Early life, education and career

Meyer was born in New York City, New York, to a Jewish family. He is the son of Elly (Kassman), a concert pianist, and Bernard Constant Meyer, a Manhattan psychoanalyst. Meyer graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in theater and filmmaking, and also wrote film reviews for the campus newspaper. Meyer first gained public attention for his best-selling 1974 Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a story of Holmes confronting his cocaine addiction with the help of Sigmund Freud. Meyer followed this with two additional Holmes novels: The West End Horror (1976), and The Canary Trainer (1993).

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was later adapted as a 1976 film of the same name, for which Meyer wrote the screenplay. The film was directed by Herbert Ross and starred Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin and Laurence Olivier. For his work adapting the novel, Meyer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 49th Academy Awards.

Intrigued by the first part of college friend Karl Alexander's then-incomplete novel Time After Time, Meyer optioned the book and adapted it into a screenplay. He consented to sell the script only if he were attached as director. The deal was optioned by Warner Bros., and the film became Meyer's directorial debut. Meyer freely allowed Alexander to borrow from the screenplay. The latter published his novel at about the same time the movie was released.

Time After Time (1979) starred Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen and David Warner. It was a critical and commercial success.

At the behest of then Paramount executive Karen Moore, Meyer was hired to direct Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Meyer later directed the 1983 television film The Day After, starring Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, John Cullum, Bibi Besch, John Lithgow and Steve Guttenberg, which depicted the ramifications of a nuclear attack on the United States. Meyer had originally decided not to do any television work, but changed his mind upon reading the script by Edward Hume. For his work on The Day After, Meyer was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Director. Afterward, he also directed "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", a 1985 episode of the television series Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre.

He resumed directing theatrical films with the 1985 comedy Volunteers, starring Tom Hanks and John Candy. After directing Volunteers, Meyer returned to working on Star Trek, co-writing the screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) with producer Harve Bennett. Meyer's next directing job was the 1988 Merchant Ivory produced drama The Deceivers, with Pierce Brosnan as British officer William Savage. Meyer later wrote and directed the 1991 spy comedy Company Business, starring Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov as aging American and Russian secret agents. In 1991, Meyer once again returned to the world of Star Trek, co-writing and directing Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which became a swan song for the original cast. Meyer performed uncredited rewrites on an early draft of the screenplay of the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

Meyer adapted the Philip Roth novel The Human Stain into the 2003 film of the same name. In 2006, he teamed with Martin Scorsese to write the screenplay for Scorsese's adaptation of Edmund Morris's Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Theodore Roosevelt, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. The story traces Roosevelt's early life.

Star Trek films

Meyer, along with writer/producer Harve Bennett, is one of two people credited with revitalizing and perhaps saving the Star Trek franchise after the problems of the first film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, almost caused Paramount Pictures to end the series. Paramount had been unhappy with the creative direction of the first film, as well as the cost overruns and production problems. However, the film was also a great financial success, and they wanted a sequel. Bennett, a reliable television producer, was hired to help.

Introduced to Bennett by Paramount executive Karen Moore, Meyer was hired as a potential director for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan despite never having seen the first film. Due to problems with the early drafts of the script, which most readers disliked, Meyer quickly became involved in re-writing the film's screenplay. After meeting with Bennett and other members of the cast and crew regarding the script, Meyer impressed Star Trek's actors and producers by delivering a superior draft of the script in only twelve days. The draft had to be completed so quickly, in fact, that Meyer agreed to forgo the negotiation of a contract or credit for his writing in order to begin work on the script immediately. As a result, he is uncredited as a writer on the final film.

In his direction, Meyer made stylistic alterations, such as adding more of a naval appearance. Meyer and Bennett together created a film that was engaging while also reducing costs and avoiding the production fiascoes of the first Star Trek film. The Wrath of Khan became a financial success, grossing $78 million in the domestic market, and is considered by many to be the best Star Trek film to date.

