Sean Daniel

Last updated
Sean Daniel
Born
Sean Peter Daniel

(1951-08-15) August 15, 1951 (age 73)
Education High School of Music & Art
Alma mater California Institute of the Arts
Occupation(s)Film producer, film executive
SpouseRuth Hunter

Sean Peter Daniel (born August 15, 1951) [1] is an American film producer and movie executive.

Contents

Life and career

Born to a Jewish family, [2] [3] Daniel attended Manhattan's High School of Music & Art, graduating in 1969. [4] He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973.[ citation needed ]

In 1976, he joined Universal Pictures as a film production executive and in 1985, at the age of 34, he became production president, [5] the youngest in the studio's history, a position he held for five years.[ citation needed ] At Universal he supervised the financing and production of such acclaimed films as National Lampoon's Animal House , Coal Miner's Daughter , The Blues Brothers , The Breakfast Club , Sixteen Candles , Fast Times at Ridgemont High , Brazil , Field of Dreams , Do the Right Thing , Back to the Future , Out of Africa , Midnight Run , Born on the Fourth of July , Missing , Weird Science , Uncle Buck , The Great Outdoors , Born in East L.A. , Fletch , Gorillas in the Mist , Darkman , and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life .[ citation needed ]

Following his tenure as an executive at the studio, Daniel started Alphaville Films with James Jacks. The production company was formed around the development and production of the first Mummy film that, based on its success, created a franchise yielding The Mummy Returns , The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor , and The Scorpion King . Through their company, Daniel and Jacks also produced such films as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused , the renowned western Tombstone ; Nora Ephron’s comedy Michael , which starred John Travolta; Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan ; the Coen Brothers Intolerable Cruelty ; the Chris Rock/Weitz Brothers comedy Down to Earth ; the rap-music comedy CB4 , also with Chris Rock; Jerry Zucker’s Rat Race ; John Woo’s first American film, Hard Target ; The Jackal , which starred Richard Gere and Bruce Willis; Sam Raimi's The Gift starring Cate Blanchett; and American Me which starred and was directed by Edward James Olmos.

Daniel's 2016 films are Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! , and Ben-Hur , an adaptation that returns to the original novel, with Timur Bekmambetov directing a script by Academy Award-winner John Ridley.

Daniel is currently the principal in The Sean Daniel Company, an independent production company that is developing projects at several studios and networks. At Universal, Daniel partnered with the producing team of Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to create a new series of re-imagined Mummy movies, starting with 2017's The Mummy . In development is the follow-up to Universal's The Best Man Holiday which Daniel produced alongside writer/director/producer Malcolm D. Lee.

Daniel is the Executive Producer of the TV series The Expanse , for SyFy and Alcon Television Group. Based on the New York Times Best-Selling franchise by James S. A. Corey and adapted to screen by Academy Award-nominated screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby ( Children of Men , Iron Man), the sci-fi thriller series is among the cable networks most ambitious project to date. The Expanse first aired December 2015 and stars Thomas Jane, Steven Strait, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. In addition to The Expanse, The Sean Daniel Company's television credits include Graceland , from Jeff Eastin, the creator of White Collar , now in its third season on the USA Network. The Sean Daniel Company has also just partnered with Google to develop a TV drama based on Ingress, a game with millions of participants, that uses real locations and social media activity. Additionally, Daniel has executive produced the TNT original film Freedom Song , directed by Phil Alden Robinson and which starred Danny Glover; HBO's Everyday People ; and the USA Network’s four-hour mini series Attila , starring Gerard Butler.

Among the company's other projects is a partnership with independently funded Valiant Entertainment to make films based on their comic book characters, and Agent 13 , based on the novel series, with Charlize Theron starring and producing with The Sean Daniel Company and Rupert Wyatt directing.

Daniel has been a participant in the debate about media and culture, appearing on TV’s The McLaughlin Group and NPR’s Which Way L.A., and in The New York Times , Los Angeles Times , and The Huffington Post .

