Rob Cohen | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Alan Cohen March 12, 1949 Cornwall, New York, U.S. |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Occupation(s) | Producer, director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1975–2018 |
Notable work | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story Dragonheart Daylight The Skulls The Fast and the Furious XXX Stealth The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor |
Spouses | Diane Mitzner (m. 1986;div. 1987)Barbara Cohen (m. 2006) |
Robert Alan Cohen (born March 12, 1949) is an American director and producer of film and television. Beginning his career as an executive producer at 20th Century Fox, Cohen produced and developed numerous high-profile film and television programs, including The Wiz, The Witches of Eastwick , and Light of Day until he began focusing on full-time directing in the 1990s. He directed the action films The Fast and the Furious , and XXX .
Robert Alan Cohen was born in New York, son of Irwin and Beatrice Franz Cohen. [1] In 1967 he graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, New York, [2] where he was president of the Punchinello drama club, member of the JV golf team, editor of the Colonnade literary magazine and a member of the National Honor Society. [3] He attended Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in the class of 1971, after transferring from Amherst College after two years [4] concentrating in a cross major between anthropology and visual studies. His first endeavor in filmmaking was a commissioned recruiting film for Harvard's Admissions Office in 1970, which became his senior thesis. He is Jewish. [5]
Upon graduation, Cohen immediately headed to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter for Martin Jurow but soon found himself unemployed when the producer moved out of state.
After a six-month stint as a kennel boy at the Harvey Animal Hospital in West Hollywood to make ends meet, Cohen landed a job as a reader for then-agent Mike Medavoy. Six weeks into his tenure at International Famous Agency (now part of ICM), he distinguished himself by discovering an unheralded script he found in a slush pile of neglected screenplays. Recognizing its quality, commerciality and uniqueness, Cohen wrote in his coverage that it was "the great American screenplay and this will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film." He championed the piece relentlessly, with his own job at stake, as Medavoy said that he would try to sell it on that recommendation, but promising to fire Cohen if he could not. Universal bought it that afternoon for a record price, and it became the Academy Award winning movie The Sting (1973). Cohen still keeps the coverage framed on the wall of his office, as this gave him his first identity in Hollywood: "the kid who found The Sting." [6]
With a career in film and television spanning more than 40 years, Cohen has distinguished himself as a celebrated screenwriter, producer and director. In 1973, 20th Century Fox Television hired Cohen as Head of Current Programming helping out with, among other shows, the first year of the epic hit, M*A*S*H . Eager to push Fox into 'long form', Cohen cold-called the head of ABC and introduced himself as 'the head of television movies at Fox'. Barry Diller gave him a meeting where he sold two TV films on the spot, properties he had found in the voluminous books of Fox's unproduced properties. A week later, he duplicated the feat at CBS under Philip Barry. Fox president, William Edwin Self, was not happy that a junior employee had garnered these commitments without permission but grudgingly gave Cohen the title Vice President of TV Movies. [7]
Diller recommended Cohen to his friend impresario, songwriter, producer and record label founder Berry Gordy who was looking to bring his company Motown into the film business. He and Gordy connected and he was hired to be the Executive Vice President and head of Motown's motion picture division. [8]
Cohen went to work and developed the first Motown movie from his own idea about the burgeoning phenomenon of African American Super Models he felt was perfect for Motown star Diana Ross. He sold the package to Paramount and in 1974, the cameras rolled on Mahogany in Chicago and Rome. At the same time, he developed a unique film from the Bill Brashler novel The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor. To direct, he hired a then unknown TV director John Badham to make his feature debut, a critical hit set in the 1930s Negro National League (1920–1931) (twenty years later, he and Badham would partner again to make a number of successful films at Universal Studios).
Departing Motown in 1978, Cohen went on to produce and direct films and television series, including Miami Vice , Light of Day , [9] The Witches of Eastwick , Ironweed , and The Wiz .
On October 8, 1986, Rob Cohen was elected vice chairman of Keith Barish Productions, which produced feature films in a pact with Tri-Star Pictures, and previously served as president of the film studio. [10]
From 1990 onwards, Cohen moved into directing full-time. Much success followed with early 1990s films such as Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story , Dragonheart , Daylight and the Golden Globe award-winning film The Rat Pack.
In March 1997, NBC announced that it had filmed a pilot episode for a proposed television drama series named The Angel (later renamed The Guardian), for its fall 1997 schedule. [11] [12] The premise of the show, which was written and directed by Rob Cohen, had Thomas Ian Griffith starring as Ray Angelotti (known as The Guardian Angel), an ex-thief and martial arts expert with a sixth-degree Kenpo Karate black belt, who comes out of prison determined to right wrongs and make up for his past misdeeds. [13] The show was not picked up.
