill Blomkamp declared the project dead in late 2007.

Weiss also worked on a script for a prequel to I Am Legend, but in May 2011, director Francis Lawrence said that he did not think the prequel would ever happen.

Weiss collaborated with Benioff on the HBO television series Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Benioff and Weiss also directed three episodes together. For the first two, they flipped a coin to decide who would get the credit on the show. Weiss received directing credit for "Two Swords", Season 4 episode 1, while Benioff was credited for "Walk of Punishment", Season 3 episode 3. Benioff and Weiss were both credited for co-directing the series finale, "The Iron Throne".

On July 19, 2017, Weiss announced that he and Benioff were going to begin production on another HBO series, Confederate, after the final season of Game of Thrones. Weiss and Benioff said, "We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film, but our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO." In January 2020, HBO President Casey Bloys confirmed that the project had been officially canceled.

On February 6, 2018, Disney announced that Weiss and Benioff would write and produce a new series of Star Wars films after the last season of Game of Thrones ended in 2019. Toward the end of the last season, a petition to HBO was started on Change.org. It described showrunners Benioff and Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers" and demanded "competent writers" to remake the eighth season of Game of Thrones in a manner "that makes sense".Multiple sources: 1. 1. 1. 1.

1. The petition eventually amassed over 1.5 million signatures. In the Chicago Sun Times, Richard Roeper wrote that the backlash to the eighth season was so great that he doubted he had "ever seen the level of fan (and to a lesser degree, critical) vitriol leveled at" Game of Thrones.

In early 2019, Weiss and Benioff entered into an exclusive $200 million deal with Netflix to produce several films and television shows exclusively for it. In late October 2019, it was reported that Weiss and Benioff had exited their deal with Disney due to their commitments to Netflix.

Weiss and Benioff's first project on Netflix were as directors of Leslie Jones's stand-up comedy special Time Machine.

In September 2020, it was announced that Weiss, Benioff and Alexander Woo would write and executive produce the Netflix series 3 Body Problem, based on the similarly named Chinese novel series.

Personal life

Weiss and his wife, Andrea Troyer, have two children.

Bibliography

Author

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

References

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2. "The Jewish legacy behind Game of Thrones". Times of Israel.
3. Weiss, D.B.. (1995). ""Understanding the (Net) Wake"".
4. (March 24, 2014). "The Surprising Connection Between Game of Thrones and Monty Python".
5. "Bio".
6. "''Game of Thrones'': Interview with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss".
7. (July 19, 2006). "DB Weiss talks ''Halo''".
8. (April 18, 2007). "Card talks ''Ender's Game'' movie". IGN Entertainment, Inc..
9. (July 13, 2006). "GameSetInterview: Halo Screenwriter DB Weiss".
10. Miller, Ross. (July 14, 2006). "DB Weiss takes on ''Halo'' script".
11. Fritz, Ben. (October 31, 2006). "No home for ''Halo'' pic". [[Variety (magazine).
12. Farrell, Nick. (October 9, 2007). "''Halo'' movie canned". [[The Inquirer]].
13. (September 26, 2008). "''I Am Legend'' prequel in the works".
14. (May 3, 2011). "Exclusive: 'I Am Legend Prequel' is Dead, Says Francis Lawrence". [[MTV]] Movies blog.
15. Fleming, Michael. (January 16, 2007). "HBO turns ''Fire'' into fantasy series". [[Variety (magazine).
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20. Roeper, Richard. (May 19, 2019). "'Game of Thrones' finale review: Enthralling series comes to a satisfying end".
21. (August 8, 2019). "What Will David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Bring to Netflix For $200 Million?". [[W (magazine).
22. (August 7, 2019). "Game of Thrones creators sign $200 million Netflix deal to make exclusive shows and films". [[The Verge]].
23. Boucher, Geoff. (October 29, 2019). "'Star Wars' Setback: 'Game Of Thrones' Duo David Benioff & D.B. Weiss Exit Trilogy".
24. (October 29, 2019). "Game of Thrones creators Benioff and Weiss drop Star Wars movies for Netflix". [[The Guardian]].
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37. (January 5, 2015). "'American Sniper,' 'Birdman' & 'Boyhood' Among PGA Awards Nominees". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
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46. Littleton, Cynthia. "Writers Guild Award TV Nominations: 'The Americans,' 'Handmaid's Tale,' 'GLOW' Grab Multiple Mentions". Variety.
47. (April 4, 2015). "2015 Nominations". [[World Science Fiction Society]].
48. Gartenberg, Chaim. (April 4, 2017). "Here are the 2017 Hugo Award nominees".
49. THR Staff. (January 7, 2016). "USC Scripter Awards Unveils Film Nominations, Expands into TV". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
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51. (January 11, 2018). "'Game of Thrones,' 'Black-ish' Top Humanitas Prize Finalists". Variety.
52. "Emmys - 3 Body Problem".