Eric Newman (producer)

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Eric Newman is an American film and television producer and writer and the founder of Grand Electric, an LA-based production company with overall deals in both TV and film with Netflix. He is the showrunner of Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, True Story, and the upcoming Zero Day.

Biography

Born on December 31, 1970, and raised in

In 2001, Newman secured the rights to remake George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead and recruited his friend James Gunn to write it. Soon after he drafted first-time director Zack Snyder to direct it. The 2004 Dawn of the Dead had a modest budget of $26 million, and was a huge success with audiences when it was released in 2004, reaping over $100 million worldwide. ^[2]

Newman's success in the horror genre continued with James Gunn’s directorial debut film,

Newman’s first foray into TV came when he came across Brian McGreevy’s gothic horror novel, Hemlock Grove. He thought it could make a good TV show and brought in his friend and past collaborator Eli Roth to executive produce and direct the pilot. The pair, along with Brian McGreevy and his writing partner Lee Shipman, brought the show to Netflix and it became the then nascent streamer's second original program, running for three seasons from 2012–2015.

In 2014, Newman formed Grand Electric and moved forward with a long gestating idea of his about a film set during the drug war in Colombia. Newman had become interested in America’s efforts to bring Pablo Escobar to justice in 1997 after hearing a story about the aftermath of Escobar’s death and the power vacuum it created. Newman enlisted screenwriters Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro to write a film script based on this idea. During production of season two of Hemlock Grove, Newman learned that Netflix intended to expand into Latin America and were actively looking for projects with South American appeal. Newman repurposed the yet unwritten film project into a 10 part television show and brought Brazilian director José Padilha aboard to executive produce and direct. The team secured a straight-to-series commitment from Netflix and began production in Colombia that same summer. Chris Brancato joined the show as showrunner but departed the show before the season wrapped production.^[3] The show debuted in 2015 to almost universal acclaim, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for best show, as well as a massive global viewership for the service.^[4] Its success secured a two season renewal which saw Newman take over as writing showrunner. He continued in that role through two more seasons of Narcos before transitioning the show to Mexico for a second installment of the franchise. Narcos: Mexico also received acclaim and large viewership and Newman earned a nomination from the Writer’s Guild for his writing on the show.^[5] Two seasons into Narcos: Mexico, Newman stepped out of the day-to-day role of show-running to focus on his expanding slate of projects under his Netflix deal.^[6]

Newman also produced for Netflix the

In 2023, Netflix announced that Newman will co-create and executive produce Zero Day, a political thriller miniseries set to feature Robert De Niro in his first leading television role, alongside Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, and Connie Britton.^[12] Newman will also executive produce American Primeval, an upcoming Western limited series directed by Peter Berg and starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin.^[13]

Newman lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

Filmography

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

Film

Miscellaneous crew

Television

As writer

References

External links

• Eric Newman at
  IMDb