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Eric Newman is an American film and television producer and writer and the founder of Grand Electric, an LA-based production company with overall deals in both TV and film with Netflix. He is the showrunner of Narcos , Narcos: Mexico , True Story , and the upcoming Zero Day .
Born on December 31, 1970, and raised in Los Angeles, Newman is a graduate of Curtis School, Harvard Boys School (Now Harvard-Westlake School), and the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television (now known as the USC School of Cinematic Arts). He is the son of multiple Academy Award, Emmy, and Grammy-winning composer and songwriter Randy Newman and his first wife, Roswitha Schmale (1944-2017). He is the cousin once removed of composers David Newman and Thomas Newman and the great-nephew of Academy Award winning composers Lionel Newman, Emil Newman, and Alfred Newman.
He first worked as an intern and assistant for the television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1993-1995 before segueing into a job with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video as a production executive. There Newman helped oversee the 1995 Chris Farley/David Spade film, Tommy Boy as well as their 1996 reteaming, Black Sheep.
Newman joined Beacon Communications (now known as Beacon Pictures) in 1999 as a development and production executive. During his tenure there the company produced a variety of movies under its production deal with Universal Studios including: The Family Man , Bring It On, 13 Days, The Hurricane, and 2001’s Tony Scott directed Spy Game , starring Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, which Newman helped supervise. He was also executive producer of the 2002 drama The Emperor's Club , starring Kevin Kline and directed by Michael Hoffman.
Newman left Beacon in 2000 to partner with veteran producer and director Marc Abraham and producer Thomas A. Bliss to form Strike Entertainment. [1]
In 2001, Newman secured the rights to remake George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead and recruited his friend James Gunn to write it. Soon after he drafted first-time director Zack Snyder to direct it. The 2004 Dawn of the Dead had a modest budget of $26 million, and was a huge success with audiences when it was released in 2004, reaping over $100 million worldwide. [2]
Newman's success in the horror genre continued with James Gunn’s directorial debut film, Slither in 2006. Also produced by Newman in 2006 was Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men . Children of Men drew critical acclaim, ultimately being nominated for three Academy Awards. In a partnership with Eli Roth and Studio Canal, Newman conceived of and produced 2010’s The Last Exorcism , made for a budget of $1.6 million dollars, the Lionsgate released film went on to gross over $70 million with a $20 million opening weekend. Remakes of The Thing (2011) and Robocop (2014) followed. Newman also is known for producing the hit film, In Time (2011), and the RZA’s directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists (2012).
Newman’s first foray into TV came when he came across Brian McGreevy’s gothic horror novel, Hemlock Grove . He thought it could make a good TV show and brought in his friend and past collaborator Eli Roth to executive produce and direct the pilot. The pair, along with Brian McGreevy and his writing partner Lee Shipman, brought the show to Netflix and it became the then nascent streamer's second original program, running for three seasons from 2012–2015.
In 2014, Newman formed Grand Electric and moved forward with a long gestating idea of his about a film set during the drug war in Colombia. Newman had become interested in America’s efforts to bring Pablo Escobar to justice in 1997 after hearing a story about the aftermath of Escobar’s death and the power vacuum it created. Newman enlisted screenwriters Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro to write a film script based on this idea. During production of season two of Hemlock Grove, Newman learned that Netflix intended to expand into Latin America and were actively looking for projects with South American appeal. Newman repurposed the yet unwritten film project into a 10 part television show and brought Brazilian director José Padilha aboard to executive produce and direct. The team secured a straight-to-series commitment from Netflix and began production in Colombia that same summer. Chris Brancato joined the show as showrunner but departed the show before the season wrapped production. [3] The show debuted in 2015 to almost universal acclaim, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for best show, as well as a massive global viewership for the service. [4] Its success secured a two season renewal which saw Newman take over as writing showrunner. He continued in that role through two more seasons of Narcos before transitioning the show to Mexico for a second installment of the franchise. Narcos: Mexico also received acclaim and large viewership and Newman earned a nomination from the Writer’s Guild for his writing on the show. [5] Two seasons into Narcos: Mexico, Newman stepped out of the day-to-day role of show-running to focus on his expanding slate of projects under his Netflix deal. [6]
Newman also produced for Netflix the Will Smith/Joel Edgerton starrer Bright (2017), the Jamie Foxx/Joseph Gordon Levitt actioner Project Power (2020), the Chris Hemsworth/Miles Teller sci-fi feature Spiderhead (2022), [7] and the opioid epidemic limited series, Painkiller (2023), [8] directed by Peter Berg. Newman also created the Kevin Hart/Wesley Snipes series True Story (2021) [9] and co-created the Sofía Vergara miniseries Griselda , based on the life of notorious cocaine trafficker Griselda Blanco. [10] Newman also produced Rebel Moon (2023/2024), a two-part space opera film directed by Zack Snyder. [11]
In 2023, Netflix announced that Newman will co-create and executive produce Zero Day, a political thriller miniseries set to feature Robert De Niro in his first leading television role, alongside Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, and Connie Britton. [12] Newman will also executive produce American Primeval, an upcoming Western limited series directed by Peter Berg and starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin. [13]
Newman lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.[ citation needed ]
He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.
