Stephen Sommers (born March 20, 1958) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
, best known for
The MummyThe Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, and Rachel Weisz, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken with the assistance of a...
and its sequel,
The Mummy ReturnsThe Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Arnold Vosloo. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy, which primarily took place in 1926, and is set seven...
. He's also known for directing the action/horror film
Van HelsingVan Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale...
and
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Stephen Sommers was born in
Dayton, OhioDayton is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 166,179 at the 2000 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 848,153 in the 2000 census. Dayton is the fourth largest...
and grew up in
St. Cloud, MinnesotaSt. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 59,107 at the 2000 census, while 2007 census estimates show it growing to 66,948, making it the third largest city in the state outside the Twin Cities...
. He is a 1980 graduate of
Saint John's UniversityThe College of Saint Benedict , for women, and Saint John's University , for men, are partnered liberal arts colleges respectively located in St. Joseph and Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. Students attend classes and activities together, and have access to the resources of both campuses...
in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the
University of SevilleThe University of Seville or sometimes Seville University, in Spanish Universidad de Sevilla, is a public university in Seville, Spain....
in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
. Afterwards, he spent four years performing as an actor in theater groups and managing rock bands throughout
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
Stephen Sommers (born March 20, 1958) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
film directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
, best known for
The MummyThe Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, and Rachel Weisz, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken with the assistance of a...
and its sequel,
The Mummy ReturnsThe Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Arnold Vosloo. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy, which primarily took place in 1926, and is set seven...
. He's also known for directing the action/horror film
Van HelsingVan Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale...
and
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Early life
Stephen Sommers was born in
Dayton, OhioDayton is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 166,179 at the 2000 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 848,153 in the 2000 census. Dayton is the fourth largest...
and grew up in
St. Cloud, MinnesotaSt. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 59,107 at the 2000 census, while 2007 census estimates show it growing to 66,948, making it the third largest city in the state outside the Twin Cities...
. He is a 1980 graduate of
Saint John's UniversityThe College of Saint Benedict , for women, and Saint John's University , for men, are partnered liberal arts colleges respectively located in St. Joseph and Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. Students attend classes and activities together, and have access to the resources of both campuses...
in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the
University of SevilleThe University of Seville or sometimes Seville University, in Spanish Universidad de Sevilla, is a public university in Seville, Spain....
in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
. Afterwards, he spent four years performing as an actor in theater groups and managing rock bands throughout
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
. He eventually returned to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and moved out to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, where he attended the
USC School of Cinematic ArtsThe USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...
for three years. There he graduated with a
Master's DegreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, as well as wrote and directed an award-winning short film called
Perfect Alibi. It was also there that he met Bob Ducsay, who has gone on to edit all of his movies.
Career
Perfect Alibi helped Sommers acquire independent funding to write and direct his first feature film, the teen racing movie
Catch Me If You Can, which was filmed on location in his hometown of St. Cloud for $800,000. The film was sold at the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.The 62nd edition started 13 May and ended 24 May 2009...
for $7 million and later debuted on video in the US.
Almost four years later, broke and in danger of having his house repossessed, he wrote and directed an adaptation of
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
's classic
The Adventures of Huck FinnThe Adventures of Huck Finn is a 1993 Disney adventure film starring Elijah Wood and Courtney B. Vance; it is based on Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The film follows a boy named Huckleberry Finn and an escaped slave named Jim, who travel the Mississippi River together and...
for
Walt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company:Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since 1954 were released under the name of the parent company, then named Walt Disney...
, as well as
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle BookRudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is a 1994 Disney film based on the Mowgli stories in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and is a live-action reimagining of the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book. The film stars Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli and Cary Elwes as his...
. He later wrote the screenplays for
Gunmen and
The Adventures of Tom and HuckTom and Huck is a 1995 Disney film starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Joey Stinson, and Rachael Leigh Cook; it is based on Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by the vicious man known as "Injun Joe"...
, which he also executive produced for Disney, and worked as a staff writer at
Hollywood PicturesHollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films brands, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures. The company logo is the Sphinx; its logo music was composed by Danny...
