 | This biography of a living person includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2021) |
Tom DeSanto | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1968 |
| Occupation(s) | Film producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1998–present |
Tom DeSanto (born January 1, 1968) is an American film producer and screenwriter.
DeSanto is a founding writer/producer behind several of the biggest franchises in movie history ( X-Men , Transformers ). DeSanto's films have grossed more than $5 billion worldwide with a per film average of more than $746 million at the box office, in addition to billions more in home video, merchandising, and video games.
After the success of X-Men, DeSanto began working on a reboot of Battlestar Galactica to developed for Universal Television. The show eventually returned in 2003 but under the direction of Ronald D. Moore.
DeSanto then become part of the creative team for X2: X-Men United , including the continuation of the Phoenix story line which DeSanto set up in the first film. That same year, he went moved towards Transformers , another dormant property. DeSanto brought the idea to his friend and fellow producer Don Murphy. Hasbro gave them the rights for free.
After being rejected by the major studios DeSanto made a second pass at DreamWorks Pictures. After Steven Spielberg read his treatment, he decided his studio would do the film. DeSanto set the project up with DreamWorks and Paramount, selling his story line and attaching to produce.
The first film grossed over $700 million worldwide. Transformers was the first live-action franchise for DreamWorks and Paramount's largest moneymaking series in its history. DeSanto returned as producer of Revenge of the Fallen in 2009 and the film became the biggest moneymaker of the year with over $800 million in box office alone. DeSanto also produced Dark of the Moon , and Age of Extinction , both grossing over $1.1 billion worldwide. The Last Knight , produced by DeSanto as well, earned over $600 million in the box office.
After the Transformers saga had been released, DeSanto then produced Bumblebee , an origin story for one of the characters from the franchise, earning a total $470 million in box office.
DeSanto has produced several social issue documentaries, including Lost in America, which deals with youth homelessness, and Kidnapped for Christ, which puts a spotlight on abusive evangelical camps for children. [1]
DeSanto was raised in the Iselin area of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, [2] the son of a police officer. [3] He graduated from Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison, New Jersey in 1986 and from Rutgers University in 1990.
During his first years in the film industry, Tom met and befriended Bryan Singer, who got Tom a production position with his company, Bad Hat Harry, working on his movie Apt Pupil , followed by a partnered attempt to revive Battlestar Galactica .
Later, Singer would co-write the movie X-Men with DeSanto and a few others before signing on as director, using most of DeSanto's original story. DeSanto is credited for the screen story, as an executive producer, and for a short cameo role as the police officer on Ellis Island who is squashed by Toad.
Tom also worked as an executive producer on X2: X-Men United .
Tom wrote the treatment for and produced the Transformers movie for DreamWorks and Paramount, which was released in Summer 2007. He is credited with being the originating producer on the project. This live-action version includes Steven Spielberg as an Executive Producer. He is also producer for the 2009 sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen , its 2011 sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon , 2014 film Transformers: Age of Extinction , 2017 film Transformers: The Last Knight , 2018 film Bumblebee , 2023 film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts .
After leaving the X-Men film franchise, DeSanto has written several introductions to collected comics in both hardcover and trade paperback, including Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, and Wolverine: Origin by Paul Jenkins. DeSanto also worked as a producer on the documentary film Ringers: Lord of the Fans released in 2005 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
DeSanto was also involved in a Battlestar Galactica revival which fell through after the 9/11 attacks and scheduling delays forced Singer to concentrate on X2 . Studios USA, wanting to push ahead with the series, replaced DeSanto and Singer with David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, who then created the "re-imagined" Battlestar Galactica. [4]
In 2007 Variety reported that DeSanto, returning his attention to superheroes, secured the rights to NCsoft and Cryptic Studios' video game City of Heroes . [5] The plan was to adapt the massively multiplayer online role-playing game into a live-action feature and then transition it to television in some form, but no further details have been heard.
