Steel - About The Filmmakers

Steel: About The Filmmakers

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Director/writer KENNETH JOHNSON is an Emmy Award-winning writer, director and executive producer. He served as executive producer of the Fox's critically acclaimed series, "Alien Nation," for which he received the Viewers for Quality Television Founders Award. He was executive producer and director of the made-for-television movie sequel, "Alien Nation: Dark Horizon," which was one of the highest-rated Fox movies of the 1994-95 television season. The project was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy Films.

Johnson was also executive producer and director of "Alien Nation: Body & Soul" (another Emmy nominee) and "Alien Nation: Millennium," which won a Saturn Award for Best Genre Television Presentation of the Year (1995-96) and the Sci-Fi Universe Award for Best Telefilm. He recently completed two new "Alien Nation" films for the current television season for which he received a third Saturn nomination.

His credits as creator, writer, director and executive producer include the series "The Bionic Woman," the four-hour science-fiction mini-series "V" (WGA Award nominee), "Shadow Chasers," "Hot Pursuit" and the television movies "Senior Trip" and "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (nominee for the Edgar Allen Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America). He also was the creator and executive producer of the long-running Emmy-winning series "The Incredible Hulk" and producer of "The Six Million Dollar Man."

His additional feature credits include directing "Short Circuit II." He also wrote, directed and produced "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Bride of the Incredible Hulk" features in addition to several other television movies. Johnson was also the recipient of the first annual Gene L. Coon Award for Excellence in Writing from Sci-Fi Universe.

Producer QUINCY JONES' career has seen him reach spectacular levels of success in pursuits across the entertainment industry. Currently celebrating his 50th year performing and being involved in music, Jones has won 26 Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy's Trustees Award and the Grammy Living Legend Award. He is an Emmy winner and seven-time Oscar nominee and was recently honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with their prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

In January, 1992, Jones and David Salzman joined together to mount the "An American Reunion" concert at the Lincoln Memorial, an all-star concert and celebration that was the first official event of the presidential inaugural celebration and drew widespread acclaim as an HBO telecast. In 1993, Jones and Salzman merged their companies to form QDE, Quincy Jones*David Salzman Entertainment, to produce a wide range of multi-media product, including motion-picture and television production, magazine publishing, live entertainment and interactive media. This year, Jones, as executive producer, and David Salzman produced the 68th Annual Academy Awards telecast to enthusiastic response.

Jones is executive producer of two television series, "In The House" and "MAD TV." He was also producer of the long-running hit series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." In the interactive arena, QDE has formed QD7, a joint venture with multi-media publisher 7th Level, Inc., to develop and publish interactive multi-media titles, the first of which will be available later this year, focusing on the history of American music.

Jones continues to guide his own Qwest Records, the recording home to such artists as New Order, Tevin Campbell, Tamia and The Winans. He also founded the urban music magazine, VIBE, currently celebrating its third year in publication, and recently purchased the alternative music magazine, SPIN. Jones is also the producer of the late night television show based on VIBE Magazine, "VIBE Television."

Jones ventured into filmmaking as co-producer of "The Color Purple," which received 11 Academy Award nominations. He has composed 33 motion-picture scores, earned worldwide acclaim as producer of the historic "We Are the World" recording (the best-selling single of all time) and produced the best-selling album in the history of the recording industry, Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

His own acclaimed recordings include the recent "Q's Jook Joint" as well as "Back on the Block," which won six Grammies in 1990, including Album of the Year.

Jones also heads a group of businessman in the formation of Qwest Broadcasting, a minority controlled broadcasting company which has purchased television stations in Atlanta and New Orleans.

In 1990, Jones' life and career were chronicled in the Warner Bros. film "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones."

Producer DAVID SALZMAN is a 30-year veteran of the entertainment and communications industries who merged his company with Quincy Jones three years ago to form QDE Entertainment. During his career, Salzman has earned a reputation for creativity and leadership in a broad spectrum of activities. As a broadcaster, he helped put 10 television stations on the air and ran a station group. As a newsman, he introduced general groundbreaking news innovations and NIWS, the national news service which supplied award-winning reports to 165 U.S. stations and more than 75 foreign countries. As a producer, he has created, developed and/or overseen more than 200 television series, specials, movies and miniseries. As an entrepreneur, he has launched four successful companies and two magazines.

Along with Jones, Salzman produced the 68th Annual Academy Awards and the 1993 "People's Celebration," presented live at the Lincoln Memorial as President Clinton's first official inaugural event. He also produced the epic 1995 "Concerts of the Americas" in Miami as part of the Hemispheric Summit. QDE also produces the series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "In The House," "MAD TV" and the syndicated "The Jenny Jones Show."

At Lorimar Telepictures from 1985 to 1990, Salzman served as a member of the Office of the President, responsible for making the television studio Hollywood's number-one network and syndicated programming provider during his tenure. Following the acquisition of Lorimar Telepictures by Warner Communications, Inc., Salzman was named president of the company and maintained its successful programming output.

Producer JOEL SIMON joined Quincy Jones*David Salzman Entertainment as president of the motion picture division in June 1995, overseeing all development and production of feature films. Previously, he was a partner in Todman/Simon Productions. Todman/Simon produced "Married to the Mob" and "Hard to Kill." The company produced the television series "The People Next Door" as well as numerous pilots and an NBC movie-of-the-week, "The Innocent."

