Stephen Sommers

Stephen Sommers (born March 20, 1962) is an American screenwriter and film director, best known for The Mummy (1999) and its sequel, The Mummy Returns (2001). He also directed Disney's live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994), the action/horror film Van Helsing (2004), and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009).
==Early life==
Stephen Sommers was born in Indianapolis, Indiana,AMC's Sunday Morning Shootout, June 27, 2004 and grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he attended St. Cloud Apollo High School. He is a 1980 graduate of Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the University of Seville in Spain. After graduating, he spent four years performing as an actor in theater groups and managing rock bands throughout Europe. He eventually returned to the United States and moved to Los Angeles, where he attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts for three years, earning a master's degree and writing and directing the award-winning short film Perfect Alibi.
==Career==
Perfect Alibi helped Sommers acquire independent funding to write and direct his first feature film, the teen racing film Catch Me If You Can, filmed for $800,000 on location in his hometown of St. Cloud.Stephen Sommers Interview, Part 2 The film was sold at the Cannes Film Festival for $7 million and later debuted on video in the United States.
Almost four years later, broke and in danger of having his house repossessed,The Adventures of Huck Finn Audio Commentary he wrote and directed an adaptation of Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huck Finn for Walt Disney Pictures, as well as Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. He later wrote the screenplays for Gunmen and Tom and Huck, which he also executive produced for Disney (along with a TV version of Oliver Twist in 1997 starring Richard Dreyfuss and Elijah Wood), and worked as a staff writer at Hollywood Pictures. While there, he worked on a script called Tentacle, which he later directed under the title Deep Rising in 1998.
In 1999, he wrote and directed Universal Studios' big-budget remake of The Mummy. The film was a smash hit, and Sommers received two Saturn Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer in 2000 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. A successful sequel, The Mummy Returns, followed two years later, and he also co-wrote and produced 2002's The Scorpion King, a prequel/spin-off 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 Helsing, a film pitting legendary vampire hunter Gabriel Van Helsing against the triumvirate of Universal movie monsters: Count Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's monster. Before Van Helsing even premiered, Sommers and Ducsay began developing a spin-off TV series for NBC called Transylvania. Though featuring none of the characters from the film, the series (which was to have made use of the film's Prague set) was about a young cowboy from Texas who becomes a sheriff in Transylvania, has many strange adventures, and encounters many strange creatures. Sommers and Ducsay were to have been executive producers, and Sommers wrote scripts for the pilot and first several episodes, but 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 Museum, but dropped out due to creative differences. He was also attached to a remake of When Worlds Collide (to be executive produced by Steven Spielberg), a new big-screen adaptation of Flash Gordon, a swashbuckling adventure film called Airborn based on the novel Airborn, 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 Emperor, instead becoming one of its producers.
Sommers directed Paramount Pictures' summer 2009 live-action adaptation of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and also served as a producer. Around that time, he was developing a Tarzan adaptation for Warner Bros. but left the project. His most recent film, Odd Thomas, had been delayed from release indefinitely due to lawsuits against the production company, but it is now available to watch on Netflix's streaming service.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Director	Writer	Producer	Other	Notes 			
1989	Catch Me If You Can 	 	 	 	 	 			
1993	The Adventures of Huck Finn 	 	 	 	 	 			
1994	Gunmen 	 	 	 	 	 			
1994	The Jungle Book 	 	 	 	 	 			
1995	Tom and Huck 	 	 	 	 	 			
1997	Oliver Twist 	 	 	 	 	 			
1998	Deep Rising 	 	 	 	 	 			
1999	The Mummy 	 	 	 	 	 			
2000	Running Away 	 	 	 	 	 			
2000	The Lion King 2000 Film 	 	 	 	 	 			Industry mentor
2001	The Mummy Returns 	 	 	 	 	 			
2002	The Scorpion King 	 	 	 	 	 			
2004	Van Helsing 	 	 	 	 	 			
2004	Van Helsing: The London Assignment 	 	 	 	 	 			
2004	Tarzan (2004 Film) 	 	 	 	 	 			
2008	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 	 	 	 	 	 			
2009	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra 	 	 	 	 	 			
2012	The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption	 	 	 	 	Executive producer			
2013	Odd Thomas 	 	 	 	 	 			
2015	The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power 	 	 	 	 	Executive producer			
==Collaborations==
Actor 	The Adventures of Huck Finn	The Jungle Book (1994)	Deep Rising	The Mummy	The Mummy Returns	Van Helsing	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Odd Thomas
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Alun Armstrong 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Robbie Coltrane 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Oded Fehr 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Jason Flemyng 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Brendan Fraser 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
John Hannah 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Shuler Hensley 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Aharon Ipalé 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Kevin J. O'Connor 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Patricia Velásquez 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Arnold Vosloo 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Rachel Weisz 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==Awards and nominations==
Year	Award 	Category 	Film 	Result
1999	Eyegore Award 	 	 	
2000	Saturn Award 	Best Director 	The Mummy 	
2000	Saturn Award 	Best Writing 	The Mummy 	
2010	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Director	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	
==References==
==External links==
* 
* Official website for The Sommers Company
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Category:1962 births
Category:American film directors
Category:American film producers
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:Writers from Indianapolis, Indiana
Category:Film directors from Minnesota
Category:College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University alumni
Category:Living people
Category:USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Category:University of Seville alumniCategory:Pages stolen off Wikipedia