Personal life

Daniel is married to Ruth Hunter, a staffer for the NRDC. [6]

Selected filmography

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

YearFilmCreditNotes
1991 Pure Luck
1992 American Me
1993 CB4 Executive producer
Dazed and Confused
Heart and Souls
Hard Target
Tombstone
1995 Village of the Damned Co-executive producer
Mallrats
1996 Michael
1997 The Jackal
1999 The Mummy
2000 Lucky Numbers
The Gift Executive producer
2001 Down to Earth
The Mummy Returns
Pootie Tang Executive producer
Rat Race
2002 The Scorpion King
Dark Blue
2003 The Hunted Executive producer
Intolerable Cruelty Executive producer
2004 Alfie Executive producer
2008 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior Direct-to-video
2010 The Wolfman
2012 The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption Executive producerDirect-to-video
2013 The Best Man Holiday
2015 The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power Executive producerDirect-to-video
2016 Everybody Wants Some!! Executive producer
Ben-Hur
Hard Target 2 Executive producerDirect-to-video
2017 The Mummy
2018 The Scorpion King: Book of Souls Executive producerDirect-to-video
2019 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
2021 The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Executive producer
Production manager
YearFilmRoleNotes
1980 Coal Miner's Daughter Executive in charge of productionUncredited
1984 Sixteen Candles
1988 The Great Outdoors
1990 Darkman
As an actor
YearFilmRole
1985 Spies Like Us Ace Tomato Driver
1990 Darkman Policeman #2
Thanks
YearFilmRole
1995 Mallrats The director would like to thank: For bringing a pedigree to the project
1998 A Simple Plan Thanks

Television

YearTitleCreditNotes
1996 Don't Look Back Executive producerTelevision film
2000 Freedom Song Executive producerTelevision film
2001 Attila Executive producer
2004 Everyday People Executive producerTelevision film
2013−15 Graceland
2015−2022 The Expanse Executive producer
2019 The Witcher Executive producer
2022 The Witcher: Blood Origin Executive producer

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Raimi</span> American filmmaker (born 1959)

Samuel M. Raimi is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing the first three films in the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present) and the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the superhero movie Darkman (1990), the revisionist western The Quick and the Dead (1995), the neo-noir crime thriller A Simple Plan (1998), the supernatural thriller The Gift (2000), the supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell (2009), the Disney fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.

Stephen Sommers is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for big-budget action films, such as The Mummy (1999), its sequel, The Mummy Returns (2001), Van Helsing (2004), and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). He also directed The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), Disney's live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) and the action horror film Deep Rising (1998).

Miles Millar is an Australian-British screenwriter, showrunner, producer, creator, developer, and director.

Alfred Gough is an American screenwriter, producer, writer, director, showrunner and creator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timur Bekmambetov</span> Russian-Kazakh filmmaker (born 1961)

Timur Nuruakhitovich Bekmambetov is a Russian-Kazakh film director, producer, screenwriter, and tech entrepreneur. He is best known for the fantasy epic Night Watch (2004) and the action thriller Wanted (2008), as well as for the pioneering screenlife films Unfriended (2015), Searching (2018) and Profile (2018). He founded Baselevs, a production company that earned a spot among the 2021 World's 10 Most Innovative Companies in Video, according to Fast Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ridley</span> American writer and director

John Ridley IV is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series American Crime. In 2017 he directed the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Banks</span> American actress (born 1974)

Elizabeth Banks is an American actress, producer and director. She is known for playing chaperone Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games film series (2012–2015) and an ICCA commentator in the Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017). She made her directorial film debut with Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), whose $69 million opening-weekend gross set a record for a first-time director. She has since directed the action comedy Charlie's Angels (2019) and the horror comedy film Cocaine Bear (2023). Banks founded the film and television production company Brownstone Productions in 2002 with her husband, Max Handelman.

Tom Stern is an American actor, director, writer, and producer.

