Bob Degus
Encyclopedia
Bob Degus is an American
film director
and producer
. He is best known for producing such film as Pleasantville
and A Man Apart
. His directorial debut was with the film 9/Tenths
in 2006.
nominee and a Satellite Awards
Nominee, Bob Degus started from the ground up and has, at one point or another, done almost every job in filmmaking; including writer, director, cinematographer, editor, post-production supervisor, Oxberry-animation cameraman, and most importantly, caterer. Growing up in Rochester, New York
, his family has a long history of working for Eastman Kodak
- Following somewhat in their footsteps, Bob wanted to make film as well - just not film stock. He wanted to take it a step further and actually make movies.
Degus directed the 2006 independent feature, 9/Tenths
, starring Gabrielle Anwar
, Henry Ian Cusick
and Dave Ortiz. He also directed and edited a 35mm short film, Another Round that was invited to screen at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, received an award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, and was subsequently purchased by Showtime for airing on their network. He has produced films starring Brad Pitt
, Tobey Maguire
, Reese Witherspoon
, Gary Sinise
, Vin Diesel
, Elijah Wood
, to name a few.
He likes to say he has produced or worked with more first time feature directors than just about any other producer in Hollywood, most notably producing Gary Ross
' feature debut film, the triple Academy Award nominated Pleasantville which he produced alongside Steven Soderbergh
and John Kilik. Bob continued to work with Gary Ross for the next five years.
He was the production executive on F. Gary Gray
's highly successful feature-directorial debut film, Friday
and also worked with Gray again on Set It Off
(which was New Line's highest grossing film the year it was produced) and he later produced F. Gary Gray's A Man Apart
.
Bob also worked as a production executive at New Line Cinema
, where he oversaw Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
, Trial and Error with Jeff Daniels
, B*A*P*S, with Halle Berry
, to name a few; and numerous independent projects including the film adaptation
of the Broadway play Love! Valour! Compassion!
. Bob served as head of production at Chanticleer Films where he oversaw, produced or was directly involved with more than 40 short-features, directed by first-time directors, made under the auspices of the award winning The Discovery Program, which received more than seven Academy Award nominations during the period he oversaw the program, and literally hundreds of other awards from film festivals throughout the world.
He also produced and conceptualized Funk Blast, the premiere centerpiece attraction at Paul Allen
's "Experience Music Project
" Museum, in Seattle, where he brought together James Brown
, Maceo Parker
, Bootsy Collins
, George Clinton
, Chaka Kahn, and Herbie Hancock
, producing a state-of-the-art 70mm ride-film, which dramatically advanced editing techniques in ride movies.
In the summer of 2005 Bob produced the low-budget independent feature Graduation
alongside Jane Sindell, Jason Blum, Fred Fuchs, Robin Bradford and Scott Hansen.
In addition to all this, Bob is an avid photographer and an active, voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
. He regularly serves on the Foreign Language Film Award
Nominating Committee and is a member of the executive board for his branch.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. He is best known for producing such film as Pleasantville
Pleasantville (film)
Pleasantville is a 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Marley Shelton and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Jane Kaczmarek, and J. T. Walsh are also featured.The film...
and A Man Apart
A Man Apart
A Man Apart is a 2003 action-thriller-drama film directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate. The story follows undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter who is on a vendetta to take down a mysterious drug lord named Diablo after his wife is murdered...
. His directorial debut was with the film 9/Tenths
9/Tenths
9/Tenths is a 2006 film directed by Bob Degus about the conflict between a wealthy couple and a poor laborer after a worldwide terrorist attack isolates them in a small remote ranch. The film stars Gabrielle Anwar, Henry Ian Cusick and Dave Baez. The film was filmed outside of Los Angeles, CA in...
in 2006.
Biography
Producer of two Academy Award-nominated short films, two-time CableACE AwardCableACE Award
The CableACE Award was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming...
nominee and a Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
Nominee, Bob Degus started from the ground up and has, at one point or another, done almost every job in filmmaking; including writer, director, cinematographer, editor, post-production supervisor, Oxberry-animation cameraman, and most importantly, caterer. Growing up in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, his family has a long history of working for Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
- Following somewhat in their footsteps, Bob wanted to make film as well - just not film stock. He wanted to take it a step further and actually make movies.
Degus directed the 2006 independent feature, 9/Tenths
9/Tenths
9/Tenths is a 2006 film directed by Bob Degus about the conflict between a wealthy couple and a poor laborer after a worldwide terrorist attack isolates them in a small remote ranch. The film stars Gabrielle Anwar, Henry Ian Cusick and Dave Baez. The film was filmed outside of Los Angeles, CA in...
, starring Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
, Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick
Henry Ian Cusick is a Scottish-Peruvian actor of stage, television, and film. He is well-known for his role as Desmond Hume on the United States television series Lost, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination....
and Dave Ortiz. He also directed and edited a 35mm short film, Another Round that was invited to screen at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, received an award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, and was subsequently purchased by Showtime for airing on their network. He has produced films starring Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire
Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire is an American actor and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, and has achieved his greatest fame for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.-Early life:...
, Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
, Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
, Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx...
, Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor. He made his film debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II , then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9. He is best known for his high-profile role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's...
