How a Fan of Comic Books Transformed Himself Into a Hollywood Player

How a Fan of Comic Books Transformed Himself Into a Hollywood Player

Drink in hand, attaboys coming at him from every direction, Tom DeSanto was living the fanboy dream.

At the party after the “Transformers” mega-premiere in Westwood on Wednesday night, Mr. DeSanto, one of that action movie’s producers, was the leather-jacketed picture of a hungry Hollywood hustler finally eyeing a hearty meal of credit, money and maybe even a modicum of stature.

It was his enthusiasm for the Transformers comic book and toy line, after all, that in June 2003 persuaded the Hasbro toy company to let him and a partner try to sell a Transformers movie to the studios, and that eventually piqued the interest of DreamWorks. Just as he had once persuaded the director Bryan Singer to drop his skepticism about making a comic-book movie and take on the X-Men franchise for 20th Century Fox. And just as he had once helped stir up interest in a television revival of “Battlestar Galactica,” before being shoved aside as it morphed into a critically acclaimed series on the Sci Fi Channel.

full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/movies/30tran.html?ref=movies