In 1972, Simon co-founded Simon Marketing, a sales promotion/marketing agency. Simon Marketing's clientele included McDonald's for which they were the world-wide exclusive marketing and promotional agency.

Executive producer SHAQUILLE O'NEAL (See cast biographies)

Executive producer LEONARD ARMATO is also Founder, Chairman & CEO of Management Plus Enterprises (MPE). Armato has taken MPE from a traditional sports agency to a company revolutionizing how marketing-driven management can be used to create equity-based opportunities for its clients.

Armato has been representing premiere athletes in sports for over 15 years, including the legendary Kareem Abdul Jabbar, 1994 NBA MVP Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal, already a global 'brand' at only 25 years of age. With Shaquille, a groundbreaking marketing campaign that anticipated the convergence of sports and entertainment was implemented at the start of an athlete's career for the very first time.

MPE has also produced commercials for corporate clients and TWIsM Records (a joint venture with Interscope/MCA) for which Armato serves as President. He also serves as executive producer for "Hoops," a one-hour pilot in development for Fox, and he and O'Neal were executive producers of Touchstone Pictures' "Kazaam."

Executive producer BRUCE BINKOW is Vice President of MPE, which he joined in 1995 to oversee a full slate of motion picture, television, commercial and recorded music production projects. He is also involved in managing the careers of MPE's elite list of professional athletes. Binkow produced "Born to Run," "Klash" and Eriq LaSalle's acclaimed short film "Psalms from the Underground" and was co-executive producer of "Kazaam."

A former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, Binkow was an executive vice president at Playboy Enterprises, an executive at MGM Studios and headed production companies for Clive Davis and The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

Co-producer MARK ALLAN has a list of credits which encompasses his work in features, television and the music industry. He was co-producer on "The Little Rascals" and served as production manager and/or associate producer on films such as "Havana," "The Mambo Kings," "Angus Bethune," "The Patty Hearst Story," "Near Dark" and "Youngblood." Allan also co-produced the Emmy Award-winning mini-series "Drug Wars: Camerena," the "Intruders" mini-series and the Emmy-nominated movie-of-the-week "Gangs."

Allan produced the Fox network comedy series "Danger Theatre" and the made-for-television film "Suddenly." Allan's music background includes director of concert promotion and publicity for United Artist/EMI in Paris, as well as producing music videos.

Mark is currently executive producer on "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" for Warner Bros. with Gregory Nava directing.

Director of photography MARK IRWIN has 58 film projects to his credit since his debut as the cinematographer of the action-thriller "Point of No Return" in 1975. His recent projects include the thriller "Scream," "Kingpin," "Dumb and Dumber," "Vampire in Brooklyn" and two acclaimed projects for cable, HBO's "Don't Look Back" and Showtime's "Robin of Locksley." His additional projects include "Mighty Ducks II," "Passenger 57," "Robocop II," "The Blob," "The Fly" and "Hanoi Hilton."

The Canadian-born Irwin has won four Canadian Society of Cinematography Awards for "Videodrome," "The Dead Zone," "Youngblood" and "The Fly," and has been nominated for Genie and Cable ACE awards.

Production designer GARY WISSNER made his debut as a production designer on Stephen King's "Graveyard Shift" followed by "Last Man Standing." His television credits include serving as production designer on the pilot of the new Fox series "Millennium" and as art director on "In Living Color," the CBS mini-series "Family of Spies" and various MTV specials.

Wissner honed his craft on a list of features that span many genres, with recent work on films including "Wyatt Earp," "Another 48 Hrs.," "Junior," "Seven" and "Hoffa."

Editor JOHN F. LINK received an Academy Award nomination for his editing of "Die Hard" and also edited the box-office successes "The Three Musketeers," "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "Commando," "Predator," "Hard to Kill" and "The Mighty Ducks."

Link studied film at the University of Southern California and apprenticed at NBC before moving into editing with such top craftsman as John F. Link, Sr., Walter Thompson and Charlie Nelson. His work on television movies includes "The President's Plane is Missing," "Heart of Anger," "Lace," "Tiger Town" and "Harem." Link made the transition to films editing "Mackenna's Gold," "The King of Marvin Gardens," "Electra Glide in Blue," "Race with the Devil" and "Citzens Band," among numerous others.

Composer MERVYN WARREN recently appeared as the pianist in Penny Marshall's holiday romantic comedy "The Preacher's Wife," starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston; in addition to his duties in front of the camera, he composed the songs performed by Houston and the gospel choir in the film. His other recent feature-film composing credits include "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" and, for television, the Showtime original movie "The Wharf Rat."

Stunt coordinator M. JAMES ARNETT was an actor and stand-in for Paul Newman prior to becoming a stunt coordinator and second unit director. His recent film projects include "Wolf," "Major League 2," "Renaissance Man," "Mixed Nuts" and "Congo," among others. A member of the DGA and SAG, Arnett has served as chairman of the stunt and safety committee and the safety investigating team for the Screen Actors Guild. He has also served on the national board of SAG.

Other films with Arnett as stunt coordinator include "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Annie," "Cool Hand Luke," "Basic Instinct," "Toys," "A View to A Kill" and three "Police Academy" movies. His second unit director work includes "The Rocketeer," "The Lost Boys," "Taps" and "9 to 5."

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