At 52, Cohen had become an action director, directing the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious. The film was a hit, opening with $40 million its first weekend, [14] starring relative unknowns Paul Walker and Vin Diesel.
With the success of The Fast and the Furious, Cohen partnered up with Diesel again the following year to direct xXx (in which he gave Thomas Ian Griffith a small role).
He then directed the science fiction action film Stealth (2005), which was a critical and commercial failure. [15]
In 2008, he directed the third installment of The Mummy, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor , grossing $403 million worldwide, [16] and he directed Blumhouse Productions' The Boy Next Door starring Jennifer Lopez in 2015.
Cohen is also a director of commercials, housed at Original Film, having made over 150 television commercials for products such Disney's Star Wars , Verizon, Ford, GM, Mercedes, Chevy, Saab and Burger King among many others.
On February 21, 2019, Cohen's trans daughter, Valkyrie Weather, accused Cohen of sexually assaulting her as a child, as well as sexually assaulting another woman. [17] Weather further claimed that Cohen had taken her to visit sex workers in Thailand and the Czech Republic when she was 12, supposedly in an attempt to "turn [her] straight". Although Cohen categorically denied these claims in a later statement, Dianna Mitzner, Cohen's former wife and Weather's mother, confirmed that she had witnessed at least one incident of sexual assault against Weather as a child. [18] Another allegation of sexual assault was published by HuffPost on September 28, 2019. Cohen's lawyer denied any wrongdoing. [19]
On January 24, 2021, actress Asia Argento alleged that Cohen drugged her with Gamma-hydroxybutyrate and raped her during the filming of XXX . A representative of Cohen denied Argento's assault accusation as "absolutely false". [20]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | A Small Circle of Friends | Yes | No | |
1984 | Scandalous | Yes | Yes | |
1993 | Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story | Yes | Yes | |
1996 | Dragonheart | Yes | No | Nominated – Sitges Maria Award for Best Film |
Daylight | Yes | No | ||
1998 | The Rat Pack | Yes | No | Nominated – DGA Award for Outstanding Directing |
2000 | The Skulls | Yes | No | |
2001 | The Fast and the Furious | Yes | No | Also executive soundtrack producer |
2002 | XXX | Yes | No | |
Tales from the Crypt: Ritual | No | Yes | ||
2005 | Stealth | Yes | No | |
2008 | The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | Yes | No | |
2012 | Alex Cross | Yes | No | |
2015 | The Boy Next Door | Yes | No | |
2018 | The Hurricane Heist | Yes | No | |
Producer
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1975 | Mahogany | Berry Gordy | |
1976 | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | John Badham | |
1978 | Thank God It's Friday | Robert Klane | |
Almost Summer | Martin Davidson | ||
The Wiz | Sidney Lumet | ||
1985 | The Legend of Billie Jean | Matthew Robbins | Also 2nd unit director |
1987 | Light of Day | Paul Schrader | |
1990 | Bird on a Wire | John Badham | Also 2nd unit director |
1991 | The Hard Way |
Executive producer
Year | Title | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1977 | Scott Joplin | Jeremy Kagan | |
1984 | The Razor's Edge | John Byrum | |
1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | George Miller | |
The Monster Squad | Fred Dekker | ||
Ironweed | Héctor Babenco | ||
The Running Man | Paul Michael Glaser | ||
1988 | The Serpent and the Rainbow | Wes Craven | Also 2nd unit director |
1989 | Disorganized Crime | Jim Kouf | |
2005 | XXX: State of the Union | Lee Tamahori | |
2015 | Ghoul | Petr Jákl | |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill | No | No | Yes | |
1984 | Miami Vice | Yes | No | No | 3 episodes |
1987 | Hooperman | Yes | No | No | Episode "Look Homeward, Dirtbag" |
Private Eye | Yes | No | No | 4 episodes | |
A Year in the Life | Yes | No | No | Episode "While Someone Else Is Eating or Opening a Window" | |
Thirtysomething | Yes | No | No | 2 episodes | |
1988 | Almost Grown | Yes | No | No | 4 episodes |
1990 | Nasty Boys | Yes | No | No | Episode "Fire and Ice" |
1991 | The Antagonists | Yes | No | No | Episode "Pilot" |
Eddie Dodd | Yes | No | No | Episode "Love and Death" | |
1994 | Vanishing Son | No | Yes | Yes | Creator |
2004 | The Last Ride | No | Story | Yes | |
2014 | Topless Prophet | No | Yes | Yes | |
The Sting is a 1973 American heist film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw. Set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss (Shaw). Hill had previously directed Newman and Redford in the Western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The screenplay, written by David S. Ward, inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man.
