Dan Halsted is an American film producer and talent manager, best known for producing such films as Garden State, Any Given Sunday and The Virgin Suicides.
Early life
Daniel Halsted was born in New York on July 12, 1962, and moved to Beverly Hills, California in 1976. He graduated from the UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science. His Hollywood career started in 1984 as an assistant to Scott Rudin at 20th Century Fox before later becoming an agent at United Talent Agency.
Career
UTA
While at 20th Century Fox and UTA, Halsted packaged and sold films such as: There's Something About Mary, New Jack City, The Fabulous Baker Boys, K-9, RoboCop, Casualties of War, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Alien, Predator, and The Untouchables.
Halsted left the representation business in 1990 to work at Hollywood Pictures, a division of The Walt Disney Company. While there he oversaw projects such as: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Tombstone, Evita, Mr. Holland's Opus, Encino Man, Son in Law, The Joy Luck Club, and While You Were Sleeping.
Illusion Entertainment
Halsted partnered with filmmaker Oliver Stone in 1995 to create Illusion Entertainment, a joint production company. Together, they produced films such as: Nixon, U Turn, The Art of War, The Corruptor, Beyond Borders, Freeway, Any Given Sunday, and the documentary The Last Days of Kennedy and King for TBS.
Halsted Pictures
In 1999, Halsted ventured out on his own with Halsted Pictures a multi-year, first-look production deal with Mandalay Pictures. That same year he produced The Virgin Suicides and the action film S.W.A.T. Halsted also executive produced both the TNT television pilot and seriesWitchblade, and the movie Serving Sara during that time. One of Halsted's final projects as a full-time producer was the award-winning Garden State. Halsted helped find buyers for the film, which started as a relatively unknown independent and eventually sold for $5 million to Miramax Films and Fox Searchlight Pictures at Sundance 2004.
In 2004, Halsted formed his own company Manage-ment representing various film, and television writers and directors. On the film side, Manage-ment clients are known for writing and directing such films as The Amazing Spider-Man, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Twilight, In America, and What We Do In The Shadows. Manage-ment clients have written the Sundance breakout Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the Golden Globe-nominated Neruda and the Academy Award-winning Moonlight. On the television side, Dan's clients have written, directed and produced for numerous critically acclaimed shows including House of Cards, Breaking Bad, The Americans, Mad Men, Shameless, The Leftovers, People of Earth and Bates Motel. Halsted and Manage-ment also provide equity consulting and investment banking services to financiers, with services provided on such films as Michael Clayton, The Namesake, Garden State, the 2010 Best Documentary Emmy nominee and Samsara, the sequel to Baraka. At the end of 2013, Halsted signed a first-look, two-year producing deal with Fox Television Studios.
Manage-ment also has an active presence in the world of theatre, representing such acclaimed playwrights as: Lynn Nottage, Marsha Norman, Jon Robin Baitz, Theresa Rebeck, Young Jean Lee.