Don Murphy | |
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| Born | April 1970 (age 53) New York |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Film Producer |
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| Website | www |
Don Murphy (born April 1970) is an American film producer who produced Natural Born Killers , Real Steel , Splice and many other films, including Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the upcoming re-imagining of the Faces of Death franchise.
Born in April 1970, Murphy grew up in Hicksville, New York and was educated at Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York. He attended Georgetown University and received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from the McDonough School of Business. [1] [2] Having excelled academically, he was accepted into Georgetown Law. [3]
Murphy was the film critic for the Georgetown school newspaper, The Hoya , for three years, and in summer jobs at his father's advertising agency worked on ad campaigns for such films as Blow Out (1981), Under the Rainbow (1981) and Ragtime (1981). [1] [3] In 1986 Murphy realized that his calling lay in films rather than law; he enrolled in the School of Cinema-Television (now named USC School of Cinematic Arts) in California, where he had classmates including eventual directors Bryan Singer, Jon Turteltaub, Gary Fleder, and Stephen Sommers, and received a Master of Fine Arts. [2] [3]
He is married to Susan Montford, a film director, film producer, and screenwriter with whom he frequently collaborates. [1] [3]
After completing the graduate film program, Murphy teamed with Jane Hamsher to produce Natural Born Killers based on a script written by Quentin Tarantino, who was then unknown. Director Oliver Stone committed to direct the film, and he installed Murphy and Hamsher as on-set producers, which was described as "the equivalent of a crash course in filmmaking". Murphy said, "We wouldn't be where we are if not for Oliver." [4] The film attracted attention upon release in 1994, and Hamsher documented the producers' involvement in the film in the best-selling book Killer Instinct. [2]
In 1998, Murphy formed the production company Angry Films. [5] He had an opportunity to see an unfinished cut of The Usual Suspects , which was directed by Singer, a classmate from USC. They decided to work together on Apt Pupil , based on a Stephen King novella and released in 1998. [3] Murphy then worked as producer on the 2001 film Bully ; its director, Larry Clark, was not impressed with the original screenplay, but committed to the film after Murphy encouraged him to read the book. [6] Murphy also grew interested in adapting graphic novels by Alan Moore, such as From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , for film. He produced the movie From Hell , directed by the Hughes Brothers and released in 2001, [7] as well as the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , directed by Stephen Norrington and released in 2003. [8]
Murphy and producer Tom DeSanto optioned rights to the Transformers toy line from Hasbro and pitched it to Hollywood studios. According to Murphy, the studios passed initially, but then began to express interest after further internal meetings involving younger staff, from the generation who had played with Transformers in their childhood. [3] Paramount Pictures and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura pursued the property, and DreamWorks got involved. [9] DreamWorks executive Michael De Luca proposed the idea to Steven Spielberg, who took the project and convinced Michael Bay to direct the film. Transformers was released in 2007 and was a major box office success. [3] During production, Murphy hosted a forum on his personal website so Transformers fans could discuss the film and make suggestions, enabling them to influence the film's script and casting. However, the forum remained Murphy's personal project, rather than an official site for the film, partly due to his corporate partners' unease about how the website might be perceived. [10] Murphy was also one of the originating producers of the 2009 sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen .
Producer
Executive producer
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhoods who become lovers and mass murderers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue including a pervasive use of profanity, and references to popular culture.
Roger Roberts Avary is a Canadian-American film, television director, screenwriter and producer. He worked with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, for which they won Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Academy Awards. Avary directed Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction, Lucky Day, and wrote the screenplays for Silent Hill and Beowulf.
Susan Montford is a Scottish filmmaker living in Los Angeles. She has produced, written and directed movies that range from cult hits to blockbusters.
Alexander Hilary Kurtzman is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the Star Trek franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) with his writing and producing partner Roberto Orci, and directing and co-writing The Mummy (2017). He made his directorial debut with People Like Us (2012), co-written by him, Orci, and Jody Lambert from a story by him.
Larry Bishop is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He is the son of Sylvia Ruzga and comedian Joey Bishop. He has been featured in many Hollywood movies including Hell Ride.
