I think we won Brad in the divorce
Guess he knows talent when he sees it.
Plan B is amazing and #Moonlight is a masterpiece! Iconic moment in film history tonight!
holy hell that was Pitts company? lol don't make a movie unless Plan B is doing it lol
Yes and he is so low key with it! So rare for a Hollywood actor.
Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment has produced 3 Best Pictures winners including Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave & Barry Jenkins' Moonlight
Honestly I want to thank Brad Pitt who silently but remarkably helped to produce and Finance 12 years a slave and Moonlight
moonlight is destined to be a classic
Brad Pitt helped finance and produce Moonlight? That's dope.
Moonlight cost $1.5M. A cast of unknowns. Best Picture.
S/o (shout out) to brad pitt #moonlight
Brad Pitt's Plan B production company stays in the mix for Best Picture: The Tree Of Life, Moneyball, Selma, 12 Years A Slave & Moonlight.
RETWEETING MY #BradPitt #GoldenGlobes MUSINGS because i will scream it forever: He's the kind of White Ally we need more than ever
#Oscars
"Moonlight" shattered an Oscars glass ceiling for black films. Became the first film with an all-black cast to win the Academy Award for best picture.
Brad Pitt making all these black movies though he the real winner lol
The ultimate winner from last night is Brad Pitt, whose company produced Moonlight. Won his 2nd best picture Oscar!
Brad Pitt is becoming the Ozzie Newsome or John Elway of the movie production business: the list of films from his Plan B shop is amazing.
Brad Pitt and his production company are here for the culture: Selma, 12 Years A Slave & Moonlight. #Oscars
I also like that Brad Pitt's subtle in the promotion process. He's focused on supporting fantastic films without making it all about him.
#Salute to #BradPitt for producing black movies 🎥 with his #PlanB production company
Brad Pitt really gets IT
At $1.5 million, @moonlightmov became the lowest budget film to ever win Best Picture (inflation-adjusted) #Oscars. 🌙 Support indie film
Showing posts with label Plan B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plan B. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Chance meeting with Brad Pitt helped Barry Jenkins make Moonlight
8th Feb 17 | Entertainment News
A chance meeting with Brad Pitt led to Barry Jenkins securing the backing he needed to make his Oscar nominated movie Moonlight.
Over the past decade Pitt has increasingly moved into production with his company Plan B Entertainment, backing films including Selma and 12 Years A Slave.
In 2013, Jenkins was working at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival while struggling to finance Moonlight, a coming-of-age story based on an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney. It was there that the 37-year-old filmmaker was chosen to compere a Q&A with Pitt and 12 Years A Slave's director Steve McQueen.
In an interview with The Guardian, Jenkins says his hosting duties allowed him to conduct the "sweetest ambush" on Pitt, after he secured an invitation to dinner with the star and Plan B executives.
"I was so damn naive I didn't realise a company like Plan B would be interested," he explained to the publication. "I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed."
In September last year (16) Jenkins was attending Moonlight's own Telluride premiere, an event he describes as being like "an out-of-body experience".
"I didn't believe it until I was actually up on stage introducing my own film," he added. "I was standing in my dreams."
The film, starring Naomie Harris, Janelle Monae and Mahershala Ali, has received rave reviews and is in the running for eight Oscars, including nods for Best Director and Best Picture.
"I did have reservations," Jenkins admitted about taking on the project, about a gay man's struggle to find his place in the world. "Can I, as a straight man, really tell this story fully - in the way it needs to be told? But I approached this as an ally. Tarell is very openly gay and I felt like if I preserved his voice it would at least pass the smell test."
In addition to its multiple Oscar nominations, Moonlight also took home the Best Motion Picture - Drama prize at the Golden Globe Awards.
not mine.credit and source: TV3
A chance meeting with Brad Pitt led to Barry Jenkins securing the backing he needed to make his Oscar nominated movie Moonlight.
Over the past decade Pitt has increasingly moved into production with his company Plan B Entertainment, backing films including Selma and 12 Years A Slave.