Lloyd Segan is an American film and television producer, and a principal in Piller/Segan, an independent content production company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Smith (producer)</span> Scottish film producer

Iain Smith OBE is a Scottish film producer. He is known for his productions of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fountain (2006), Children of Men (2006) and The Fifth Element (1997), among others.

Arthur Gorson, also known as Arthur H. Gorson, is an American film producer. He also has experience as a cinematographer, screenwriter, cameraman and record producer. He is currently (2024) active in TV, film and commercial production. As a record producer, he produced over 20 albums for major labels with artists such as Golden Earring, Phil Ochs and Tom Rush. His photographic work with artists such as Bob Marley is widely published. A series of his photos were included in the authorized documentary Marley directed by Kevin Mcdonald (The Last King of Scotland;as well as the 2023 50th Anniversary box-set of "Catch A Fire.".

Kevin Misher is an American movie and television producer via his Los Angeles–based production company, Misher Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Abraham</span> American film director

Marc Abraham is an American film producer, director, and former president of Strike Entertainment, a production company he launched in early 2002 with a multi-year, first look arrangement with Universal Pictures.

Christina Jean "Chris" Innis is an American film editor and filmmaker. She was awarded the 2010 Academy Award, BAFTA, and ACE awards for "Best Film Editing" on the film The Hurt Locker shared with co-editor, Bob Murawski. She is an elected member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has served as an associate director on the board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joby Harold</span> British film director and screenwriter

Joby Harold is an English screenwriter, producer and director who runs Safehouse Pictures with his producing partner, Tory Tunnell. The company was co-founded in 2005.

Jim Lemley is an American film and television producer based in Paris best known for his work on the action-thriller film Wanted.

<i>Ben-Hur</i> (2016 film) 2016 film by Timur Bekmambetov

Ben-Hur is a 2016 epic historical drama film directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Keith Clarke and John Ridley. It is the fifth film adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace following the 1907 silent short film, the 1925 silent film, the Academy Award-winning 1959 film and the 2003 animated film; it is the third version produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It has been termed a "re-adaptation", "reimagining", and "new interpretation" of the novel, and follows Judah Ben-Hur, a young prince who is falsely accused by his step-brother, an officer of the Roman army, and is sent to slavery, only to escape and seek vengeance. The film stars Jack Huston as the titular character, alongside Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi, Ayelet Zurer, and Morgan Freeman. Principal photography began on February 2, 2015, in Matera, Italy and lasted about five months, finishing in June 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris McKay</span> American filmmaker and animator

Christopher McKay, is an American filmmaker and animator. He is best known for directing and editing three seasons of Robot Chicken and two seasons of Moral Orel. He made his feature directorial debut with The Lego Batman Movie (2017), and has also directed The Tomorrow War (2021) and Renfield (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Raimi's unrealized projects</span>

The following is a list of unproduced Sam Raimi projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director and producer Sam Raimi has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, are officially cancelled and scrapped or fell in development hell.

References

  1. Sean Daniel, filmreference.com, January 21, 2014
  2. New York Times: "THE DEMOCRATS: THE SHTICK; So Here's This Jewish Guy Who Gets Nominated..." By TODD S. PURDUM August 17, 2000
  3. Portland Press Herald: "A ‘Ben-Hur’ for our time" by Steven Zeitchik August 21, 2016 | Downey and Burnett are staunch Catholics; Ridley is also a devout Christian, Huston and Bekmambetov, who was raised in a communist country, are more secular; Daniel and MGM principal Gary Barber are Jewish
  4. "Notable Alumni," Alumni & Friends of LaGuardia High School official website. Accessed Oct. 31, 2016.
  5. Los Angeles Times: "Sean Daniel Quits Universal to Head Geffen's Film Unit" by MICHAEL CIEPLY January 10, 1989
  6. The Atlantic: "The Hollywood Campaign - Want big money to get elected to national office? If you're a Democrat, you need to head for the hills—Beverly Hills. A miner's map for the liberal Gold Rush" by Eric Alterman September 2004