Film Gajdusek's first professional break came through an option by independent producer Jeff Young for his screenplay ''Widow's Walk''. Although the film would never be produced, Young's attempts to get the film made landed Gajdusek with his first agent. Gajdusek's next film,
Higher was developed with director James Foley and later with director John McNaughton. For a period of time, Gajdusek teamed with screenwriter Michael Finch. Together they sold a number of pitches to various buyers including two to WWE Films. Their script based on the
Bill Granger's
The November Man novel,
There Are No Spies, titled
The November Man, first developed in 2009, began shooting in Belgrade in 2013 with
Pierce Brosnan starring in the lead role. The film would finally premiere in 2014. Meanwhile, Gajdusek wrote a solo feature script,
Pandora, redefining him as a darker dramatic writer. After doing uncredited work on
The Mechanic and the Liam Neeson film
Unknown, Gajdusek wrote
Trespass for Irwin Winkler which was released in 2011. Also in 2011, Gajdusek began work on two projects which would shape the direction of his career. The first was a screenplay based on the Rick Remender and Greg Toocchini graphic novel
The Last Days of American Crime. Gajdusek claims it as one of his favorite pieces of writing. Director Olivier Megaton came on board in 2018 and the film premiered on Netflix in 2020. Also in 2011, Gajdusek began work on a rewrite of the Joe Kosinski directed
Oblivion. Gajdusek would work for almost a year on the film, through the casting of Tom Cruise and the switch from Disney Pictures to Universal Studios.
Oblivion premiered in March 2013. This partnership led to Gajdusek writing the script for a prequel in Vaughn's
Kingsman franchise. That film wrapped shooting in May, 2019.
Television Gajdusek landed his first job in television as a story editor on the second season of the Showtime series
Dead Like Me. For
Dead Like Me Gajdusek wrote on four episodes: "Haunted", "Death Defying", "Rites of Passage", and "The Shallow End". After the cancellation of the series, Gajdusek returned to screenwriting until he paired with Shawn Ryan in 2011 to co-create the ABC television series
Last Resort which ran on ABC for a season in 2012. In June, 2013, Gajdusek began to develop a science fiction television epic,
The Spark for HBO. In August 2013, Gajdusek re-teamed with the
Last Resort team of Shawn Ryan, Sony Pictures Television, and ABC to announce a new show,
Freedom, about the rise of a
hacktivist collective on the campus of an elite university. While
Freedom did not survive at ABC, in 2014 Gajdusek paired with novelist
Gary Shteyngart to adapt his novel
Super Sad True Love Story into a television series with the production company MRC. In early 2015 this project was announced along with the attachment of
Ben Stiller to direct many of the episodes. In 2015, Gajdusek came on to the Netflix series
Stranger Things as showrunner of the first season. In early 2016 it was announced that
Super Sad True Love Story had been purchased by Showtime with Gajdusek and Shteyngart both as creators and executive producers. In 2017, Gajdusek was hired as Showrunner for the second season of Amazon's series about Zelda Fitzgerald:
"Z: The Beginning of Everything." List of film and television •
The Spark (TBA) (Television series—UCP) •
Freedom (TBA) (Television series for Sony TV/ABC) •
Super Sad True Love Story (TBA) (Television series at Showtime, MRC studios) • ''
The King's Man'' (2021) (screenplay) •
The Last Days of American Crime (2020) •
Blood Brother (2018) •
Stranger Things (2016) •
When the Bough Breaks (2016) (uncredited rewrite) •
The November Man (2014) (screenplay) •
Oblivion (2013) (screenplay) •
Last Resort (2012–2013) ABC series (co-creator, executive producer) •
Trespass (2011) (written by) ==Playwriting==