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Will Beall is an American screenwriter and formerLos Angeles Police Department detective. He is best known for writing the scripts forGangster Squad (2013) and theDC Extended Universe filmsAquaman (2018) andZack Snyder's Justice League (2021), and for developing the police TV seriesTraining Day andDeputy, which were canceled after a single season.

Beall launched his writing career in 2006 with the publication of his acclaimed first novelLA REX, after working for 10 years as a homicide detective and gang investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department. Beall adapted the book for Oscar-winning producerScott Rudin and the script was featured atopThe Black List, Hollywood's annual survey of the industry's favorite screenplays. Between 2009 and 2011, he was a story editor for theABC TV showCastle, writing several episodes exploring the show's overarching plotline of the hunt for Beckett's mother's killer. Beall wrote the feature filmGangster Squad, which was released in 2013 and starredSean Penn,Ryan Gosling andJosh Brolin. The film was based on formerLos Angeles Times writer and editor Paul Lieberman's book,Gangster Squad, a non-fiction account of what he calls "the battle for Los Angeles" that took place between the police and Mickey Cohen's crew in the mid-1940s.

Beall's script forJustice League was completed prior to production of Snyder'sBatman vs. Superman. In fact, the 'Knightmare' sequence fromBatman vs. Superman was inspired by Beall'sJustice League script. Much of the second act of Beall's originalJustice League script took place in a post-apocalyptic earth whereDarkseid had manipulated Superman and then used the Kryptonian to conquer the world. The surviving members of the Justice League had to join forces with villains from the DC Universe in order to defeat Darkseid by sending Flash back in time to warn Batman prior to the invasion.^[1] Many of these elements were at least partially restored in the "Snyder Cut," resulting in Beall receiving story credit.

On the strength of hisJustice League script, Beall was hired to developAquaman as a feature. He wrote multiple drafts and ultimately received both screenplay and story credit for his work onAquaman, which grossed $1.149 billion worldwide.

Beall was also hired by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay for a reboot of theLethal Weapon franchise. According toIGN, Beall is writing the script toThe Legend of Conan, the sequel toConan the Barbarian.^[2] In an April 2022 article byDeadline Hollywood, Beall was announced to have written the screenplay forBeverly Hills Cop: Axel F.^[3]

Beall also did uncredited production rewrites forNon-Stop,Edge of Tomorrow, andVenom.

Beall marriedCastle producer and writerElizabeth Davis on June 30, 2012 at Beltane Ranch in Sonoma Valley, California.^[4]

On January 21, 2019, Beall suffered a heart attack while working in his Pacific Palisades office, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. While in route, Beall's heart stopped but — after 13 rounds of defibrillation and continuous CPR — "he had a return of spontaneous circulation" soon after arriving at the hospital. Beall was placed into a medically induced coma, but made a full recovery. In April 2019, he and his wife attended a ceremony for theLos Angeles firefighters and paramedics that helped save his life.^[5]

His last name is pronounced "bell."

Film

Television

• Will Beall atIMDb

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