. While there he worked on a script called
Tentacle, which he later directed as the retitled
Deep RisingDeep Rising is a 1998 action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures and Cinergi Pictures, and was released in the United States on January 30, 1998.-Plot:...
in 1998.
In 1999, he wrote and directed
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
' big-budget remake of
The MummyThe Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, and Rachel Weisz, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken with the assistance of a...
. The film was a smash hit, and Sommers received two
Saturn AwardThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
nominations for Best Director and Best Writer in 2000 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. A successful sequel,
The Mummy ReturnsThe Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Arnold Vosloo. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy, which primarily took place in 1926, and is set seven...
, followed two years later, and he also co-wrote and produced 2002's
The Scorpion KingThe Scorpion King is a 2002 film starring The Rock, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Ralf Moeller and Grant Heslov, and is directed by Chuck Russell...
, a
prequelA prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel .-History:Though the word "Prequel" is of...
/
spin-offA spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator...
of
The Mummy Returns.
In 2004, Sommers founded his own company (along with editor/producing partner Bob Ducsay), The Sommers Company, and returned to theater screens with
Van HelsingVan Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale...
, a movie pitting legendary
vampire hunterA vampire hunter or vampire slayer is someone who specializes in finding and destroying vampires. In dark fantasy fiction, they may sometimes also deal with other harmful supernatural creatures...
Gabriel Van Helsing against the triumvirate of
Universal movie monstersUniversal Monsters or Universal Horror is the name given to the distinctive series of horror films, suspense films, and science fiction films made by Universal Studios in California from 1923 to 1960...
:
Count DraculaCount Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Some aspects of his character may have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian voivode, Vlad III the Impaler...
,
The Wolf ManThe Wolf Man is a 1941 monster horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya. The title character has had a great deal of influence on...
, and
Frankenstein's monsterFrankenstein's monster is a character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. In the novel, the creature has no name—a symbol of his parentlessness and lack of human sense of self and identity. He does call himself, when speaking to his creator, Victor...
. He also founded The Sommers Company with producing partner Bob Ducsay, to develop films of their own and those of other filmakers. Before
Van Helsing even premiered, Sommers and Ducsay began developing a spin-off TV series for
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
called
TransylvaniaTransylvania was an aborted spin-off television series of the film Van Helsing set in the region of the same name. NBC was going to use the film's village sets, setting it in the same 19th century time period as the film, but instead focus on the adventures of a Texas cowboy, who becomes sheriff...
. Though featuring none of the characters from the film, the series (which would have made use of the film's Prague set) was about a young cowboy from Texas who becomes a sheriff in
TransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term frequently encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and has many strange adventures and encounters many strange creatures. Sommers and Ducsay would have been executive producers, and Sommers had written scripts for the pilot and first several episodes. However, NBC decided not to go through with the show.
Since
Van Helsing, Sommers has been attached to a number of projects. He was originally set to direct
Night at the MuseumNight at the Museum is a 2006 American adventure comedy film based on the 1993 children's book with the same name by Milan Trenc. It follows a divorced father trying to settle down, impress his son, and find his destiny...
, but dropped out due to creative differences. He's also been attached to a remake of
When Worlds CollideWhen Worlds Collide is a 1951 science fiction film based on the 1932 novel co-written by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer. The film was shot in Technicolor, directed by Rudolph Maté and was the winner of the 1951 Academy Award for special effects....
(to be executive produced by
Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
), a new big-screen adaptation of
Flash GordonSteven "Flash" Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond, which was first published on January 7, 1934. The strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were...
, a swashbuckling adventure movie called
Airborn based on the
novelAirborn is a 2004 young adult novel by Kenneth Oppel. The book has been honored by several awards including winning Canada's Governor General's Award. Airborn is set in a time where the primary form of air transportation are airships. Voice radio exists, but the airplane has not been invented,...
