Tom DeSanto is a writer/producer behind some of the biggest franchises in movie history (X-Men, Transformers). DeSanto's films have grossed more than $4.3 billion dollars worldwide with a per film average of over $725 million at the box office, in addition to billions more in merchandising.
The proud owner of more than 30,000 comic books and a self described pop culture junkie, DeSanto dreamed of bringing the characters he loved as a kid to life in Hollywood. X-Men (2000) was first on his list and besides producing Mr. DeSanto co-wrote the story. DeSanto brought the property to director Bryan Singer and spawned a billion dollar franchise for Fox and started Marvel's rise out of bankruptcy.
After the success of X-Men, Mr. DeSanto pulled another undervalued property, Battlestar Galactica (2004), out of mothballs and developed Galactica for Universal Television. Battlestar Galactica found a home on Sci-Fi Channel and was the number one rated mini-series of 2004 for all of cable. Many of DeSanto's ideas and designs made it into the show including human Cylons, the female President, and the new Vipers. Mr. DeSanto still dreams of bringing his full vision for Galactica to the big screen.
In 2003 Mr. DeSanto returned as part of the guiding creative team for X-Men 2 (2003), including the continuation of the Phoenix storyline. That same year Mr. DeSanto went after Transformers (2007) another dormant property that he was a fan of since childhood. Mr. DeSanto brought the idea to his friend and fellow producer Don Murphy and based on DeSanto's pitch and understanding of the universe Hasbro gave them the rights for free. Transformers was a tough sell for those running the studios who did not grow up with the property. After being rejected by every studio in town Mr. DeSanto made a second pass at Dreamworks and after Steven Spielberg read his treatment, Spielberg decided his studio would do the film. Mr. DeSanto set the project up with Dreamworks and Paramount.
The first installment of the Transformers franchise grossed more than $700 million dollars worldwide and Mr. DeSanto gave birth to another franchise. Transformers is the first live action franchise in Dreamworks history and Paramount's largest moneymaker since Titanic. Mr. DeSanto returned as Producer of Transformers - La revanche (2009) in 2009, Transformers 3: La face cachée de la lune (2011), and Transformers: L'âge de l'extinction (2014), which is the second movie of the Transformers series to cross $1 billion in global box office.
DeSanto is branching out into directing and wrote and directed a music video for his friend Austin Brown, who is the nephew of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Austin is the next generation of the Jackson family and the video "85" carries on the tradition of bringing the magic back to music.
DeSanto is writing and producing his re-imagining of the millennium-old Chinese story, Creation of the Gods, with Yisang Media, with plans of it being his next global film franchise that DeSanto says is "Lord of the Rings meets X-Men."
