High-concept, elevated genre stories grounded in deeply human stakes.

DANIEL SHAFER, founder of Overlander Entertainment, is a California-based writer-producer whose three-decade career spans studio features, independent films, television and original screenplays. A former producing partner of Tobey Maguire, star of Sam Raimi’s landmark SPIDER-MAN trilogy, Shafer spent five years at Maguire’s production company, rising from assistant to creative executive and ultimately becoming Head of Development, running the company. There, he developed more than forty film and television projects; nineteen were set up across nearly every major studio, and five went on to be produced and released as feature films.

During that period, Shafer developed stories with many of the industry’s most acclaimed filmmakers, among them Academy Award winners Chuck Roven (THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy, OPPENHEIMER), Christopher McQuarrie (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, TOP GUN: MAVERICK and the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise), Akiva Goldsman (A BEAUTIFUL MIND, I AM LEGEND), Wendy Finerman (FORREST GUMP, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) and Paweł Pawlikowski (IDA, COLD WAR). That work took him deep into plot, character, structure and theme -- breaking stories, building worlds, sharpening character arcs and adapting everything from novels, articles and life rights to anime, musicals and graphic novels for the screen. He shared that creative process with Academy Award nominees Lawrence Kasdan (THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), Michael De Luca (THE SOCIAL NETWORK, MONEYBALL), Gary Ross (THE HUNGER GAMES, SEABISCUIT), Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (IRON MAN, CHILDREN OF MEN), Steven Knight (PEAKY BLINDERS, EASTERN PROMISES), Peter Craig (THE BATMAN, TOP GUN: MAVERICK) and Peter Hedges (WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, ABOUT A BOY), among many others.

Projects Shafer originated and set up during that period were ultimately brought to the screen with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Tom Cruise, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Dave Bautista and Bryan Cranston.

After leaving Maguire’s company, Shafer founded Overlander Entertainment and transitioned into independent producing and screenwriting. He developed and produced the Netflix Original Film XOXO and wrote the screenplay for and produced BLACK MOON, a horror short that won more than twenty festival awards. His original screenplays have also received recognition. In 2025, INVASIVE SPECIES reached the semifinals of the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, was one of ten scripts shortlisted for its Sci-Fi Feature Award and was named an Outstanding Screenplays finalist. That same year, HE FEEDS was a PAGE International Screenwriting Awards finalist and a Final Draft Big Break Horror/Thriller quarterfinalist. In 2024, THE NEEDLE was a PAGE International Screenwriting Awards semifinalist and a Final Draft Big Break Sci-Fi/Fantasy quarterfinalist. In 2021, THE OCTOPUS was a ScreenCraft Sci-Fi & Fantasy Screenwriting Competition semifinalist and an Austin Film Festival Second Rounder.

Shafer is attached as a producer to all of his original screenplays and is currently producing WILLOWBROOK, a feature documentary with two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY, USA; AMERICAN DREAM) attached to direct.

Across his original work, Shafer’s voice is dark, propulsive and emotionally grounded. He writes high-concept science fiction, horror and thrillers that thrust flawed, morally complicated people into worlds where the rules have broken down. His stories explore identity, memory, guilt, power and redemption, with particular empathy for those society has condemned, discarded or deemed beyond saving. However expansive the world, the decisive choice is ultimately intimate: whom a character will protect, what they are willing to sacrifice and whether they can still choose to be human.

Biography

Daniel Shafer grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, soaking in double features at the local revival house every weekend — classic films that not only amused, but widened his window to the world.

His most formative experience, however, was a family trip deep up the Amazon River at age 15, where he was stunned to witness families living on floating villages.

Curious about these obscure, unsung worlds, and wanting to make a difference, Shafer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Paraguay after majoring in political science at Emory University. He was stationed on the edge of a huge swamp, without electricity, running water or telephones, where he spent two years battling snakes, insects and tarantulas as he mobilized his farming community to protect and improve their water sources.

Finding entertainment scarce, and wanting to share his culture and passion for motion pictures with the Paraguayans, he embarked on a four-day, four-village traveling film festival with a fellow volunteer. They loaded an old projector and gas generator onto a wheelbarrow and literally carried it over the rivers and through the woods to the isolated communities, projecting Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Bros. onto schoolhouse walls each night, selling popcorn to raise money for the local health posts, and reveling as the locals enjoyed their first cinematic experience.

Shafer returned to the States convinced of the universal benefit of film. He launched his professional career in Denver as a Media and Entertainment Industry Equity Analyst, meeting with CEOs and investing more than $100 million across dozens of public content and distribution companies.

Realizing he'd rather work at the movie studios he was analyzing, he moved to New York and spent a year developing screenplays with an independent film company before attending Columbia Business School. He earned an MBA with a concentration in Media Management, interning at Showtime, but years of script reading and several elective classes at Columbia Film School had ignited his passion for storytelling, and he moved to Los Angeles to be on the creative side.

After a humbling stint in the United Talent Agency mailroom, Shafer spent a year assisting a motion picture literary agent at Creative Artists Agency before working with Tobey Maguire, as detailed above.

He currently works independently, writing and producing multiple original motion picture, television and graphic novel properties across many genres.

In his free time, Shafer enjoys trail running, lobster diving, spearfishing and mountaineering. He has hiked the Inca and Laugavegur Trails, summited Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Whitney and Fuji, and ventured deep into the jungles of Peru, Malaysia, Cambodia, Brazil, Guatemala, Belize, Cuba and Tanzania. He is traveling to the Philippines, Singapore and Australia with his fiancée and daughter next.

To date, he has traveled to 42 countries, venturing far off the beaten trail to experience foreign cultures, gain unique insight and find inspiration. Those adventures inform his daring, distinctive storytelling, which, like an Overlander, is a vehicle for exploring remote, wild worlds as well...

OVERLANDER: A VEHICLE USED TO EXPLORE REMOTE, WILD WORLDS

TENIENTE ROJAS SILVA, PARAGUAY