The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action film directed by Rob Cohen from a screenplay by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer, based on the Vibe magazine article "Racer X" by Ken Li. The first installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, it stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong, and Ted Levine. In the film, undercover cop Brian O'Conner (Walker) infiltrates a street racing crew to investigate a series of hijackings and finds himself developing a complex friendship with the group's leader, Dominic Toretto (Diesel).
2 Fast 2 Furious is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, based on a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the second installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner alongside Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and James Remar. The plot follows ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner and his ex-con friend Roman Pearce, who transport a shipment of "dirty money" for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone while secretly working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes to bring Verone down.
XXX is a 2002 American action film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Rich Wilkes. The first installment in the xXx film series, the film stars Vin Diesel as Xander Cage, a thrill-seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman, and rebellious athlete-turned-reluctant spy for the National Security Agency. Cage is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential Russian terrorists in Central Europe. The film also stars Asia Argento, Marton Csokas, and Samuel L. Jackson. Cohen, Moritz, and Diesel had previously worked on The Fast and the Furious (2001) as director, producer and cast member respectively. The film grossed $277.4 million worldwide and was followed by two sequels, xXx: State of the Union (2005) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017).
Mark Sinclair, known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise.
Asia Argento is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with appearances in XXX (2002), Land of the Dead (2005) and Marie Antoinette (2006). Her other notable acting credits include Queen Margot (1994), Let's Not Keep in Touch (1994), Traveling Companion (1996), Last Days (2005) and Islands (2011). Argento is the recipient of several accolades, including two David di Donatello awards for Best Actress and three Italian Golden Globes. Her directorial credits include The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and Misunderstood (2014).
Scarlet Diva is a 2000 Italian drama film by actress and first-time director and screenwriter Asia Argento.
Miles Millar is an Australian-British screenwriter, showrunner, producer, creator, developer, and director.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a 2008 American action adventure fantasy film directed by Rob Cohen, written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and produced by Stephen Sommers, Bob Ducsay, Sean Daniel, and James Jacks. The film is set in China rather than Egypt and focuses on the Terracotta Army's origins. It is the third and final installment in The Mummy trilogy. It stars Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Anthony Wong, and Michelle Yeoh.
Louis Leterrier is a French film and television director. Best known for his work in action films, he directed the first two Transporter films (2002–2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010), Now You See Me (2013), and the tenth and eleventh Fast & Furious installment, Fast X (2023), and Fast XI (2026). He also directed the streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) and Lupin (2021).
James Michael Bennett is an American actor. He is known for his roles as a child actor in Daddy Day Care, Hostage, The Amityville Horror, Poseidon, Evan Almighty, Orphan, Shorts, and as young James T. Kirk in the 2009 film Star Trek. He also starred on the ABC series No Ordinary Family as JJ Powell, a teenager gifted with vast intelligence after a plane crash.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a 2006 action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is a standalone sequel to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and the third installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. It stars Lucas Black and Bow Wow. In the film, car enthusiast Sean Boswell (Black) is sent to live in Tokyo with his estranged father and finds solace exploring the city's drifting community.
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. His films have grossed over $3 billion USD worldwide as of March 2017. He is best known for his directorial work on Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), the Fast & Furious franchise from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) to Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and F9 (2021), and Star Trek Beyond (2016). He is also known for his work on television programs like Community, and True Detective.
Roberto Gaston Orcí is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television series such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. In 2008, together with J. J. Abrams, they created Fringe. In 2013, they created Sleepy Hollow alongside Phillip Iscove. Orci and Kurtzman's first film project was Michael Bay's The Island, and due to that partnership they went on to write the scripts for the first two films of the Transformers film series. Orci first became a film producer with 2008's Eagle Eye and again with 2009's The Proposal.
Michael Caton-Jones is a Scottish director and producer of film and television.
The Hard Way is a 1991 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by John Badham. It stars Michael J. Fox and James Woods in the leading roles, alongside Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, Delroy Lindo and LL Cool J.
Kevin Misher is an American movie and television producer via his Los Angeles–based production company, Misher Films.
XXX is an American spy fiction action film series created by Rich Wilkes. It consists of three full-length feature films: XXX (2002), XXX: State of the Union (2005) and XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and a short film: The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander Cage. The series has grossed $694 million worldwide.
The Weinstein effect is a trend in which women come forward to accuse famous or powerful men of sexual abuse, harassment or misconduct. The term Weinstein effect came into use in October 2017, when media outlets began reporting on alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by film producer Harvey Weinstein.
There have been many reported cases and accusations of sexual abuse in the American film industry reported against people related to the medium of cinema of the United States.