David Callaham

David Callaham
Born David Elias Callaham
(1977-10-24) October 24, 1977
Fresno, California, U.S.
Occupation Screenwriter
Alma mater University of Michigan

David Elias Callaham (born on October 24, 1977) is an American film writer.

Personal life

Callaham was born in Fresno, California on October 24, 1977. Callaham studied English at the University of Michigan and graduated in 1999. He is married to Bree Tichy. They were married in 2009.[1] Callaham is a Brown Belt in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo.[2]

Career

After reading an article in Penthouse magazine focusing on the lifestyle of Hollywood TV writers, Callaham and a friend drove to Los Angeles with plans to write comedies together. They sent query letters to multiple agencies but never received responses. Callaham worked at Creative Artists Agency for a while, sometimes submitted his material secretly for coverage.[3]

In 2003, Callaham wrote the film adaption to the video game Doom and submitted it in the summer of 2005. Around that time, Callaham wrote Barrow for Warner Bros., a mercenary-inspired action script which later became The Expendables. Callaham was credited for story and characters after Sylvester Stallone used Callaham's Barrow script as a "starting point" for The Expendables.[4] In 2010, Legendary Pictures hired Callaham to write the first draft for Godzilla, for which he would end up receiving a story credit for.[5] In 2014, Callaham completed a rewrite for Marvel's Ant-Man and was hired to write the Zombieland sequel for Sony and Jackpot for Focus Features.[6]

Lawsuit

In late 2013, Nu Image and Millennium Films filed a lawsuit against Callaham and the Writers Guild of America West for fraud, unjust enrichment and declaratory relief over a "flawed and misinformed" Guild arbitration that gave Callaham undeserved writing credit for The Expendables and The Expendables 2. The Plaintiffs have accused Callaham for intentionally withholding emails and other correspondences from the WGA screen writing credit arbitration panel in 2009 that according to the plaintiffs reveal how very little Callaham was involved with The Expendables and demand reimbursements from Callaham for any payments made to him for his fraud credit in the two films.[7]

When Sylvester Stallone was developing the script for The Expendables, Callaham claimed that Stallone used his script, Barrow, as the source for The Expendables. A WGA arbitration was ignited in which Callaham won and additionally earned $102,250 in bonus payments. However, the plaintiffs have uncovered emails from Callaham admitting that his script is nothing like Stallone's script.[8]

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1709264/bio
  2. ↑ http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/eddie-bravo-radio
  3. ↑ "David Callaham". Fresh Voices. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Webb vs. Stallone" (PDF). United States District Court Southern District of New York. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ McWeeny, Drew (October 14, 2010). "Updated! Guillermo Del Toro on 'Godzilla'? Not so fast, says director". Hit Fix.
  6. ↑ Fleming Jr., Mike (September 30, 2014). "After Moving Slow As Corpse, 'Zombieland 2′ Gets Writer And Urgency". Deadline.
  7. ↑ "WGA West & Scribe Sued For Fraud By Nu Image/Millennium Over 'Expendables' Credit". Deadline. 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  8. ↑ "Sylvester Stallone's 'Expendables' Launches Nasty Writers Battle". Hollywood Reporter. 2014-01-30. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
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