In 2013, Jenkins was working at Colorado's Telluride Film Festival while struggling to finance Moonlight, a coming-of-age story based on an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney. It was there that the 37-year-old filmmaker was chosen to compere a Q&A with Pitt and 12 Years A Slave's director Steve McQueen.
In an interview with The Guardian, Jenkins says his hosting duties allowed him to conduct the "sweetest ambush" on Pitt, after he secured an invitation to dinner with the star and Plan B executives.
"I was so damn naive I didn't realise a company like Plan B would be interested," he explained to the publication. "I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed."
In September last year (16) Jenkins was attending Moonlight's own Telluride premiere, an event he describes as being like "an out-of-body experience".
"I didn't believe it until I was actually up on stage introducing my own film," he added. "I was standing in my dreams."
The film, starring Naomie Harris, Janelle Monae and Mahershala Ali, has received rave reviews and is in the running for eight Oscars, including nods for Best Director and Best Picture.
"I did have reservations," Jenkins admitted about taking on the project, about a gay man's struggle to find his place in the world. "Can I, as a straight man, really tell this story fully - in the way it needs to be told? But I approached this as an ally. Tarell is very openly gay and I felt like if I preserved his voice it would at least pass the smell test."
In addition to its multiple Oscar nominations, Moonlight also took home the Best Motion Picture - Drama prize at the Golden Globe Awards.
not mine.credit and source: TV3
Thursday, January 19, 2017
The OA Star and Creator Brit Marling Still Can't 'Fully Absorb' Working with Brad Pitt
BY AURELIE CORINTHIOS
JANUARY 19, 2017
She may be the star and creator of one of Netflix’s hottest new series, but Brit Marling gets starstruck just like the rest of us.
PEOPLE Now recently caught up with the actress, who revealed what it was like working with Brad Pitt and his production company, Plan B, on the new sci-fi series The OA.
“Brad read the scripts and thought they were far-out and interesting,” revealed Marling, 33. “And I think as a performer he’s somebody who really takes risks. He’s somebody who’s always chosen the part that’s interesting. I remember watching Fight Club for the first time and being like: ‘This is exhilarating! This performance is amazing!’ ”
“So I think for him, reading something like The OA, it made sense,” she continued. “He was like: ‘Yeah, this is different, this is a little punk, this is new.’ And he got behind it and we’re very fortunate.”
As for what it felt like knowing one of the world’s most A-list actors was a fan of her scripts?
“I mean, I still don’t think I can fully absorb that,” she said with a laugh. “Because you spend a long time watching someone like that on screen and being moved by their work and the profundity of their work, so I think you sort of take it in, but you’re [also] just like: ‘Oh wow, now we’ve got to make something that lives up to the expectation!’ ”
Ultimately, Marling couldn’t be more thankful for Pitt, 53, and the rest of the team at Plan B.
“He was a tremendous support to the show,” she said. “His company, Plan B, is an amazing group of people … and really passionate storytellers. I think together they’ve all been a part of telling some really important stories: 12 Years a Slave, Selma, and this year’s Moonlight. They’re passionate people and they care about doing stuff outside of the box.”
The OA season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
not mine.credit and source: PEOPLE
JANUARY 19, 2017
She may be the star and creator of one of Netflix’s hottest new series, but Brit Marling gets starstruck just like the rest of us.
PEOPLE Now recently caught up with the actress, who revealed what it was like working with Brad Pitt and his production company, Plan B, on the new sci-fi series The OA.
“Brad read the scripts and thought they were far-out and interesting,” revealed Marling, 33. “And I think as a performer he’s somebody who really takes risks. He’s somebody who’s always chosen the part that’s interesting. I remember watching Fight Club for the first time and being like: ‘This is exhilarating! This performance is amazing!’ ”
“So I think for him, reading something like The OA, it made sense,” she continued. “He was like: ‘Yeah, this is different, this is a little punk, this is new.’ And he got behind it and we’re very fortunate.”
