Michael De Luca (born August 13, 1965) is an American film studio executive,

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. The former president of production at both

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...

and

DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...

, De Luca has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Picture. De Luca formerly served as the chairman of the

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

Motion Picture Group and currently serves as a co-chairperson and CEO of

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...

Group.

Early life

De Luca was born and raised in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. His mother was a

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

immigrant, and his father, who was Italian American and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, worked at

ConEdison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 b ...

. De Luca began pursuing a career in show business in 1986. Originally tapped to work as a story editor, he rose fairly quickly through the ranks, thanks in part to his mentor, chair and co-founder of New Line Cinema Robert Shaye. De Luca completed his degree from Tisch School of the Arts of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1995.

Career

In 1990, De Luca made his debut in the film industry as an associate producer on '' Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III''. De Luca has been collecting comics since childhood and is a huge fan of

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s, in particular the works of Frank Miller, and sci-fi properties such as ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

''. He wrote the 1994

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

In the Mouth of Madness ''In the Mouth of Madness'' is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill stars as J ...

'', directed by John Carpenter. De Luca co-wrote the story for the 1995

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the popular British comic book character Judge Dredd, starring

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, ) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, h ...

as the eponymous lead. In 1996, De Luca, a self-proclaimed "Trekkie", was approached by the producers Brannon Braga and

Ronald D. Moore Ronald Dowl Moore (born July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on ''Star Trek''; on the re-imagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' television series, for which he won a Peabody Award and an Em ...

for '' Star Trek: Voyager'' and pitched an idea which turned into an opportunity to write an episode for the series,

Threshold Threshold may refer to: Architecture * Threshold (door), the sill of a door Media * ''Threshold'' (1981 film) * ''Threshold'' (TV series), an American science fiction drama series produced during 2005-2006 * "Threshold" (''Stargate SG-1''), ...

. De Luca is a former President of Production for

. During his tenure at New Line Cinema, he oversaw a variety of films that would come to define the studio, including ''

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

'', ''

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth day ...

'', ''

Boogie Nights ''Boogie Nights'' is a 1997 American period comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic fil ...

'', ''

Austin Powers ''Austin Powers'' is a series of American spy action comedy films: '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997), '' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' (1999) and ''Austin Powers in Goldmember'' (2002). The films were produced an ...

'', ''

Rush Hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

'', '' Blade'', '' American History X'', and ''

Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

''. De Luca wrote and produced '' Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'', the sixth entry in the long-running '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise''.'' After New Line Cinema, De Luca became President of Production at

, his tenure lasting from 2001 and 2004. After his contract with DreamWorks ended, De Luca signed a production deal with

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

and started his own production company, Michael De Luca Productions. His first release under his production company was '' Ghost Rider'' (2007) starring Nicolas Cage, followed by '' 21'' and '' The Love Guru'' (both 2008) starring Mike Myers. He was nominated for the

Best Picture Oscar The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category ...

two years in a row for 2010's ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book ''The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking web ...

'' (2010) and ''Moneyball'' (2011). He received a third nomination in 2014 for producing Paul Greengrass' '' Captain Phillips''. De Luca also produced the 2011 remake of the cult classic vampire horror film ''

Fright Night ''Fright Night'' is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland (in his directorial debut) and produced by Herb Jaffe. It stars Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, Jonathan Stark, D ...

''. De Luca and Dana Brunetti reunited for '' Fifty Shades of Grey,'' the 2015 film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name. It was a massive financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing R-rated films of all time. On January 3, 2020, it was announced that De Luca had been appointed Chairman of the

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

Motion Picture Group. In July 2022 he and Pamela Abdy left for

Group, taking up the roles of co-chairpersons and CEOs.

Personal life

De Luca was previously in a relationship with actress Julianne Moore, star of New Line's ''

''. In 2009, he married actress Angelique Madrid (born 1974) from Ft. Worth, Texas, who was a contestant on the first season of ABC's '' The Bachelor''. They have a daughter, and a son, Caden (born 2012).

Filmography

Film

;Miscellaneous crew ;Thanks

Television

TV specials * 89th Academy Awards (2017) * 90th Academy Awards (2018) Executive producer Writer ;Miscellaneous crew ;As an actor

References

External links

*
DeLuca Interview at ColliderDeLuca at Hollywood
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Luca, Michael 1965 births Living people American male screenwriters American television writers American male television writers American people of German-Jewish descent American writers of Italian descent Film producers from New York (state) Golden Globe Award-winning producers Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives Screenwriters from New York (state) Tisch School of the Arts alumni Writers from Brooklyn