, a romantic/adventure story called
Big Love, and a remake of the French film
Les Victimes. Sommers opted out of directing the third
Mummy film, titled
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon EmperorThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a 2008 American adventure film that follows The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. It was released on August 1, 2008 in the United States. The film was directed by Rob Cohen, written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and produced by Stephen Sommers , Bob Ducsay,...
.
Sommers directed
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
' 2009 summer
live-action adaptationG.I. Joe could mean:* G.I. Joe: The Movie * G.I. Joe: Spy Troops * G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom * G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , a live-action film, released in theaters August 7, 2009....
of
G.I. JoeG.I. Joe is a line of military-themed articulated "action figures" produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot and Action Marine . The term G.I. stands for...
. Sommers also served as a producer.
He is also currently developing a
TarzanTarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by fictional great apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
adaptation for
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
Filmography
| Year |
Film |
Credited as |
| Director A film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
|
Writer Screenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
|
Producer A film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
|
Other |
| 1993 |
The Adventures of Huck Finn The Adventures of Huck Finn is a 1993 Disney adventure film starring Elijah Wood and Courtney B. Vance; it is based on Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The film follows a boy named Huckleberry Finn and an escaped slave named Jim, who travel the Mississippi River together and...
|
|
|
|
|
| 1994 |
Gunmen |
|
|
|
|
| The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is a 1994 Disney film based on the Mowgli stories in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and is a live-action reimagining of the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book. The film stars Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli and Cary Elwes as his...
|
|
|
|
|
| 1996 |
Tom and HuckTom and Huck is a 1995 Disney film starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Joey Stinson, and Rachael Leigh Cook; it is based on Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by the vicious man known as "Injun Joe"...
|
|
|
|
|
| 1997 |
Oliver TwistOliver Twist is a 1997 television movie based on the popular novel of the same name by Charles Dickens. It aired during The Wonderful World of Disney...
|
|
|
|
|
| 1998 |
Deep RisingDeep Rising is a 1998 action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures and Cinergi Pictures, and was released in the United States on January 30, 1998.-Plot:...
|
|
|
|
|
| 1999 |
The MummyThe Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, and Rachel Weisz, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken with the assistance of a...
|
|
|
|
|
| 2000 |
Running Away |
|
|
|
|
| 2001 |
The Mummy ReturnsThe Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Arnold Vosloo. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy, which primarily took place in 1926, and is set seven...
|
|
|
|
|
| 2002 |
The Scorpion King The Scorpion King is a 2002 film starring The Rock, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Ralf Moeller and Grant Heslov, and is directed by Chuck Russell...
|
|
|
|
|
| 2004 |
Van Helsing Van Helsing is a 2004 American action/horror film about vigilante vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing, written, produced, and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale...
|
|
|
|
|
| Van Helsing: The London Assignment Van Helsing: The London Assignment is a 2004 animated film by Universal Home Entertainment Productions. This film features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Robbie Coltrane and David Wenham.-Plot:...
|
|
|
|
|
| Van Helsing Van Helsing is a third-person shooter for the Play Station 2 and Xbox which resembles the events of the 2004 action/horror film of the same name by Stephen Sommers. Starting off with the killing of Mr Hyde in Paris in a similar way as to that of the movie, one must use the character of Van Helsing...
|
|
|
|
|
| 2008 |
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon EmperorThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a 2008 American adventure film that follows The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. It was released on August 1, 2008 in the United States. The film was directed by Rob Cohen, written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and produced by Stephen Sommers , Bob Ducsay,...
|
|
|
|
|
| The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior |
|
|
|
|
| 2009 |
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra |
|
|
|
|
Upcoming
- Magic Kingdom for Sale
Magic Kingdom for Sale — SOLD! is the first of Terry Brooks's Magic Kingdom of Landover novels. Written in 1986, it tells the story of how Ben Holiday, a talented but depressed Chicago trial lawyer, comes to be king of Landover, an otherworldly magical kingdom...
(director, producer) - announced
- When Worlds Collide (2010) (director, writer, producer) - pre-production
- Airborn (2011) (director, producer) - pre-production
External links