Michael De Luca Biography

Michael De Luca (born August 13, 1965) is an American movie producer and screenwriter.

Early life and education

De Luca was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His mother was a German Jewish immigrant, and his father, who was Italian American and Catholic, worked at ConEdison. De Luca was exposed to motion pictures by his father, who would sneak the youngster into movie theaters. Although he has been characterized as "neither athletic nor academic," he skipped the eighth grade and enrolled at New York University in film studies at age 17. An internship with the independent producer-distributor New Line Cinema led to an offer of full-time work when he was just a few credits shy of graduating from NYU. De Luca abandoned academia for a career in showbiz 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 Robert Shaye. De Luca did complete his degree from Tisch School of the Arts of New York University in 1995.

Career

In 1988, De Luca made his debut 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 comics and sci-fi such as Star Trek. In 1996, De Luca, a self-proclaimed "Trekkie", was approached by the producers Brannon Braga and Ron Moore for Star Trek: Voyager and pitched an idea which turned into an opportunity to write an episode for the series.

De Luca co-wrote the story for the 1995 film Judge Dredd.

De Luca is a former President of Production for New Line Cinema. During his tenure at New Line Cinema, he oversaw a variety of films that would come to define the studio which included Seven, Friday, Boogie Nights, Austin Powers, Rush Hour, Blade and Magnolia (1999). DeLuca wrote and produced Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, part of the Nightmare on Elm Street saga.

After New Line Cinema, De Luca became President of Production at DreamWorks (2001"2004).

After his contract was up at DreamWorks, De Luca signed a production deal with Sony 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 (2008) starring Mike Myers.

He was Best Picture Oscar nominated two years in a row for 2011's The Social Network and 2012's Moneyball.

De Luca also produced the 2011 remake of the Vampire cult classic film Fright Night. In July 2012, it was announced that he and Dana Brunetti would reunite on the 50 Shades of Grey film adaptation and Gran Turismo.

Personal life

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, Skylar (born 2008), and a son, Caden (born 2012).

Filmography

• Dracula Untold (2014) - Producer
• Fifty Shades of Grey (2014) - Producer