Jeffrey L. Chernov (born 18 September 1952; age 72) is an American producer who worked as unit production manager and executive producer on Star Trek (replacing Stratton Leopold [1]), and as executive producer on Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond.
Chernov's children Max and Zoe had roles as Vulcan students in Star Trek; Max appeared as a resident of San Francisco in Into Darkness as well.
He is a former Senior Vice President of Physical Production at Spyglass Entertainment. [2] Incidentally, Spyglass became a financier and co-presenter on Star Trek, three years after Chernov departed the company.
Early career[]
Chernov began his career in Hollywood as a messenger on the 1976 production of King Kong, which starred Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor René Auberjonois. He ultimately became a producer, an assistant director, and a production manager and executive.
Early in his career, Chernov collaborated on several films with filmmaker John Carpenter. He was a production manager on Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), both produced by Carpenter. As a second assistant director, he worked on Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981, starring Adrienne Barbeau) and The Thing (1982, starring David Clennon). He was also first assistant director on The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), which Carpenter executive produced, and Starman (1984), which Carpenter directed.
Chernov's other credits include 1981's Body Heat, on which he was a second assistant director; 1984's Children of the Corn, for which he was the production executive; and the 1985 board game-based mystery/comedy Clue (starring Christopher Lloyd and Michael McKean), on which he served as unit production manager. He was also an associate producer on Clue, a position he previously filled on Richard Pryor: Live in Concert and David Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone (featuring Anthony Zerbe and Hélène Udy).
Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures and independent work[]
Chernov served as Vice President of Physical Production for Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures from 1987 through 1989, during which time he oversaw production on such films as Pretty Woman and Dead Poets Society. He then became an independent producer. Since 1985, Chernov has also been served as president for the company El Paso Productions, Inc. whose registered agent is Marc Primiani. [3]
For Walt Disney Pictures, he produced Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993, featuring Mark L. Taylor) and The Country Bears (2002, starring Diedrich Bader and Stephen Root) and co-produced First Kid (1996, featuring Bill Cobbs). He also executive produced Sleeping with the Enemy (1991, featuring music by Jerry Goldsmith) for 20th Century Fox, Desperate Measures (1998, featuring Richard Riehle and Tracey Walter) for TriStar Pictures, and The Replacements (2000, featuring Brett Cullen) for Warner Bros. Pictures.
Although working independently, Chernov maintained close ties with Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures. He executive produced Hollywood's Father Hood (1993, starring Brian Bonsall) and, for Touchstone, he produced or executive produced the films Bad Company (1995, starring Frank Langella, Daniel Hugh Kelly and David Ogden Stiers), Holy Man (1998, with casting by Amanda Mackey Johnson and Cathy Sandrich Gelfond), and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999, featuring Gabrielle Union).
The Spyglass years and recent projects[]
In 2001, Chernov was appointed Senior Vice President of Physical Production of Spyglass Entertainment. As such, he has served as production executive on several feature films for Spyglass, including Reign of Fire (2002, directed by Rob Bowman and featuring Alice Krige and Alexander Siddig), The Recruit (2003), Shanghai Knights (2003), The Pacifier (2005, featuring Scott Thompson and Carol Kane, with music by John Debney and production design by Linda DeScenna), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Stay Alive (2006, featuring Alice Krige), Stick It (2006, starring Julie Warner), The Lookout (2007, starring Bruce McGill), Underdog (2007), and Balls of Fury (2007, featuring Diedrich Bader and Cary-Hiroyuki).
Chernov departed his position at Spyglass in 2005 and is again working independently. Since leaving Spyglass, he produced the independent drama From a Place of Darkness (2008), starring John Savage. He then made his directorial debut with A Line in the Sand (2008), a drama which he also produced and which stars Bruce McGill. More recently, he served as executive producer on Battle: Los Angeles (2011), which featured music by Brian Tyler and costumes designed by Sanja Milkovic Hays, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011, with Simon Pegg) and Tomorrowland (2015), written and produced by Damon Lindelof, music by Michael Giacchino, and production design by Scott Chambliss.