Brad Luff, former executive at Original Film, Morgan Creek, Sony, Dimension Films, Universal and Warner Bros., passed away this afternoon, Friday, Dec. 12, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center due to complications from cancer and a stroke he had suffered this summer. He was 60.
After graduating from UCLA in 1985, Luff began his career as a banker at Wells Fargo doing entertainment deals before segueing to a Hollywood career.
Early on, he did a six-year stint as EVP of production at Neal Moritz’s Sony-based Original Film, working on movies such as Urban Legend and Saving Silverman, which he executive produced.
In 2003, Luff was named President of Production at Morgan Creek Prods. From 2005-2008, he was President of Production for The Mayhem Project, a production and financing entity backed by UK-based hedge funds.
Luff went on to serve as SVP of production at Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group where he managed the development slate, including such movies as Faster (co-financed with CBS Films), Soul Surfer, Quarantine 2, and Stomp The Yard 2.
In 2010, Luff was named President of Production for Dimension Films. His producing credits also include the 2013 feature Parker starring Jason Statham and the 2018 series Siren.
Luff spent the last 10 years of his career creating a niche business for big studios of making smaller-scaled, direct-to-streaming sequels to some of their biggest hits at a price.
As a VP at Universal, he developed sequels for dozens of movies, including Daddy Day Care, Cop and a Half and Woody Woodpecker. As VP of Warner Bros, he did the same for such titles as The Nut Job, Eraser and Deep Blue Sea. While not as glamorous as the theatrical business, Luff was proud of the franchise extensions he made at the fraction of the cost, many of which performed well.
The Daddy Day Care sequel, the 2019 Grand-Daddy Day Care, was co-written by screenwriter Robbie Fox, a longtime friend of Luff’s.
“Brad will be very missed, by his family and friends of course, but also by writers everywhere,” Fox told Deadline. “Writers loved working for Brad; he was both creative and smart. He was passionate about film and comedy and telling stories. He gave you ideas when you needed them, and he gave you space when you needed that. And also because he was quite possibly the nicest guy in Hollywood and everyone felt that way, myself included.”
Luff most recently was making original movies for Fox’s Tubi. He is survived by his children, Isabella (20) and Jack 18, his wife of 25 years Natalia, his sister Cindy and mom Ellen.
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