As for what it felt like knowing one of the world’s most A-list actors was a fan of her scripts?
“I mean, I still don’t think I can fully absorb that,” she said with a laugh. “Because you spend a long time watching someone like that on screen and being moved by their work and the profundity of their work, so I think you sort of take it in, but you’re [also] just like: ‘Oh wow, now we’ve got to make something that lives up to the expectation!’ ”
Ultimately, Marling couldn’t be more thankful for Pitt, 53, and the rest of the team at Plan B.
“He was a tremendous support to the show,” she said. “His company, Plan B, is an amazing group of people … and really passionate storytellers. I think together they’ve all been a part of telling some really important stories: 12 Years a Slave, Selma, and this year’s Moonlight. They’re passionate people and they care about doing stuff outside of the box.”
The OA season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
not mine.credit and source: PEOPLE
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Brad Pitt gets his groove back! Angelina Jolie's handsome ex receives huge cheer of support from Hollywood pals at Golden Globes
By Dailymail.com Reporter
9 January 2017
Brad Pitt has looked tired and drawn in recent months while in the throes of a nightmare divorce from Angelina Jolie.
But the 53-year-old appears to be getting his groove back.
The actor looked incredibly handsome as he made a surprise appearance at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
His Hollywood pals, including Matt Damon, let out a huge cheer of support as he made his way to the podium.
Mr Damon, who co-stars with him the Ocean's 11 franchise, seemed particularly heartened to see his pal come back into the spotlight.
Pitt went on to introduce a clip from Moonlight, which went on to win the Best Motion Picture - Drama category.
Happy man: Despite the turmoil in his family life the actor managed to flash his million dollar smile at the awards show
What a transformation! The dapper actor looked at least a decade younger and few pounds lighter as he took the stage
Fox! The actor looked incredibly handsome as he made a surprise appearance at the awards show
Happy to see him! His Hollywood pals let out a huge cheer of support as he made his way to the podium
What a pal! Mr Damon, who co-stars with him the Ocean's 11 franchise, seemed particularly heartened to see his pal come back into the spotlight
He said of the film: 'It’s born of the courage of a group of actors willing to strip to their souls and express their humanism inside mistake and misstep and misdeed.'
'It is Barry Jenkins profound belief that we all stand at the threshold of change and forgiveness where we only grant acceptance and love to ourselves,' he concluded.
Brad has meanwhile been locked in custody and divorce proceedings from his estranged wife Angelina Jolie.
9 January 2017
- His Hollywood pals, including Matt Damon, let out a huge cheer of support
- Pitt introduced a clip from Moonlight, which went on to win the Best Motion Picture - Drama category
- Brad has been locked in custody and divorce proceedings from his estranged wife Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt has looked tired and drawn in recent months while in the throes of a nightmare divorce from Angelina Jolie.
But the 53-year-old appears to be getting his groove back.
The actor looked incredibly handsome as he made a surprise appearance at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
His Hollywood pals, including Matt Damon, let out a huge cheer of support as he made his way to the podium.
Mr Damon, who co-stars with him the Ocean's 11 franchise, seemed particularly heartened to see his pal come back into the spotlight.
Pitt went on to introduce a clip from Moonlight, which went on to win the Best Motion Picture - Drama category.
Happy man: Despite the turmoil in his family life the actor managed to flash his million dollar smile at the awards show
What a transformation! The dapper actor looked at least a decade younger and few pounds lighter as he took the stage
Fox! The actor looked incredibly handsome as he made a surprise appearance at the awards show
Happy to see him! His Hollywood pals let out a huge cheer of support as he made his way to the podium
What a pal! Mr Damon, who co-stars with him the Ocean's 11 franchise, seemed particularly heartened to see his pal come back into the spotlight
He said of the film: 'It’s born of the courage of a group of actors willing to strip to their souls and express their humanism inside mistake and misstep and misdeed.'
'It is Barry Jenkins profound belief that we all stand at the threshold of change and forgiveness where we only grant acceptance and love to ourselves,' he concluded.
