Sean Daniel

Sean Daniel, p.g.a. is a film industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience as both a producer and studio executive. Daniel joined Universal Pictures in 1976. In 1985, at the age of 34, he became the youngest production president in the studio's history, a position he held for 5 years. Daniel supervised the financing and production of such acclaimed films as National Lampoon's Animal House, Coal Miner's Daughter, The Blues Brothers, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Brazil, Field of Dreams, Do the Right Thing, Back to the Future, Out of Africa, Midnight Run, Born on the Fourth of July, Missing, Weird Science, Uncle Buck, The Great Outdoors, Born in East L.A, Fletch, Gorillas in the Mist, Darkman and Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life. Following his tenure as an executive at the studio, Daniel started Alphaville Films with James Jacks. The production company was formed around the development and production of the first Mummy film that, based on its success, created a franchise yielding The Mummy Returns, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and The Scorpion King. Through their company, Daniel and Jacks also produced such films as Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, the renowned western Tombstone; Nora Ephron's comedy Michael, which starred John Travolta; Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan; the Coen brothers' Intolerable Cruelty; the Chris Rock/Weitz brothers' comedy Down to Earth; the rap-music comedy CB4, also with Chris Rock; Jerry Zucker's Rat Race; John Woo's first American film, Hard Target; The Jackal which starred Richard Gere and Bruce Willis; Sam Raimi's The Gift starring Cate Blanchett and American Me which starred and directed by Edward James Olmos. Daniel is currently the principal in The Sean Daniel Company, an independent production company that is developing projects at several studios and networks. At Universal Daniel is partnered with the producing team of Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to create a new series of re-imagined Mummy movies.At MGM Daniel is producing alongside Mark Burnett, Duncan Henderson and executive producer Roma Downey on Ben-Hur, an adaptation that returns to the original novel, with Timur Bekmambetov directing a script by Academy Award winner John Ridley. Paramount distributes with a February 2016 release. He is also a producer on Richard Linklater's latest project That's What I'm Talking About, currently in post production scheduled for a 2015 release. In development is the follow up to Universal's The Best Man Holiday which Daniel produced alongside writer/director/producer Malcolm Lee. The third film in The Best Man franchise is slated to begin photography in 2016. Daniel is the Executive Producer of the upcoming TV series The Expanse, for SyFy and Alcon Television Group. Based on the New York Times Best-Selling franchise by James S.A Corey and adapted to screen by Academy Award nominated screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men, Iron Man), the sci-fi thriller series is among the cable networks most ambitious project to date. The Expanse will be airing December 2015 and stars Thomas Jane, Steven Strait and Shohreh Aghdashloo. In addition to The Expanse, The Sean Daniel Company's television credits include Graceland, from Jeff Eastin, the creator of White Collar, now in its third season on USA Network. The Sean Daniel Company has also just partnered with Google to develop a TV drama based on Ingress, a game with millions of participants that uses real locations and social media activity. Daniel has also executive produced the TNT original film Freedom Song, directed by Phil Robinson and which starred Danny Glover; HBO's Everyday People; and the USA Network's four-hour mini series Attila, starring Gerard Butler. Among the company's other projects is a partnership with independently funded Valiant Entertainment to make films based on their comic book characters, and Agent 13, based on the novel series, with Charlize Theron starring and producing with The Sean Daniel Company and Rupert Wyatt directing. Daniel received a bachelor of Fine Arts in film from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973. Daniel has been a participant in the debate about media and culture, appearing on TV's The McLauchlin Group and NPR's Which Way L.A, and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Huffington Post.