Michael De Luca serves as Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, encompassing Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. WBMPG continues to build on its legacy of iconic feature franchises and world-class cinema, delivering a diverse slate of films for global audiences.
De Luca serves as Co-Chair and CEO with Pamela Abdy, sharing oversight of the Studio’s global theatrical production, marketing, and distribution operations. In addition to his Motion Picture Group responsibilities, De Luca, along with Abdy, has curatorial oversight of WBD’s TCM (Turner Classic Movies) network, in partnership with filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. He joined Warner Bros. in 2022.
Prior to joining Warner Bros., De Luca served as MGM’s Motion Picture Group Chairman, where he oversaw all aspects of the company’s feature film slate across MGM and Orion films including Sarah Polley’s Academy Award® Best Picture-nominated “Women Talking” which earned Polley the Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay, Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver; Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award® Best Picture-nominated “Licorice Pizza,” which marked MGM’s first such nomination since “Rain Man” in 1988; “Creed III,” starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan; Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan’s “Adam’s Family 2”; and Ron Howard’s “13 Lives.”
An esteemed and prolific producer with four decades in the film business, De Luca has been nominated three times for an Academy Award® for Best Picture of the Year (for David Fincher's “The Social Network,” Bennett Miller's “Moneyball,” and Paul Greengrass’s “Captain Phillips”). He won the Emmy Award, Golden Globe and PGA Award for the FX series “Shogun” and was additionally nominated as producer of the 89th and the 90th Academy Awards® and Showtime’s “Escape At Dannemora.” De Luca produced the film adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” as well as its two sequels – “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed” for Universal Pictures. The trilogy was a global phenomenon and a box office sensation that grossed over $1 billion internationally.
Over the course of his career, De Luca has held several key positions in the film industry. At age 27, he served as one of the youngest heads of production in Hollywood history when he was appointed President and COO of New Line Productions, where he helped to launch lucrative franchises including “Friday,” “Blade,” “Austin Powers,” and “Rush Hour.” During his tenure, he championed such groundbreaking sleeper hits as “Se7en,” “Wag the Dog,” “Pleasantville,” “Magnolia,” “I Am Sam,” and “Boogie Nights,” and helped to launch the directing careers of Jay Roach, Gary Ross, Alan and Albert Hughes, F. Gary Gray, the Farrelly brothers, David Fincher, and Paul Thomas Anderson. From New Line, De Luca went on to serve as DreamWorks’ Head of Production from 2001 to 2004, overseeing the live-action division and the production of such films as “Old School” and “Anchorman,” which continued the rise of both Will Ferrell and Todd Phillips.
Beginning in 2004, he launched his own production company, Michael De Luca Productions, which had a development and production agreement with Columbia Pictures that brought the studio three Academy Award® Best Picture nominees – “The Social Network,” “Moneyball” and “Captain Phillips” – as well as mainstream success with such films as “Ghost Rider” and “21.” As an independent producer, De Luca focused on developing provocative specialized films with visionary filmmakers, as well as elevated genre films with franchise potential. Prior to launching a multi-year production deal at Universal Pictures, De Luca served as President of Production for Columbia Pictures, where he revitalized the studio’s slate with commercial fare and notable filmmakers, including the thriller “The Shallows,” starring Blake Lively and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, and western “The Magnificent Seven,” starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt and directed by Antoine Fuqua.