, to name a few.
He likes to say he has produced or worked with more first time feature directors than just about any other producer in Hollywood, most notably producing Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
' feature debut film, the triple Academy Award nominated Pleasantville which he produced alongside Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
and John Kilik. Bob continued to work with Gary Ross for the next five years.
He was the production executive on F. Gary Gray
F. Gary Gray
Felix Gary Gray is an American music video and film director.-Life and career:Gray began his career in 1992 with his music video for Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day." The video, a literal adaptation of the lyrics, was critically well received. He would go on to direct subsequent videos for Ice Cube,...
's highly successful feature-directorial debut film, Friday
Friday (film)
Friday is a 1995 stoner comedy-drama-buddy film directed by F. Gary Gray. Starring Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tommy Lister, Jr...
and also worked with Gray again on Set It Off
Set It Off
Set It Off is a 1996 action and crime film directed by F. Gary Gray, and stars Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise , as four close friends in Los Angeles, California who decide to plan and execute a bank robbery...
(which was New Line's highest grossing film the year it was produced) and he later produced F. Gary Gray's A Man Apart
A Man Apart
A Man Apart is a 2003 action-thriller-drama film directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate. The story follows undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter who is on a vendetta to take down a mysterious drug lord named Diablo after his wife is murdered...
.
Bob also worked as a production executive at New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
, where he oversaw Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is a 1997 American science fiction/action-comedy film and the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy...
, Trial and Error with Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...
, B*A*P*S, with Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
, to name a few; and numerous independent projects including the film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the Broadway play Love! Valour! Compassion!
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Love! Valour! Compassion! is a play by Terrence McNally. Its off-Broadway premiere took place at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 11, 1994, in a staging by Joe Mantello that ran for 72 performances...
. Bob served as head of production at Chanticleer Films where he oversaw, produced or was directly involved with more than 40 short-features, directed by first-time directors, made under the auspices of the award winning The Discovery Program, which received more than seven Academy Award nominations during the period he oversaw the program, and literally hundreds of other awards from film festivals throughout the world.
He also produced and conceptualized Funk Blast, the premiere centerpiece attraction at Paul Allen
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
's "Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project
The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...
" Museum, in Seattle, where he brought together James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Maceo Parker
Maceo Parker
Maceo Parker is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones...
, Bootsy Collins
Bootsy Collins
William Earl "Bootsy" Collins is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk...
, George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
, Chaka Kahn, and Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, producing a state-of-the-art 70mm ride-film, which dramatically advanced editing techniques in ride movies.
In the summer of 2005 Bob produced the low-budget independent feature Graduation
Graduation (film)
Graduation is a coming-of-age film starring Chris Lowell, Chris Marquette and Riley Smith released in May 2008. It was made in collaboration with the producers of The Virgin Suicides and Seabiscuit...
alongside Jane Sindell, Jason Blum, Fred Fuchs, Robin Bradford and Scott Hansen.
In addition to all this, Bob is an avid photographer and an active, voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
. He regularly serves on the Foreign Language Film Award
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
Nominating Committee and is a member of the executive board for his branch.
Filmography
- 2007: GraduationGraduation (film)Graduation is a coming-of-age film starring Chris Lowell, Chris Marquette and Riley Smith released in May 2008. It was made in collaboration with the producers of The Virgin Suicides and Seabiscuit...
- Producer - 2006: 9/Tenths9/Tenths9/Tenths is a 2006 film directed by Bob Degus about the conflict between a wealthy couple and a poor laborer after a worldwide terrorist attack isolates them in a small remote ranch. The film stars Gabrielle Anwar, Henry Ian Cusick and Dave Baez. The film was filmed outside of Los Angeles, CA in...
- Director, Producer - 2003: A Man ApartA Man ApartA Man Apart is a 2003 action-thriller-drama film directed by F. Gary Gray and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Vin Diesel and Larenz Tate. The story follows undercover DEA agent Sean Vetter who is on a vendetta to take down a mysterious drug lord named Diablo after his wife is murdered...
- Producer - 1998: PleasantvillePleasantville (film)Pleasantville is a 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Marley Shelton and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Jane Kaczmarek, and J. T. Walsh are also featured.The film...
- Producer - 1997: Julian PoJulian Po-Plot:This is the story of a depressed man who comes into a town with no future. The title character wanders into a small sleepy town with the intent to kill himself. When the townspeople learn of his plan, Julian becomes a minor celebrity, and is offered all sorts of free perks since this is the...
- Production Executive - 1997: Trial and Error - Production Executive
- 1997: Austin Powers: International Man of MysteryAustin Powers: International Man of MysteryAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery is a 1997 American science fiction/action-comedy film and the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy...
- Production Executive - 1997: B*A*P*S - Production Executive
- 1997: Love! Valour! Compassion!Love! Valour! Compassion!Love! Valour! Compassion! is a play by Terrence McNally. Its off-Broadway premiere took place at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 11, 1994, in a staging by Joe Mantello that ran for 72 performances...
- Production Executive - 1997: Set It OffSet It OffSet It Off is a 1996 action and crime film directed by F. Gary Gray, and stars Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise , as four close friends in Los Angeles, California who decide to plan and execute a bank robbery...
- Associate Producer