10 Producers Who Will Change Hollywood in 2012
Even Brian Grazer started with a little movie called “Splash,” starring a then-unknown Tom Hanks.
True, that was a Disney movie, but the days when new producers can align with major studios are long gone. Now, to get a project off the ground, it takes workaday jacks-of-all-trades who spend their days scrambling to find projects and the money to finance them.
And even when they taste success, they’re still juggling.
“When ‘Margin Call’ won an Independent Spirit Award — and I have it on my mantle at home — it felt pretty great,” Neal Dodson, a partner with Zachary Quinto and Corey Moosa at Before the Door Pictures, told TheWrap.
Also read: More Producers Who Are Making a Mark on Hollywood
At the same time, “the first major benchmark for us will be a time when our movies aren’t sort of hand-to-mouth. Right now, we’re basically making fees on our movies that allow us to extend the life of our company for ‘X’ number of months,” he said. “I’d love to not be movie-to-movie. I’d like to be – movie to two movies.”
Dodson, Moosa and Quinto — better known as “Star Trek’s” latest Spock — are among the most interesting young producers in Hollywood. Their projects are ambitious, challenging and successful.
Also read: Michael Benaroya: Film Financier to Watch
TheWrap has identified nine more like them: Hollywood’s future Grazers (and Robert Rodriguezes and Kevin Smiths). They are listed in alphabetical order.
Keep your eye on them.
ANNAPURNA PICTURES
Megan Ellison
The daughter of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Megan Ellison has the financial ability to do pretty much what she pleases.
And she’s chosen to make movies. Good ones. With talented directors.
Her Annapurna Pictures has worked with Spike Jonze, Kathryn Bigelow and Paul Thomas Anderson. She executive produced 2010’s Oscar-nominated “True Grit” and smaller projects like 2010’s “Main Street,” starring Colin Firth and Ellen Burstyn.
Her production company is executive producer on “Cogan’s Trade,” starring Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini, and producer of “Lawless,” both slated for release later this year by the Weinstein Co.
Also read: The Ellison Kids: Billionaire Producers Making Their Mark on Hollywood
“Cogan’s Trade,” is a mob drama from director Andrew Dominick, whose last film was the acclaimed “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
“Lawless” is about a gang of bootleggers during the Depression who are threatened by authorities who want a cut of their action. The John Hillcoat film, which was formerly titled “The Wettest County,” stars Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce and Shia LaBeouf.
With four projects in post-production and another filming, Ellison has established herself and her company as a significant force in Hollywood based on the quality of her output, even as she has remained low-key, shunning interview requests and the spotlight.