Tom DeSanto

Tom DeSanto (born 1968) is an American film producer and screenwriter. DeSanto is best known for his work with long-time friend Bryan Singer, especially with his contributions to the first two X-Men movies.

Education

DeSanto grew up in Iselin, New Jersey,^[1] the son of a police officer.^[2] He graduated from Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison, New Jersey in 1986 and from Rutgers University in 1990.

Work

Apt Pupil

During his first years in the film industry, Tom met and befriended Bryan Singer, who got Tom a production position with his company, Bad Hat Harry, working on his movie Apt Pupil, followed by a partnered attempt to revive Battlestar Galactica.

X-Men & X2: X-Men United

Later, Singer would co-write the movie X-Men with DeSanto and a few others before signing on as director, using most of DeSanto's original story. DeSanto is credited for the screen story, as an executive producer, and for a short cameo role as the police officer on Ellis Island who is squashed by Toad.

Tom also worked as an executive producer on X2: X-Men United.

Transformers trilogy

Tom wrote the treatment for and produced the Transformers movie for DreamWorks and Paramount, which was released in Summer 2007. He is credited with being the originating producer on the project. This live-action version includes Steven Spielberg as an Executive Producer. He is also producer for the 2009 sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and its 2011 sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Other work

After leaving the X-Men film franchise, DeSanto has written several introductions to collected comics in both hardcover and trade paperback, including Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, and Wolverine: Origin by Paul Jenkins. DeSanto also worked as a producer on the fan-movie Ringers: Lord of the Fans.

DeSanto was also involved in a Battlestar Galactica revival which fell through after the 9/11 attacks and scheduling delays forced Singer to concentrate on X2. Studios USA, wanting to push ahead with the series, replaced DeSanto and Singer with David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, who then created the "re-imagined" Battlestar Galactica.^[3]

In 2007 Variety reported that DeSanto, returning his attention to superheroes, secured the rights to NCsoft and Cryptic Studios' video game City of Heroes.^[4] The plan was to adapt the massively multiplayer online role-playing game into a live-action feature and then transition it to television in some form, but no further details have been heard.

In late 2007, he began production work as a writer and producer on Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, an animated cartoon based on the popular comic book, which was placed on indefinite hold by Warner Bros in February 2008.^[5]

Further reading

• Margolin, Josh (July 15, 2000). "They bring 'X-Men' to life on film—and on paper". The Star-Ledger (Advance Publications). 
• Halfinger, David M (June 30, 2007). "How a Fan of Comic Books Transformed Himself into a Hollywood Player". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). 
• Grover, Ronald (July 2, 2007). "The Transformer: From Fan Boy to Producer". Business Week Online (BusinessWeek). 

References

External links

• Tom DeSanto at the Internet Movie Database