Brad has meanwhile been locked in custody and divorce proceedings from his estranged wife Angelina Jolie.
Friends at his side: Vince Vaughn also helped lead the applause
Pitt went on to introduce a clip from Moonlight, which went on to win the Best Motion Picture - Drama category
The actress filed for divorce from Brad on September 19.
The Inglourious Basterds star was exonerated in November by officials with the FBI and Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services, amid accusations he was physically abusive to Maddox during a Europe-bound flight in September.
Many viewers took to social media to comment on the actor's appearance following the divorce, with some saying that he 'has never looked better'.
One Twitter user, posting under the name Miss Leto, wrote: 'I can't get over how good Brad Pitt looks. That breakup did him good ! It brought him back.'
Referring to his role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, @itsaudacious said: '#BradPitt seems to be tapping into his Benjamin Button superpowers and aging in reverse.'
And Giselle added: 'Is it just me or Brad Pitt ages like wine'?
not mine.credit and source: DAILY MAIL
Monday, January 9, 2017
Brad Pitt's Surprise Appearance at the 2017 Golden Globes Nearly Brought the House Down
by BILLY NILLES | Mon, Jan 9, 2017 11:25 AM
As if there was any doubt, Brad Pitt's still got plenty—and we mean plenty—of fans in Hollywood.
The beloved actor surprised the crowd at the 2017 Golden Globes on Sunday towards the end of the telecast to deliver the introduction package for Barry Jenkin's film Moonlight, nominated for Best Motion Picture, Drama (his company Plan B produced the film)—and the sight of the actor had everyone in the audience losing their minds.
As with most introductions right after a return from commercial break, the crowd offered their initial tepid applause as they began to settle back into their seats from their quick trip to the bar in the back, clearly only half paying attention. But once they realized just who it was standing before them, the cheers grew to a roar.
The actor's largely been out of the spotlight since his divorce from Angelina Jolie—and their subsequent custody battle over their six children—made headlines in September of last year. While he made his first public appearance at a private screening of Moonlight in Los Angeles in November, his time on stage at the Globes marks his first TV appearance in some time.
And in the blink of an eye (or rather, the duration of the Moonlight sizzle reel), Pitt's presence on stage was over. In his place was host Jimmy Fallon, ready to introduce the next presenters, leaving us with only our brief memories.
Until next time, Brad. But don't make us wait so long, you hear?
not mine.credit and source: E! ONLINE
As if there was any doubt, Brad Pitt's still got plenty—and we mean plenty—of fans in Hollywood.
The beloved actor surprised the crowd at the 2017 Golden Globes on Sunday towards the end of the telecast to deliver the introduction package for Barry Jenkin's film Moonlight, nominated for Best Motion Picture, Drama (his company Plan B produced the film)—and the sight of the actor had everyone in the audience losing their minds.
As with most introductions right after a return from commercial break, the crowd offered their initial tepid applause as they began to settle back into their seats from their quick trip to the bar in the back, clearly only half paying attention. But once they realized just who it was standing before them, the cheers grew to a roar.
The actor's largely been out of the spotlight since his divorce from Angelina Jolie—and their subsequent custody battle over their six children—made headlines in September of last year. While he made his first public appearance at a private screening of Moonlight in Los Angeles in November, his time on stage at the Globes marks his first TV appearance in some time.
And in the blink of an eye (or rather, the duration of the Moonlight sizzle reel), Pitt's presence on stage was over. In his place was host Jimmy Fallon, ready to introduce the next presenters, leaving us with only our brief memories.
Until next time, Brad. But don't make us wait so long, you hear?
not mine.credit and source: E! ONLINE
Monday, December 5, 2016
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Team Explains How They Discover Bold Films Like ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Lost City of Z’
Eric Kohn
Oct 15, 2016
The co-presidents of the company responsible for two New York Film Festival titles explain their thinking behind the varied projects they're tackling at the moment.
Brad Pitt has a famous face, but these days, his name is even more ubiquitous on projects that he doesn’t star in.
