Jorge Manuel Saralegui (born 1953) [1] [2] is a Cuban-American film producer and screenwriter. [1] Born in Cuba, he was raised in Bronxville, New York, [1] later graduating with a degree in creative writing from Antioch College. [3]
In 1987, he relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue script writing. A year later, he was hired as a studio reader at Universal Pictures. [1] Following a brief stint as a story analyst at Daniel Melnick's The IndieProd Company, he joined 20th Century Fox in 1989 as a script reader. [4] [5]
At Fox, he was promoted to a junior creative executive position, then, in June 1995, to senior vice-president of production. Two years later, he was appointed executive vice-president of production. [4] There, Saralegui ushered Speed , Independence Day , Broken Arrow and Die Hard With a Vengeance through the development and production processes, and oversaw the productions of Speed 2: Cruise Control , Alien: Resurrection and Great Expectations . [6]
In late 1997, he negotiated with studios to launch his own film label, [6] settling at Warner Bros. in 1998, where he founded on-lot production company Material Films, [1] [7] with Channing Dungey serving as president. [8] [9]
In 2005, he co-founded horror film production company Midnight Picture Show with Clive Barker. [10]
His writings have appeared in literary magazines and an anthology, Latinos in Lotusland. [3] Saralegui's first novel, Last Rites, was published by Putnam Berkley in 1985, [11] followed by Shadow Stalker in 1987, then Looker in 1990. [12]
A fourth novel, Sentimental Surgery, was a quarterfinalist in the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition. [13]
He was a producer of the listed films, unless otherwise noted.
| Year | Film | Credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Red Planet | Warner Bros. | |
| 2002 | Queen of the Damned | Material Films | |
| The Time Machine | Executive producer | Material Films | |
| Showtime | Material Films | ||
| 2004 | The Big Bounce | Material Films [14] | |
| 2006 | The Plague | Midnight Picture Show; direct-to-video | |
| 2008 | The Midnight Meat Train | Midnight Picture Show | |
| 2009 | Book of Blood | Midnight Picture Show | |
| Dread | Midnight Picture Show | ||
| 2016 | Paradox | Executive producer | |
| Kill Ratio | Executive producer |
| Year | Film |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Showtime |
| 2018 | Incoming |
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Idol | Special thanks |