David Benioff

Benioff spent two years writing his first published novel The 25th Hour,[13][14] originally titled Fireman Down, and completed the book as his thesis for his master's degree at Irvine.[15][16] He was asked to adapt the book into a screenplay after Tobey Maguire read a preliminary trade copy and became interested in making a film of the book.[11] The film adaptation, titled 25th Hour and starring Edward Norton, was directed by Spike Lee.[16][17] Benioff then wrote a collection of short stories titled When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) (2004).[18]

He drafted a screenplay of the mythological epic Troy (2004), for which Warner Bros. pictures paid him $2.5 million.[19] He also wrote the script for the psychological thriller Stay (2005), which was directed by Marc Forster, and stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. His screenplay for The Kite Runner (2007), adapted from the novel of the same name, marked his second collaboration with director Marc Forster.

Benioff was hired in 2004 to write the screenplay for the X-Men spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). He based his script on Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" story, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1982 limited series on the character,[20][21] as well as the 2001 limited series Origin.[22] Hugh Jackman collaborated on the script, which he wanted to be more of a character piece compared with the previous X-Men films.[23] Skip Woods was later hired by Fox to revise and rewrite Benioff's script.[24] Benioff had aimed for a "darker and a bit more brutal" story, writing it with an R rating in mind, although he acknowledged the film's final tone would rest with the producers and director.[20]

In 2006, Benioff became interested in adapting George R.R. Martin's novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and began working with D. B. Weiss on a proposed television series, Game of Thrones.[25] The pilot, "Winter Is Coming", was put into development by HBO in 2007 and the series greenlit in 2010. Benioff and Weiss acted as the executive producers, showrunners, and writers of the show, which began airing on HBO in 2011. Benioff and Weiss had previously worked together on a script for a horror film titled The Headmaster, but it was never made.[7]

In October 2007, Universal Pictures hired Benioff to write an adapted screenplay of the Charles R. Cross biography of Kurt Cobain, but the screenplay was not used.[26] In 2008, Benioff's second novel, City of Thieves, was published.

On April 10, 2014, Benioff announced he and Weiss had taken on their first feature film project to write, produce, and direct Dirty White Boys, a novel by the Pulitzer prize-winning author Stephen Hunter.[27][28] On July 19, 2017, Benioff announced that he and Weiss would produce another HBO series, titled Confederate, after the final season of Game of Thrones. Benioff and Weiss 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."[29] The announcement of Confederate was met with public animosity, and as of August 2019 (when Benioff and Weiss' deal with Netflix deal was announced) would not be moving forward.[30]

On February 6, 2018, Disney announced that both Benioff and Weiss would write and produce a new series of Star Wars films after the final season of Game of Thrones is completed in 2019.[31]

Towards the end of the final season of Game of Thrones, a petition to HBO was started on Change.org. It described showrunners Benioff and Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers", and thus demanded "competent writers" to remake the eighth season of Game of Thrones in a manner "that makes sense".[32] The petition eventually amassed over 1.5 million signatures.[33] Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun Times, described that the backlash to the eighth season was so great that in his 25+ years of reviewing movies and television, he doubts that he has "ever seen the level of fan (and to a lesser degree, critical) vitriol leveled at" Game of Thrones.[34]

In early August 2019, Benioff and Weiss negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Netflix worth US$200 million.[35][36] Due to their commitments to Netflix, Benioff and Weiss exited their contract to produce Star Wars films for Disney and Lucasfilm.[37][38][39]

Benioff and Weiss together directed two episodes of Game of Thrones, but used a coin-flip to decide who would get the credit on the show. Benioff was given the credit for season 3 episode 3, "Walk of Punishment", while Weiss was credited with season 4 episode 1, "Two Swords".[7] Benioff and Weiss co-directed the series finale.[40]

Benioff and Weiss's first project on Netflix were as directors of the stand-up comedy special Leslie Jones: Time Machine.[41]