Rob Cohen


Rob L. Cohen is an American director, producer, and screenwriter of film and television. Beginning his career as an executive producer at 20th Century Fox, Cohen produced and developed numerous high-profile film and television programs, including The Wiz, The Witches of Eastwick, and Light of Day, before concentrating full-time on directing in the 1990s. His directorial credits include action films such as xXx and the first The Fast and the Furious, along with fantasy films like Dragonheart and .

Early life and career

Cohen was born in Cornwall, New York. He attended Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in the class of 1971, after transferring from Amherst College after two years concentrating in a cross major between anthropology and visual studies. His first endeavor in filmmaking was a commissioned recruiting film for Harvard's Admissions Office in 1970, which became his senior thesis. He is Jewish. He is 5' 7" tall.
Upon graduation, Cohen immediately headed to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter for Martin Jurow but soon found himself unemployed when the producer moved out of state.
After a six-month stint as a kennel boy at the Harvey Animal Hospital in West Hollywood to make ends meet, Cohen landed a job as a reader for then-agent Mike Medavoy. Six weeks into his tenure at International Famous Agency, he distinguished himself by discovering an unheralded script he found in a slush pile of neglected screenplays. Recognizing its quality, commerciality and uniqueness, Cohen wrote in his coverage that it was "the great American screenplay and this will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film." He championed the piece relentlessly, with his own job at stake, as Medavoy said that he would try to sell it on that recommendation, but promising to fire Cohen if he could not. Universal bought it that afternoon for a record price, and it became the Academy Award winning movie The Sting. Cohen still keeps the coverage framed on the wall of his office, as this gave him his first identity in Hollywood: "the kid who found The Sting."

Film career

Producing

With a career in film and television spanning more than 40 years, Cohen has distinguished himself as a celebrated screenwriter, producer and director. In 1973, 20th Century Fox Television hired Cohen as Head of Current Programming helping out with, among other shows, the first year of the epic hit, M*A*S*H. Eager to push Fox into ‘long form’, Cohen cold-called the head of ABC and introduced himself as ‘the head of television movies at Fox’. Barry Diller gave him a meeting where he sold two TV films on the spot, properties he had found in the voluminous books of Fox's unproduced properties. A week later, he duplicated the feat at CBS under Philip Barry. Fox president, William Edwin Self, was not happy that a junior employee had garnered these commitments without permission but grudgingly gave Cohen the title Vice President of TV Movies.
Diller recommended Cohen to his friend impresario, songwriter, producer and record label founder Berry Gordy who was looking to bring his company Motown into the film business. He and Gordy connected and he was hired to be the Executive Vice President and head of Motown's motion picture division.
Cohen went to work and developed the first Motown movie from his own idea about the burgeoning phenomenon of African American Super Models he felt was perfect for Motown star Diana Ross. He sold the package to Paramount and in 1974, the cameras rolled on Mahogany in Chicago and Rome. At the same time, he developed a unique film from the Bill Brashler novel The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor. To direct, he hired a then unknown TV director John Badham to make his feature debut, a critical hit set in the 1930s Negro National League .
Departing Motown in 1978, Cohen went on to produce and direct films and television series, including Miami Vice, Light of Day, The Witches of Eastwick, Ironweed, and The Wiz.

Directing

From 1990 onwards, Cohen moved into directing full-time. Much success followed with early 1990s films such as , Dragonheart, Daylight and the Golden Globe award-winning film The Rat Pack.
At 52, Cohen had become an action director, directing the 2001 film, The Fast and The Furious. The film was a hit, opening with $40 million its first weekend, starring relative unknowns Paul Walker and Vin Diesel.
With the success of The Fast and the Furious, Cohen partnered up with Vin Diesel again the following year to direct XXX.
He then directed the science fiction action film Stealth in 2005 which was a critical and commercial failure.
In 2008, he directed the third installment of The Mummy, , grossing $401 million worldwide, and he directed Blumhouse Productions' The Boy Next Door starring Jennifer Lopez in 2015.
Cohen is also a director of commercials, housed at Original Film, having made over 150 television commercials for products such Disney's Star Wars, Verizon, Ford, GM, Mercedes, Chevy, Saab and Burger King among many others.

Sexual abuse allegations

On February 21, 2019, Cohen's transgender daughter, Valkyrie Weather, accused Cohen of sexually assaulting her as a child, as well as sexually assaulting another woman. Weather further claimed that Cohen had taken her to visit sex workers in Thailand and the Czech Republic when she was 13, supposedly in an attempt to "turn straight". Although Cohen categorically denied these claims in a later statement, Dianna Mitzner, Cohen's first wife and Weather's mother, confirmed that she had witnessed at least one incident of sexual assault against Weather as a child. Another allegation of sexual assault was published by HuffPost on September 28, 2019. Cohen's lawyer denied any wrongdoing.

Filmography

Film

Producer
YearTitleDirectorNotes
1975MahoganyBerry Gordy
1976The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor KingsJohn Badham
1978Thank God It's FridayRobert Klane
1978Almost SummerMartin Davidson
1978The WizSidney Lumet
1985The Legend of Billie JeanMatthew RobbinsAlso 2nd unit director
1987Light of DayPaul Schrader
1990Bird on a WireJohn BadhamAlso 2nd unit director
1991The Hard WayJohn BadhamAlso 2nd unit director

Executive producer
YearTitleDirectorNotes
1977Scott JoplinJeremy Kagan
1984The Razor's EdgeJohn Byrum
1987The Witches of EastwickGeorge Miller
1987The Monster SquadFred Dekker
1987IronweedHéctor Babenco
1987The Running ManPaul Michael Glaser
1988The Serpent and the RainbowWes CravenAlso 2nd unit director
1989Disorganized CrimeJim Kouf
2005Lee Tamahori
2015GhoulPetr Jákl

Television

Music videos