Goldman's first big screen writing credit was for John Carpenter's fantasy martial arts film
Big Trouble in Little China, which he co-wrote with David Weinstein. Originally set in the
old west, the script was later adapted by Carpenter's former classmate at USC film school,
W. D. Richter, to take place in modern times. Goldman's next major writing job came in 1989 for the
science fiction action film Total Recall, starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Originally written by
Ronald Shusett and
Dan O'Bannon, director
Paul Verhoeven had problems with the third act and hired Goldman to help fix the screenplay. According to the director, the problem was that the last forty minutes of the film was one long action sequence and had abandoned the "mental theme." Working with Shusett, Goldman was able to reintroduce this mental theme by adding a plot twist where the audience discovers that Schwarzenegger's character, who is assumed to be a good guy, had his memory wiped and is actually a bad guy. Shortly after the success of
Total Recall, Goldman and Shusett co-wrote a screen adaptation of
Philip K. Dick's story "
The Minority Report" to serve as a possible sequel to the film. Although their screenplay was not used, the
2002 film
Minority Report has a sequence set in a car factory, which was adapted from their early script. In the end, Goldman didn't receive a writing credit, but was listed as an
executive producer of the film. By 2003, Goldman's career had slowed down, and manager Lenny Beckerman suggested that he adapt another Philip K. Dick story. Goldman had a good relationship with the Dick estate and was able to acquire the rights to his 1954 short story "
The Golden Man". The completed script was sold to
Nicolas Cage's production company, Saturn Films, and eventually became the 2007 film
Next directed by
Lee Tamahori and starring Cage, along with
Julianne Moore and
Jessica Biel. Unfortunately, the film was not a great critical or financial success. ==Lawsuit==