Stephen Sommers

Stephen Sommers
Born	(1962-03-20) March 20, 1962 (age 57) Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Education	St. Cloud Apollo High School
Alma mater	USC School of Cinematic Arts
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Years active	1989–present
Home town	St. Cloud, Minnesota, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Jana Sommers (m. 1993)
Website	http://www.stephensommers.com

Stephen Sommers (born March 20, 1962) is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for big-budget movies, 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 Disney's live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994).

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Career
  


• 
  3 Filmography
  
  
  
  • 
    3.1 Other works
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  4 Awards and nominations
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Early life

Stephen Sommers was born in Indianapolis,^[1] 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.^[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,^[3] 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),^[4] 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.^[5] Around that time, he was developing a Tarzan adaptation for Warner Bros. but left the project.^[6] 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	Notes
1988	Perfect Alibi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short film; Won 4th Prize in the narrative film category at the 1988 FOCUS Awards for collegiate filmmakers.[7]
1989	Catch Me If You Can	Yes	Yes		Directorial Debut
1993	The Adventures of Huck Finn	Yes	Yes
1994	Gunmen		Yes
	The Jungle Book	Yes	Yes
1995	Tom and Huck		Yes	executive
1998	Deep Rising	Yes	Yes
1999	The Mummy	Yes	Yes		Nominated- Saturn Award for Best Director Nominated- Saturn Award for Best Writing
2001	The Mummy Returns	Yes	Yes
2002	The Scorpion King		Yes	Yes
2004	Van Helsing	Yes	Yes	Yes
2009	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Yes	Yes	executive	Nominated- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director
2013	Odd Thomas	Yes	Yes	Yes

Producer only

Year	Film	Notes
1997	Oliver Twist
2001–2003	The Mummy	Executive producer
2004	Van Helsing: The London Assignment
2008	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
	The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
2012	The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption	Executive producer
2013	G.I. Joe: Retaliation
2015	The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power
2018	Scorpion King: Book of Souls

Other works

Year	Film	Role
2000	Running Away	Industry mentor

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1999	Eyegore Award			Won
2000	Saturn Award	Best Director	The Mummy	Nominated
		Best Writing		Nominated
2010	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Director	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Nominated

References

1. 
   ^ AMC's Sunday Morning Shootout, June 27, 2004
   


2. 
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3. 
   ^ The Adventures of Huck Finn Audio Commentary
   


4. 
   ^ "When Worlds Collide".
   


5. 
   ^ Fleming, Michael (August 23, 2007). "Stephen Sommers to direct 'G.I. Joe'". Variety.
   


6. 
   ^ Douglas, Edward. "Exclusive: Director Stephen Sommers Says "Yo Joe!"". Superhero Hype.
   


7. 
   ^ VOLAND, JOHN (2 September 1988). "Awards Given 24 College Film Makers" – via LA Times.
   

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Stephen Sommers

• Official website


• Official website for The Sommers Company


• 
  Stephen Sommers on IMDb


• 
  Stephen Sommers at AllMovie
  

v t e Films directed by Stephen Sommers
Catch Me If You Can (1989) The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) The Jungle Book (1994) Deep Rising (1998) The Mummy (1999) The Mummy Returns (2001) Van Helsing (2004) G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) Odd Thomas (2013)

Authority control	BNE: XX1126233 BNF: cb140311047 (data) GND: 122995309 ISNI: 0000 0001 1040 8622 LCCN: n95040167 NKC: jn20010310127 SNAC: w64b3x52 SUDOC: 078052955 VIAF: 14972243 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 14972243

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