Stephen Sommers

Born and raised in Minnesota Stephen Sommers went on to attend St Johns University before transferring to the University of Seville in Spain  After graduating he spent the next several years managing rock bands throughout Europe Relocating to Los Angeles Sommers enrolled in the University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts and spent the next three years earning a Masters Degree in Film Production  Upon writing and directing an awardwinning student film Perfect Alibi he was granted the opportunity to write and direct his first featurelength motion picture a story set in the world of high school drag racing entitled Catch Me If You Can From there Sommers went on to create such wellknown and beloved adaptations as The Adventures of Huck Finn and Rudyard Kiplings The Jungle Book both for Walt Disney Pictures  He also wrote and executive produced Disneys adventure film Tom and Huck before returning to the directors chair for the suspensethriller Deep Rising The next year Sommers wrote directed and produced the first installment of The Mummy franchise for Universal Studios  That film and its sequel The Mummy Returns have grossed over eighthundred and forty million dollars worldwide  His next monster blockbuster was the actionadventure epic Van Helsing released in 2004 which did over threehundred million dollars at the box office  Following his producing duties on The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which made the trilogy a billion dollar franchise Sommers wrote directed and produced GI Joe The Rise of Cobra for Paramount Studios  Stephen currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and their two daughters Bio from official homepage