| Year | Film | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Black Sheep | Associate producer |
| 2002 | The Emperor's Club | Executive producer |
| 2004 | Dawn of the Dead | |
| 2006 | Slither | |
| Children of Men | ||
| 2008 | Flash of Genius | Executive producer |
| 2010 | The Last Exorcism | |
| 2011 | The Thing | |
| In Time | ||
| 2012 | The Man with the Iron Fists | |
| 2013 | The Last Exorcism Part II | |
| The Sacrament | Executive producer | |
| 2014 | RoboCop | |
| 2017 | Bright | |
| 2020 | Project Power | |
| 2022 | Along for the Ride | |
| Spiderhead | ||
| Look Both Ways | ||
| 2023 | Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | |
| 2024 | Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver | |
| TBA | Bright 2 | |
| Endangered Species | ||
| Plus/Minus | ||
| The Upper World | ||
| — | Trouble Is My Business |
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Wayne's World | Production assistant |
| 1995 | Tommy Boy | Production associate |
| Year | Title | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 2013−15 | Hemlock Grove | Executive producer |
| 2015−17 | Narcos | Executive producer |
| 2020 | The VeggieTales Show | |
| 2018−21 | Narcos: Mexico | Executive producer |
| 2021 | True Story | Executive producer |
| 2022-present | The Watcher | Executive producer |
| 2023 | Painkiller | Executive producer |
| 2024 | Griselda | Executive producer |
| 2025 | American Primeval | Executive producer |
| Zero Day | Executive producer | |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1994 | NYPD Blue |
| 2017 | Narcos |
| 2018−20 | Narcos: Mexico |
| 2021 | True Story |
| 2024 | Griselda |
| 2025 | Zero Day |
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his feature directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Jake Weber, Ving Rhames, and Mekhi Phifer, with Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film appearing in cameos. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who try to survive a zombie apocalypse holed up in a suburban shopping mall.
Zachary Edward Snyder is an American filmmaker. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with Dawn of the Dead, a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since then, he has directed or produced a number of comic book and superhero films, including 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), as well as the Superman film that started the DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013), and its follow-ups, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), the latter of which had a director's cut released in 2021. He also directed the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), the psychological action film Sucker Punch (2011), the zombie heist film Army of the Dead (2021), and the two-parter space opera films Rebel Moon (2023) and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver (2024).
Arthur Carlton Cuse is an American screenwriter, showrunner, producer, and director, best known for the American television series Lost, for which he made the Time list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010.
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Chris Brancato is an American television and film writer and producer. Brancato grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and graduated in 1980 from Teaneck High School. He subsequently attended and graduated from Brown University.
Kurt Leon Sutter is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He worked as a writer, director, and executive producer on The Shield, and appeared on the show as hitman Margos Dezerian. Sutter is also the creator of Sons of Anarchy and its spinoff Mayans M.C. on FX; he wrote, produced, and directed the series, as well as played incarcerated club member Otto Delaney. Sutter spent time with members of an outlaw motorcycle club in Northern California as research for Sons of Anarchy. Sutter's wife, actress Katey Sagal, played main character Gemma Teller.
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Narcos: Mexico is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro that premiered on Netflix on November 16, 2018. It was originally intended to be the fourth season of the Netflix series Narcos, but it was ultimately developed as a companion series. It focuses on the development of Mexico's illegal drug trade, whereas the parent series centered on the establishment of Colombia's illegal drug trade. The series' second season premiered on February 13, 2020. On October 28, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third and final season but announced that actor Diego Luna would not be returning to reprise his role as Félix Gallardo. The third and final season premiered on November 5, 2021.
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Griselda is an American biographical crime drama television miniseries directed by Andrés Baiz and produced by Eric Newman and Sofía Vergara. It is written by Doug Miro and Ingrid Escajeda. It stars Vergara as Griselda Blanco, a notorious Colombian drug lord. The miniseries premiered on Netflix on January 25, 2024.
Zero Day is an upcoming American political thriller television series created by Eric Newman, Noah Oppenheim, and Michael Schmidt for Netflix, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, and starring Robert De Niro and Lizzy Caplan. It is described as a political conspiracy thriller centering on a devastating global cyberattack. It will premiere on February 20, 2025.
American Primeval is an upcoming Netflix Western television series.