In late 2007, he began production work as a writer and producer on Teen Titans: The Judas Contract , an animated cartoon based on the popular comic book, which was placed on indefinite hold by Warner Bros in February 2008. [6] In 2016, WB revealed the film would be moving forward at the premiere of the animated adaption of The Killing Joke and in 2016 the film was released, but without him involved. [7] [8]
In July 2016, the estate of Gary Gygax bestowed him with the title of "Guardian of the Library" placing him in charge of Gygax's work that was under the estate's control and finding a place on TV, Film and other mediums. [9]
Producer
Executive producer
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, Galactica 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games. A reimagined version aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in 2003, followed by a 2004 television series, which aired until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.
X2 is a 2003 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter, from a story by Singer, Hayter and Zak Penn. The film is based on the X-Men superhero team appearing in Marvel Comics. It is the sequel to X-Men (2000), as well as the second installment in the X-Men film series, and features an ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, and Anna Paquin. The plot, inspired by the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, concerns the genocidal Colonel William Stryker leading an assault on Professor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-tracking computer, Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them, forcing the X-Men to team up with the Brotherhood of Mutants to stop Stryker and save the mutant race.
Richard Lawrence Hatch was an American actor, writer, and producer. Hatch began his career as a stage actor before moving on to television work in the 1970s. Hatch is best known for his role as Captain Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica television series. He is also widely known for his role as Tom Zarek in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
Grimlock is the name of several fictional robot characters in the Transformers robot franchise. He is usually portrayed as the leader of the Dinobots, which are a subfaction of Autobots who can transform into metal dinosaurs. Grimlock is known for his dialogue being spoken in the third person. He appeared on screen along with other Dinobots in the fourth installment of the Transformers film series.
Transformers, is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, such as vehicles and animals. The franchise encompasses toys, animation, comic books, video games and films. As of 2011, it generated more than ¥2 trillion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Bumblebee is a fictional robot character appearing in the many continuities in the Transformers franchise. The character is a member of the Autobots, a group of sentient, self-configuring, modular extraterrestrial robotic lifeforms.
Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's toy line of the same name. It is the first installment in the Transformers film series. The film is directed by Michael Bay from a screenplay by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager who gets caught up in a war between the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two factions of alien robots. The Autobots intend to retrieve and use the AllSpark, the powerful artifact that created their robotic race that is on Earth, to rebuild their home planet Cybertron and end the war, while the Decepticons have the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Anthony Anderson, Megan Fox, Rachael Taylor, John Turturro, and Jon Voight also star, while Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively.
Connor Widdows is a former Canadian child actor. He appeared in the second and third film adaptation of the X-Men franchise, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, as Jones, a student at Professor Xavier's school who does not need sleep and can control television equipment by blinking. The character was not based on an existing mutant from the X-Men comics.
Battlestar Galactica has been adapted to the comic book format since its inception, with six publishers to date taking on the project of relating the story of the Colonial Fleet and their adversaries, the Cylons, at different points.
Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries is a three-hour television miniseries starring Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, written and produced by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. It was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica remake based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series, and served as a backdoor pilot for the 2004 television series. The miniseries aired originally on Sci Fi in the United States starting on December 8, 2003. The two parts of the miniseries attracted 3.9 and 4.5 million viewers, making the miniseries the third-most-watched program on Syfy.
Mark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic-book writer. He was a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT network.
Don Murphy 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.
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Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is a prequel to the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series and is the latest installment in the franchise. It was a web-series that became a pilot for a possible series chronicling the early adventures of a young William Adama, but the series was not picked up. It stars Luke Pasqualino, Ben Cotton, and Lili Bordán. Michael Taylor wrote the teleplay from a story by Taylor, David Eick, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, with Jonas Pate as director. Distribution of Blood & Chrome began as a 10-episode online series in conjunction with Machinima.com on November 9, 2012, and also aired as a television film on February 10, 2013 on Syfy.
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a 2023 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's Transformers toy line, and primarily influenced by its Beast Wars sub-franchise. It is the seventh installment in the Transformers film series and serves as both a standalone sequel to Bumblebee (2018) and a prequel to Transformers (2007). The film is directed by Steven Caple Jr. from a screenplay by Joby Harold, Darnell Metayer, Josh Peters, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber. Michael Bay again serves as producer.
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