STEVEN PURI
Currently a Development Executive at Kurtzman/Orci (Transformers, Mission: Impossible 3, Star Trek 11, Zorro), Steven is responsible for bringing new projects into the company (spec screenplays, articles, and pitches), as well as overseeing the development on projects including the DreamWorks projects Cowboys & Aliens starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Atlantis Rising to be directed by Len Wiseman.
Previously, Steven was a Creative Executive at Red Wagon, the Sony-based production company headed by Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick.
Prior to that, he was an independent film producer, co-producing The Watcher, an action-thriller starring Keanu Reeves, James Spader and Marisa Tomei, which Universal released domestically, and associate producing Partners, an independent feature starring Casper van Dien, Vanessa Angel and David Paymer, directed by Joey Travolta.
Steven also produced a short film for Fox Searchlight entitled Certainly Not a Fairy Tale, starring Linda Cardellini, Brad Rowe and Jason Segel. Certainly Not a Fairy Tale was directed by Vivi Friedman, a young Finnish director that Steven discovered and brought to the attention of Searchlab, a division of Searchlight devoted to finding and developing young filmmakers. Mike Sheresky and Ramses Ishak of William Morris signed the director off her short, and her debut feature Driving Lessons starring Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney shoots in the Spring of 2008.
Before these two films Steven worked with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. With them he co-founded Centropolis Effects, the digital effects company that produced effects for Panic Room Scorpion King, The Patriot, Stuart Little, Godzilla, End of Days, and others. Steven began his affiliation with Emmerich and Devlin as the digital effects and title producer for Independence Day. Steven also ran Centropolis Interactive, before leaving to produce his own film and TV projects.
Steven has produced digital visual effects and/or main and end title sequences, commercials and trailers for a host of films including Braveheart, Se7en, The Shadow, In the Line of Fire, Demolition Man, Sister Act 2, True Lies and Last Action Hero, as well as smaller films including Dead Presidents, Dead Man, The Cure, Carlito’s Way, and Immortal Beloved, and the logos for Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions, Centropolis Entertainment, and Woody Allen/Jean Doumanian’s Sweetland Films.
Steven is a member of the Advisory Board of the Art Institute of Los Angeles, and is the recipient of the Galileo Award, the Institute’s highest award for “vision, integrity, altruism, commitment and partnership.”