| David A. Weiner | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Alma Mater: | Ithaca College |
| Years Active: | 1990–present |
David A. Weiner (pronounced Why-ner) is an American filmmaker, magazine editor, and journalist.
He wrote and directed the In Search of Darkness trilogy, which explores the decade of '80s horror cinema over the course of 14-plus hours:[1] the long-form 2019 documentary film In Search of Darkness,[2] and its sequels (2020) and In Search of Darkness: Part III (2022).[3]
He also wrote and directed the five-hour 2022 documentary on '80s Sci-Fi cinema, In Search of Tomorrow,[4] and executive produced Aliens Expanded (2024), a four-hour doc featuring new interviews with director James Cameron[5] and the cast & crew of Aliens.
Weiner was a writer for The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision[6] and LA Weekly,[7] and was a senior editor for Entertainment Tonight Online[8] from 2001 to 2014.
He was the executive editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland from 2015 to 2016, which resulted in him winning the Rondo Hatton Award for Best Interview of the Year in 2015 (for his interview with Mel Brooks for the 40th anniversary of Young Frankenstein),[9] as well as winning the award for Best Classic Magazine (for Famous Monsters of Filmland) two years in a row.[10] [11]
After graduating from film school at New York's Ithaca College[12] in 1990, Weiner started his entertainment career in Los Angeles working in various on-set production capacities[13] in film, television, commercials, and music videos. He moved on to film development and script coverage/story analyst jobs, and navigated the dot-com boom and bust in the mid-to-late '90s at AOL's Entertainment Asylum,[14] Scour.com, and Hollywood.com before spending over a decade covering film, television, music, and breaking celebrity news at Entertainment Tonight.[15] [16] [17]
On creating long-form genre documentaries:“These films are like the nostalgia of a sense memory, or an unexpected song that takes you back to one of the best times in your life. Revisiting, discussing, and celebrating these films in a long-form documentary time-capsule format is one of the greatest ways to keep the spark alive for so many beloved films.”
| Year | Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Round Numbers | Assistant Director | |
| 1991 | Samantha | Assistant Director | |
| 1991 | Production Manager/AD (second unit) | ||
| 1992 | Netherworld | Production Manager/AD (second unit) | |
| 1992 | Demonic Toys | Locations (as Dave Weiner) | |
| 1993 | The Hidden II | Production Assistant | |
| 1993 | Project Vampire | Assistant Director | |
| 1994 | Desert Winds | Assistant Director | |
| 1994 | Don't Do It | Assistant Director | |
| 1994 | Live Wire | Production Assistant | |
| 1994 | Pentathlon | Production Assistant | |
| 1994 | Another Midnight Run | Production Assistant | |
| 1994 | Midnight Runaround | Production Assistant | |
| 1994 | Midnight Run for Your Life | Production Assistant | |
| 2000 | Cast Away | Production Assistant | |
| 2019 | In Search of the Last Action Heroes | Producer | |
| 2019 | In Search of Darkness | Director, Writer, Producer | |
| 2020 | Director, Writer, Producer | ||
| 2022 | In Search of Tomorrow | Director, Writer, Producer | |
| 2022 | In Search of Darkness: Part III | Director, Writer, Producer | |
| 2024 | Aliens Expanded | Executive Producer | |
| TBA | In Search of Darkness: 1990-1994 | Director, Writer, Producer | |
| TBA | The Thing Expanded | Executive Producer | |
| TBA | In Search of Darkness: 1995-1999 | Director, Writer, Producer | |
| TBA | In Search of Tomorrow: Part II | Director, Writer, Producer |