Plan B, the production company Pitt co-founded with Brad Grey and Jennifer Aniston in 2001, has gained traction in recent years as one of the most significant entities supporting auteur-driven work in the United States. In 2013, the company helped bring Steve McQueen’s Oscar-dominating “12 Years a Slave” to fruition. Over the next two years, the company’s highlights included Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” both of which struck a marked contrast to more traditional studio offerings. Earlier this fall, the company unveiled “The Voyage of Time,” Terrence Malick’s cosmic documentary about the origins of the universe.
But there may be no better demonstration of Plan B’s current focus than the two films it produced that screened this month at the New York Film Festival: Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” a decade-spanning look at the life of a young gay black man in Miami, and James Gray’s ambitious “The Lost City of Z,” a rough-hewn adventure drama about British explorer Percy Fawcett’s lifelong attempt to discover a mythical city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. (A24, which co-produced “Moonlight,” will release the film on October 21; “The Lost City of Z” will be released by Amazon and Bleecker Street next year.) Both movies couldn’t have been made by the traditional Hollywood studio system; they’re singular works that reflect the creative freedoms of their directors, and Plan B provided a crucial foundation for them to exist.
For the last three years, Plan B’s operations rely on the efforts of two leading individuals, co-presidents Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. While Pitt remains focused on several of his own movies, Gardner and Kleiner do the bulk of the work involved in setting up new projects and scouting for talent. In the following excerpts from a recent conversation, the duo talk about how they find projects these days and what sort of filmmakers they’re looking to support.
DEDE GARDNER: We spend a lot of time reading, a lot of time watching movies in small corners of libraries and hotel rooms. It’s probably our favorite thing to do. We fall in love with a movie and we reach out. We ask to meet, see more work and listen to what they’re interested in, what world they want to live in, what stories they want to tell. Time and time again, those conversations can result in movies. They just need to be had in an honest space. The only intentions will ever be to continue the conversation, and not think about these things as products, but adventures that we might embark on together.
JEREMY KLEINER: Brad Pitt has encouraged a culture of that: watching and trying to understand what an artist is doing and what they want to say. It’s stating the obvious, but it’s not peripheral. If you’re inspired by something, if something grabs you, if you read about something that causes you to be curious about it, follow the curiosity and see where that takes you. That philosophy has led us to some very interesting people and their films. He’s a very supportive, intellectually curious and passionate partner. We’re very, very lucky for that.
DG: Brad’s involvement sort of depends on the movies. He likes our movies, obviously, but he has created a space for us to work that is, I would suggest, entirely singular. By that I mean that he believes in the shelf life of movies, he doesn’t believe in the notion that a movie has to see a successful opening weekend to work. He reminds us all the time of the movies that we discovered long after their initial release, and he believes that we should tell stories that we feel like we would die if we didn’t. He feels like we should work as hard as we can because what we do is a privilege. It’s enabled us to be very liberated in our ambitions. It lets us really stretch, because we feel incredibly supported and blessed to chase our passions.
Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner
We’ve been trying to get James Gray’s movie made for, what, eight years?
JG: Nine years.
DG: Our instincts feel the same as they always have: What stories do we want to tell and with whom do we want to tell them? We love filmmakers, we love directors, we love writers. And we certainly love movies that ask questions and make people think and ask questions to themselves. In an interesting way, both “Moonlight” and “Lost City of Z” have people at the center who evolve, shape-shift and wonder, “What will I be remembered for? What is my purpose here? How do I ensure keeping the bar raised for myself?”
JK: We’re also interested in the counterintuitive: James is writer-director, Barry Jenkins is a writer-director, Mike White is a writer-director, Bong Joon-Ho is a writer-director…
DG: Andrew Dominik is a writer-director.
JK: Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, with whom we’re doing another show at Netflix. That’s another very personal, intimate collaboration. David Michod is a writer-director, Felix Van Groeningen is a writer-director. We don’t need to list everybody, but the common thread is…
DG: Adam McKay!
