Don Murphy

Don Murphy (born April 1970) is an American film producer who produced Natural Born Killers, Real Steel, Splice and many other films, including Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the 2026 re-imagining of the Faces of Death franchise.

Personal background Born in April 1970, Murphy grew up in Hicksville, New York and was educated at Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York. He attended Georgetown University and received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from the McDonough School of Business. Having excelled academically, he was accepted into Georgetown Law. In 1986 Murphy realized that his calling lay in films rather than law; he enrolled in the School of Cinema-Television (now named USC School of Cinematic Arts) in California, where he had classmates including eventual directors Bryan Singer, Jon Turteltaub, Gary Fleder, and Stephen Sommers, and received a Master of Fine Arts. The film attracted attention upon release in 1994, and Hamsher documented the producers' involvement in the film in the best-selling book Killer Instinct. He had an opportunity to see an unfinished cut of The Usual Suspects, which was directed by Singer, a classmate from USC. They decided to work together on Apt Pupil, based on a Stephen King novella and released in 1998. Murphy also grew interested in adapting graphic novels by Alan Moore, such as From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, for film. He produced the movie From Hell, directed by the Hughes Brothers and released in 2001, as well as the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, directed by Stephen Norrington and released in 2003.

Murphy and producer Tom DeSanto optioned rights to the Transformers toy line from Hasbro and pitched it to Hollywood studios. According to Murphy, the studios passed initially, but then began to express interest after further internal meetings involving younger staff, from the generation who had played with Transformers in their childhood. DreamWorks executive Michael De Luca proposed the idea to Steven Spielberg, who took the project and convinced Michael Bay to direct the film. Transformers was released in 2007 and was a major box office success. Murphy was also one of the originating producers of the 2009 sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Filmography Director Monday Morning (1990)

Producer

Natural Born Killers (1994) Double Dragon (1994) Apt Pupil (1998) Permanent Midnight (1998) Bully (2001) From Hell (2001) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) Transformers (2007) Shoot 'Em Up (2007) While She Was Out (2008) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Real Steel (2011) Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) Vampire Academy (2014) Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Bumblebee (2018) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) Transformers One (2024) Faces of Death (2026)

Executive producer Monday Morning (1990) Splice (2010) Gemini Man (2019)