“10 to Watch: Producers”
We’ve already posted Daily Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch for 2009. Now let’s take a look at 10 Producers to Watch:
Elizabeth Banks and Max Handleman
Actress Elizabeth Banks and her husband Max Handelman didn’t get into producing to create better roles for the “40-Year-Old Virgin” star, but in a strange way, that’s exactly what happened.
According to Handelman, a former investment banker who spent his 20s working for Solomon Smith Barney and News Corp., “It was very important at the outset to establish our credibility as producers who could find material that is commercial and viable.”
Duncan Jones, director of low-budget sci-fi hit “Moon,” is reluctant to discuss his producing partner Stuart Fenegan.
“I would rather not say too much about just how good Stuart is at his job, as good producers are like gold dust, and he’s mine! Hands off!” he warns.
Best friends since they met at a neighborhood barbecue in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon 20 years ago, Echo Films partners Kristin Hahn and Jennifer Aniston always knew they’d work together eventually. The only question was when. While Aniston’s star rose and kept on rising, Hahn followed her own path, making the low-budget road-trip/pilgrimage documentary “Anthem” in 1997; working in theater; and writing a book, “In Search of Grace,” a personal exploration of faith in America, that was published in 2003.
It was on vacation over margaritas — not meditation — that the friends realized they wanted to tell similar kinds of stories and decided to join forces. With Brad Pitt, Hahn and Aniston started Plan B, and last year they announced the formation of Echo Films.
Jeff Katz’s career in entertainment began in earnest at the age of 9. At a dinner party in his hometown of Franklin, Mich., the young horror and comicbook buff found himself seated next to Max Shaye, the father of New Line topper Bob Shaye, the man responsible for unleashing Katz’s all-time favorite villain, Freddy Krueger, into the nightmares of millions of terrified viewers. The pint-sized operator-to-be turned on the charm with his hero’s dad, and within weeks, he and Bob had become pen pals. “As I soon as I got my first letter from (Shaye), I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got my in,’” Katz recalls.
Katz later parlayed the letter-writing into a job at New Line.
“One word: taste.” That’s what sibling newbie producers Alan and Gabe Polsky say is the secret to their successful foray into the film business. While the Chicago-reared sons of energy magnate Michael Polsky only jumped into the business three years ago, their slate looks like the work of established veterans.
“We quickly realized the only way we’d get anybody to listen to us was through the material we’re able to get,” says Gabe. “Thankfully, what we did get has been attractive to people who can make movies.”
With his fifth film, “The Disappearance of Alice Creed,” premiering at Toronto, Adrian Sturges has proved himself one of Blighty’s solid and consistent young producers.
That’s why he’s increasingly getting invited by bigger names — Alison Owen at Ruby, Paul Webster at Kudos and Marc Samuelson at CinemaNX — to partner on their projects.
Heather Rae is known for producing “Frozen River,” Courtney Hunt’s 2008 Sundance winner, but she’s now breaking out into more mainstream fare.
Currently heading toward production and with financing coming together is “Ass Backwards,” written by Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael (“Bride Wars”). Scribes will star along with Kate Hudson, Kristen Wiig, Amy Sedaris and David Cross.
“I call it a bitch-slap to the boy-buddy movie,” she says. “It’s not a big movie, but it’s a big change,” admits Rae, who ran the Sundance Institute’s Native American program for several years. “I’ve been the social realism go-to girl; I’ve made heavy-handed documentaries and dark films like ‘Frozen River.’ It’s a new frontier, but I’m really excited.”
With “Paranormal Activity” readying to open via Paramount and a raft of projects poised at other venues — including “The Colony” at Participant, “Sacred Prey” at Warner Bros. and “13: Game of Death” at Dimension — Steven Schneider may become the dark genre’s warlock of choice.
The Harvard and NYU film grad has positioned about 25 projects at various companies around Hollywood. And while he doesn’t have a deal at any studio right now, the Manhattan native says Par has been a home. “We have a deep, long, productive and prolific relationship.”
It’s been an intense couple of years since Kris Thykier gave up being one of London’s most successful public relations men to try his hand as a film producer.
Having sold his stake in Freud Communications, the PR company he ran with Matthew Freud, Thykier partnered up with his old client Matthew Vaughn at Marv Films, under a first-look deal with Sony.
Since then, the company has made three movies — Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass,” privately financed, then sold to Lionsgate; John Madden’s “The Debt” for Miramax, now in post; and Daniel Barber’s indie-financed debut, “Harry Brown,” starring Michael Caine as a geriatric vigilante, which world preems at Toronto.
With a name like Zanuck, the film industry naturally has expectations.
“When I first got into this business, I was considered the ne’er-do-well son must-hire,” says producer Dean Zanuck — son of Richard (“Jaws,” “The Verdict”), grandson of original movie mogul Darryl.
He started out as a p.a. and film executive on his dad’s sets before becoming a full-fledged producer with “Road to Perdition.”
“It actually prompted me to work even harder,” the younger Zanuck says. “I wasn’t the slacker throwing his name around.”
There you are. 10 new faces to get to know. Whenever you see a feature on a producer, it’s a good idea to read it. It’s helpful to learn their mindset especially as it relates to the type of stories they’re looking for.
Beyond that, you should understand that while it’s tough being a writer in Hwood in this current business environment, it’s also a challenge being movie producer. For example, studios have been slashing overall deals:
The number of term deals at the majors has dropped to about half of what it was in 2000, when a stunning 292 deals were listed in Variety’s Facts on Pacts report. That number fell to 241 in 2001, stayed fairly consistent for the next half-dozen years and then began plunging to the current level of 152 (not including pacts at Lionsgate or Overture).
That’s an almost 50% drop in about a decade. Moreover it’s just flat-out hard to get a movie nowadays. So says Producers Guild of America president writer-producer Marshall Herskovitz:
Herskovitz says the studios are shortsighted in continuing to cut deals.
“They’ve [the studios] moved out of the $20 million and $30 million business; their attitude is that if you are making $100 million movies, you don’t need a lot of producers,” he says. “The problem with that is that it leaves you unable to adjust to changing circumstances.
“In the auto business, for example, the companies decided to get into SUVs because they were very profitable — until they weren’t.”
So as much as writers like to make fun of producers —
“Producer tries to convince Fox exec that movie is ‘five quadrant’” (The Hollywood Roaster)
“Angry producer demands less original draft” (The Hollywood Roaster)
— producers are scrambling in this crap economy, too.
And they’re all looking for the same thing: A great original screenplay.
UPDATE: Per the slashing of the studios overall deals with producers, here is the latest list of such deals with each studio per the Daily Variety.
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