Although he "refuse to specialize" and so vowed to not work on another Star Trek project, Meyer co-wrote the screenplay for the fourth Star Trek film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home with Bennett. For that film, Bennett wrote the first and third acts, which occur in the 23rd century, and Meyer wrote the second act, which occurs in 1986 San Francisco. Meyer has said that one of the most enjoyable aspects of working on this film was getting the chance to re-use elements which he had been forced to discard from his earlier film, Time After Time. Star Trek IV proved to be successful financially, notable for succeeding with general moviegoers as well as science fiction and Star Trek devotees.

Meyer worked for the Star Trek franchise again for the sixth film in the series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). He developed the story with Leonard Nimoy and co-wrote the screenplay with long-time friend and assistant Denny Flinn. He directed the picture, which was the final film to feature the entire classic Star Trek cast. Like its predecessors, this film was successful financially, grossing $74 million in the domestic market. Many of Meyer's personal papers from his involvement with the Star Trek franchise are housed at the University of Iowa Libraries.

In February 2016, it was announced that Meyer would be returning to Star Trek by joining the writing team for CBS's new TV series, set to premier in January 2017.

Filmography

Year	Title	Job	Notes
1973	Invasion of the Bee Girls	Writer
1974	Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders	Writer (screenplay)	TV film
1975	The Night That Panicked America	Writer (screenplay)	TV film Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
1976	The Seven-Per-Cent Solution	Writer (novel/screenplay)	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated — WGA Award for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium
1979	Time After Time	Director/Writer (screenplay)	Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival Antenne II Award Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival Grand Prize Saturn Award for Best Writing Nominated — Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay Nominated — Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Direction Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Director/Writer (screenplay - uncredited)	Saturn Award for Best Direction Nominated — Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
1983	The Day After	Director	TV film Golden Screen Award Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special
1985	Faerie Tale Theatre	Director/Writer (screenplay)	TV series, episode "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
	Volunteers	Director
1986	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	Writer (screenplay)	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Writing
1987	Fatal Attraction	Writer (uncredited)
1988	The Deceivers	Director
1991	Company Business	Director/Writer
	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Director/Writer (screenplay)	Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film Nominated — Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Writing
1993	Sommersby	Writer	Spur Award for Best Motion Picture Script
1995	Voices	Writer
1997	The Informant	Writer (screenplay)/Executive Producer	TV film Won — PEN Center USA West Literary Awards for Best Teleplay
	The Odyssey	Executive Producer	TV miniseries Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries
	Tomorrow Never Dies	Writer (screenplay — uncredited)
1999	Vendetta	Director	TV film
1999	The Prince of Egypt	Writer (screenplay alongside Phillip LaZebnik, based on the Book of Exodus)
2002	Fall from the Sky	Writer	TV film
	Collateral Damage	Executive Producer
2003	The Human Stain	Writer (screenplay)
2006	Orpheus	Writer/Executive Producer	TV film
2008	Elegy	Writer (screenplay)	Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
2009	The Hessen Affair	Writer
2014	Houdini	Writer	TV miniseries

Bibliography

Year	Title	Notes
1970	The Love Story Story	Non-fiction
1974	Target Practice
	The Seven-Per-Cent Solution	Publishers Weekly's bestselling novels of 1974 The New York Times Best Seller list.
1976	The West End Horror	The New York Times Best Seller list.
1978	Black Orchid	Co-Wrote with Barry J. Kaplan
1981	Confessions of a Homing Pigeon
1993	The Canary Trainer
2009	The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood	Non-fiction

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Project	Category	Outcome
Academy Awards	1976	The Seven-Per-Cent Solution	Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated
Emmy Awards	1975	The Night That Panicked America	Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special	Nominated
	1983	The Day After	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special	Nominated
			Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special	Nominated
	1997	The Odyssey	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries	Nominated
Satellite Awards	2008	Elegy	Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated
Saturn Awards	1979	Time After Time	Best Science Fiction Film	Nominated
			Best Director	Nominated
			Best Writing	Won
	1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Best Director	Won
			Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film	Nominated
	1984		The George Pal Memorial Award	Won
	1986	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	Best Writing	Nominated
	1991	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Best Science Fiction Film	Won
			Best Writing	Nominated
Spur Awards	1993	Sommersby	Best Drama Script	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]