Trivia

Served in the United States Navy.

His favorite movie is Apocalypse Now (1979).

Spent most of his time as a teenager on the most troubled streets of South Central Los Angeles.

Main characters are often anti-heroes.

He dropped out of high school.

He used to work as a house painter and electrician.

He was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager.

His movies often reference the US Military (The US Navy in U-571 (2000), Christian Bale's character Jim Davis was a former US Army Ranger who served in the Gulf War in Harsh Times (2005), Jake Gyllenhaal's character Brian Taylor is a former US Marine turned LAPD Officer in End of Watch (2012), and the US Army in Fury (2014).

He planned to write and direct a remake of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) set in modern-day Mexico, as well as Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Did an uncredited re-write on X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

Unproduced scripts: 'Making the Corps', a boot camp film set on Parris Island for Jersey Films, and 'Squids', a fantastic thriller set in a submarine for Art Linson, that David Fincher planned to direct for a short time.

Friend and mentor Wesley Strick managed to get him his first big break in Hollywood as a script doctor.

Revised the script for 'DJ Caruso''s thriller Taking Lives (2004).

In Spanish, David's last name means "yesterday".

He and Andrew Kevin Walker co-wrote an American remake of Cash Truck (2004) set in Detroit, which intrigued F. Gary Gray & Eric Bana.