Danny Bilson

Danny Bilson was born into a show business family in Los Angeles, California, the son of Mona (Weichman) and Director Bruce Bilson (Bewitched, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes). He has three daughters; his eldest, Rachel Bilson (born on August 25, 1981) is an actress, notable for her role in The O.C. and Hart of Dixie He, his wife Heather Medway, and two younger daughters, Hattie Elizabeth Bilson, born December 19, 2001, and Rosemary, born February 10, 2007, reside in Los Angeles. He and his late partner, Paul DeMeo, are writers on Spike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods" film, and he--as of 2020--is actively working on new screenwriting projects, while teaching narrative/screenwriting at the University of Southern California (USC) and serving as the Director of USC Games, a joint program between the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Viterbi School of Engineering. __________ As a child, he discovered his passion for both storytelling and games, both of which would greatly influence his career as a screenwriter for film and TV as well as a games designer/narrative designer. Bilson graduated from California State University, San Bernardino. There he met and teamed up with his best friend and long-time writing partner, Paul DeMeo, and together they founded Pet Fly Productions. After graduating from college, Bilson worked aggressively to build a career in the movie business, working as an extra while writing screenplays. Bilson and DeMeo produced their first script, Trancers (1985), a noir tale about a time-travelling detective from the future. The movie became a cult classic, and the narrative was so engaging that it evolved into a franchise that generated five sequels. As of 2020, Trancers holds an 83% Freshness Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Bilson debuted as a director for another cult classic Zone Troopers (1985), also co-written by DeMeo, a tale of American World War II soldiers who find an alien spacecraft. Following this, the duo performed the same roles in The Wrong Guys (1988) a comedic spoof about boy scouting. Bilson and DeMeo began their screenplay adaptation of the comic book The Rocketeer in 1985. While writing for Disney, the partners weathered the ups and downs of five years of movie development. The film was released in theaters in 1991, missing key deleted scenes that were only restored years later as part of the home video release. The Rocketeer has become one of the most beloved Disney live action films of the '90s, with a recent announcement to reboot it as a film franchise as well as an animated series. For most of the 90's, Bilson and DeMeo worked as Executive Producers and creators on various action-adventure and sci-fi series for multiple studios and networks, including the first TV incarnation of The Flash, and multiple action series Viper, Human Target, and The Sentinel. Electronic Arts & The Sims After a chance meeting with then-President of Electronic Arts in 2000, Don Mattrick, Bilson--an avid tabletop and video gamer his entire life--was brought on as a production lead to focus on guiding creative and narrative IP development at EA. During that time, he was a consulting producer for the video game The Sims (2000), as well as creative executive on the EA's Harry Potter video game franchise, working directly with JK Rowling and acting as a liaison between the acclaimed author, EA, and Harry Potter film distributor Warner Bros. He also wrote for multiple EA game franchise, including Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, and James Bond 007. In 2008, THQ approached Bilson to take on the role of VP of Creative Production, formally taking on the same function there as he had done informally at EA. Executives at the company, after seeing the positive impact his input had on titles in their development pipeline, and his leadership skills when it came to interacting with developers as well marketing staff, promoted him to Executive Vice President of Global Production and Marketing. In that role, Bilson led over a dozen internally owned production studios, and 30+ marketing, administrative and operations staff at THQ's headquarters in Agoura Hills. One of his first tasks was to develop a clear strategic framework for the inherited portfolio of studios the company owned, as many had previously been purchased without one in place, resulting in the company owning over 20 studios at its peak. Unfortunately, despite Bilson's best efforts, THQ's investments on projects and products outside of his portfolio resulted in the company needing to sell off it's assets and re-launching as a smaller organization known as THQ Nordic. Overlapping with his time at EA and THQ, Bilson and DeMeo continued writing comics, sometimes to support internal THQ IP, but also co-writing The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive for DC Comics with actor Adam Brody, as well a mini-series for Wildstorm Comics called Red Menace. During his time at EA, Bilson began teaching at the University of Southern California, after being encouraged to do so by his friend and World of Warcraft guild-mate, Bing Gordon. There he instructs as an adjunct professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he teaches traditional screenwriting, as well as character development and storytelling for video games. Bilson's lifelong writing partner and best friend of over 40 years, Paul DeMeo, died in 2018, just prior to the finalization of the sale of a script they co-wrote--Da 5 Bloods--to acclaimed writer/director/producer Spike Lee, fresh off his 2019 Academy Award win for Best Adapted Screenplay for the critically acclaimed film BlacKkKlansman. Da 5 Bloods is being distributed by Netflix and the production team has announced that Marvel Studios' Avengers/Black Panther star, Chadwick Boseman, will be the lead in the feature, which will also star Delroy Lindo and Jean Reno. Bilson continues to work full-time as a screenwriter and producer, while teaching part-time at USC, where he was appointed Chair of the USC's Interactive Media and Games Division in 2017. In 2019 it was announced that his screenplay, Da 5 Bloods, co-written by Bilson and DeMeo, is being produced and directed by Spike Lee. He was appointed Director of USC Games, a joint education program co-managed by USC's School of Cinematic Arts and USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in March 2019 and as of 2020, serves in that role while still actively screenwriting and producing. He is as of this writing also working on two unannounced TV / film projects.