Jane Hamsher is a US film producer, author, and blogger best known as the author of Killer Instinct, a memoir about co-producing the 1994 movie Natural Born Killers with Don Murphy and others, and as the founder and publisher of the politically progressive blog FireDogLake. With Murphy, she also co-produced the subsequent films Apt Pupil (1998), Permanent Midnight (1998), and From Hell (2001). A contributor to The Huffington Post, she posts also in websites and political magazines, such as AlterNet and The American Prospect.
Arianne Phillips is an American costume designer. Phillips was recognized for her work on the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, starring Neil Patrick Harris, earning her a Tony award nomination for Best Costume Design. Phillips has a long-standing relationship with Madonna, with collaborations including photos shoots, music videos and designing tour costumes for six world tours over the past two decades. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design three times, for James Mangold's Walk the Line (2005), Madonna's directorial debut, W.E. (2011), and for Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Phillips has also received a two BAFTA Award nominations for Tom Ford’s A Single Man (2009) and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Transformers is a series of science fiction action films based on the Transformers franchise of the 1980s. Michael Bay directed the first five live action films: Transformers (2007), Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017), and has served as a producer for subsequent films. A sixth film Bumblebee, directed by Travis Knight, was released in 2018, while a seventh film, Rise of the Beasts, directed by Steven Caple Jr. was released in 2023.
Slaughter is a 1972 blaxploitation film directed by Jack Starrett and starring Jim Brown as a former Green Beret captain seeking revenge for a murder. Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Don Gordon and Cameron Mitchell co-star. This film was followed by a sequel the following year, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973).
The Duel at Silver Creek is a 1952 American Western film directed by Don Siegel; his first film in the Western genre. It starred Stephen McNally, Audie Murphy and Faith Domergue. It was the first time Murphy had appeared in a film where he played a character who was good throughout the movie. The working titles of the film were Claim Jumpers and Hair Trigger Kid.
Quentin Tarantino is an American filmmaker who has directed ten films. He first began his career in the 1980s by directing and writing Love Birds In Bondage and writing, directing and starring in the black-and-white My Best Friend's Birthday, a partially lost amateur short film which was never officially released. He impersonated musician Elvis Presley in a small role in the sitcom The Golden Girls (1988), and briefly appeared in Eddie Presley (1992). As an independent filmmaker, he directed, wrote, and appeared in the violent crime thriller Reservoir Dogs (1992), which tells the story of six strangers brought together for a jewelry heist. Proving to be Tarantino's breakthrough film, it was named the greatest independent film of all time by Empire. Tarantino's screenplay for Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) was nominated for a Saturn Award. Also in 1993, he served as an executive producer for Killing Zoe and wrote two other films.
Django Unchained is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. Set in the Old West and Antebellum South, it is a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to spaghetti Westerns, in particular the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci. The story follows a slave who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his wife.
Arthur Ronald Marks was an American film and television director, writer, producer and distributor best known for his work in the blaxploitation genre, directing films such as Bonnie's Kids, Detroit 9000, Friday Foster, Bucktown, The Monkey Hu$tle and J. D.'s Revenge. He also directed and produced numerous episodes of the American legal drama Perry Mason, as well as episodes of Starsky & Hutch, Mannix, I Spy, My Friend Tony, The Dukes of Hazzard, Steve Canyon, and Young Daniel Boone.
The Hateful Eight is a 2015 American Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern, as eight dubious strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover some time after the American Civil War.
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is a co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, and China. It features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie. Set in 1969 Los Angeles, the film follows a fading actor and his stunt double as they navigate the rapidly changing film industry, with the looming threat of the Tate murders hanging overhead. It features "multiple storylines in a modern fairy tale tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age."
The following is a list of unproduced J. J. Abrams projects in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 30 years, J. J. Abrams has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction.
The following is a list of unproduced Quentin Tarantino projects in roughly chronological order. During his career, American film director Quentin Tarantino has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects were officially cancelled and scrapped or fell in development hell.
Star Trek 4 is the working title of an American science fiction film in development at Paramount Pictures based on the television series Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry. It is intended to be the 14th feature film in the Star Trek film franchise and the 4th of the franchise's reboot films. There have been several different iterations of the film in development since 2015.
Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the soundtrack from the 2019 film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film also contains numerous songs and scores not included on the soundtrack.
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