Neal H. Moritz

Neal H. Moritz is an American film and television producer born on June 6, 1959. After graduating from college in Westwood, he earned a master's degree in 1985, which led to the founding of his own production company, Neal Moritz Productions. He had a production deal with Paramount Pictures. The first movie he produced was *Framed* (1990). In 1990, Moritz partnered with former United Artists employee David Heyman to start Moritz-Heyman Productions. The two collaborated on the films *Juice* (1992), *The Stöned Age* (1994), and *Blind Justice* (1994). Additionally, he partnered with commercial producer Bruce Mellon to launch Original Film in 1993, which produced commercials and music videos. After Heyman left, Moritz signed a production deal with Columbia Pictures in 1996, following the expiration of a brief deal with 20th Century Fox. Through Original Film, he produced two films in 1997: the disaster film *Volcano* (1997) and the slasher film *I Know What You Did Last Summer* (1997). The success of the latter led to the production of its sequel, *I Still Know What You Did Last Summer* (1998), as well as other slashers such as *Urban Legend* (1998), *Urban Legends: Final Cut* (2000), and *Soul Survivors* (2001). In 1998, he produced the HBO TV movie *The Rat Pack* (1998), marking the first time he worked with director Rob Cohen. That same year, his Original Film company signed a deal with Newmarket Capital Group to produce lower-budget films. Through this deal, he oversaw the teen films *Cruel Intentions* (1999) and *The Skulls* (2000), both of which received two direct-to-video sequels. In 1999, his first foray into television was the show *Shasta McNasty* (1999), and at the same time, he entered the comedy market with the films *Blue Streak* (1999) and *Held Up* (1999). In 2001, after years of producing teen films, he produced the action film *The Fast and the Furious* (2001), the first time he worked with star Vin Diesel. The success of the film led to many sequels and imitators such as *xXx* (2002), *S.W.A.T.* (2003), and *Torque* (2004). In 2002, he partnered with agent Marty Adelstein in launching the management company Original, which later spawned a division, Original Television. This division signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television. The venture produced *Tru Calling* (2003), *Point Pleasant* (2005), and the most successful of all time, *Prison Break* (2005), though the company went defunct in 2004. Moritz continued producing films during this period, including *Stealth* (2005), *Gridiron Gang* (2006), *Click* (2006) (with friend and rival Columbia-affiliated producer Adam Sandler), *I Am Legend* (2007), *Vantage Point* (2008), *The Bounty Hunter* (2010), and *The Green Hornet* (2011) (with friend and rising writer team Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg), while also working on *Fast & Furious* sequels. In 2006, Original Film reactivated its TV production by signing a deal with Sony Pictures Television, and the following year, he made his first foray into family films with *Evan Almighty* (2007). In 2012, he worked with MGM and Columbia on *21 Jump Street* (2012) and its sequel *22 Jump Street* (2014). His TV work with Sony Pictures Television included the shows *The Big C* (2010) and *Save Me* (2013). In 2015, he produced the most successful family film of all time, *Goosebumps* (2015), with Sony Pictures Animation, which was followed in 2018 by *Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween* (2018). That same year, he acquired the rights to Valiant Comics, resulting in the creation of *Bloodshot* (2020). In 2017, Moritz signed a film production deal with Paramount Pictures (which he had previously worked with in the 1980s). His first film with Paramount was *Sonic the Hedgehog* (2020). He continued to produce TV shows for Sony, including *Preacher* (2016), *S.W.A.T.* (2017), and *The Boys* (2019), and for Universal, the show *Happy!* (2017). He was currently in post-production on the film *F9: The Fast Saga* (2021), scheduled for release on Memorial Day 2021, though its release date had changed multiple times during the COVID-19 pandemic.