JK: Adam McKay is a writer-director. Maybe there’s something about people who write and direct that draws us in — they feel very specific, very authored, they’re very much the point of view of somebody that causes people to see the world in a potentially new way or tell a story with new insight. That’s very appealing.
DG: We’re just holding on for dear life like everyone else in some regards. The landscape for distribution is constantly changing. Just as an example, we had a pretty significant experience with “The Normal Heart.” We tried for years and years to make that as a feature, and we ended up making it as a movie for HBO. Millions and millions of people saw it. I don’t believe that would have happened if we’d been able to make it as a feature. We couldn’t get the money to do that. We’re learning as we go. We certainly make stories to be seen and we’re very curious to see how these next couple years of releases unfolds and what that means for eyeballs. But we also love sitting in a dark theater. So I hope that there’s room for all of it to exist.
THIS ARTICLE IS RELATED TO: Film and tagged Brad Pitt, NYFF 2016, Plan B, The Lost City Of Z
Oct 15, 2016
The co-presidents of the company responsible for two New York Film Festival titles explain their thinking behind the varied projects they're tackling at the moment.
Brad Pitt has a famous face, but these days, his name is even more ubiquitous on projects that he doesn’t star in.
Plan B, the production company Pitt co-founded with Brad Grey and Jennifer Aniston in 2001, has gained traction in recent years as one of the most significant entities supporting auteur-driven work in the United States. In 2013, the company helped bring Steve McQueen’s Oscar-dominating “12 Years a Slave” to fruition. Over the next two years, the company’s highlights included Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” both of which struck a marked contrast to more traditional studio offerings. Earlier this fall, the company unveiled “The Voyage of Time,” Terrence Malick’s cosmic documentary about the origins of the universe.
But there may be no better demonstration of Plan B’s current focus than the two films it produced that screened this month at the New York Film Festival: Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” a decade-spanning look at the life of a young gay black man in Miami, and James Gray’s ambitious “The Lost City of Z,” a rough-hewn adventure drama about British explorer Percy Fawcett’s lifelong attempt to discover a mythical city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. (A24, which co-produced “Moonlight,” will release the film on October 21; “The Lost City of Z” will be released by Amazon and Bleecker Street next year.) Both movies couldn’t have been made by the traditional Hollywood studio system; they’re singular works that reflect the creative freedoms of their directors, and Plan B provided a crucial foundation for them to exist.
For the last three years, Plan B’s operations rely on the efforts of two leading individuals, co-presidents Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. While Pitt remains focused on several of his own movies, Gardner and Kleiner do the bulk of the work involved in setting up new projects and scouting for talent. In the following excerpts from a recent conversation, the duo talk about how they find projects these days and what sort of filmmakers they’re looking to support.
DEDE GARDNER: We spend a lot of time reading, a lot of time watching movies in small corners of libraries and hotel rooms. It’s probably our favorite thing to do. We fall in love with a movie and we reach out. We ask to meet, see more work and listen to what they’re interested in, what world they want to live in, what stories they want to tell. Time and time again, those conversations can result in movies. They just need to be had in an honest space. The only intentions will ever be to continue the conversation, and not think about these things as products, but adventures that we might embark on together.
JEREMY KLEINER: Brad Pitt has encouraged a culture of that: watching and trying to understand what an artist is doing and what they want to say. It’s stating the obvious, but it’s not peripheral. If you’re inspired by something, if something grabs you, if you read about something that causes you to be curious about it, follow the curiosity and see where that takes you. That philosophy has led us to some very interesting people and their films. He’s a very supportive, intellectually curious and passionate partner. We’re very, very lucky for that.
DG: Brad’s involvement sort of depends on the movies. He likes our movies, obviously, but he has created a space for us to work that is, I would suggest, entirely singular. By that I mean that he believes in the shelf life of movies, he doesn’t believe in the notion that a movie has to see a successful opening weekend to work. He reminds us all the time of the movies that we discovered long after their initial release, and he believes that we should tell stories that we feel like we would die if we didn’t. He feels like we should work as hard as we can because what we do is a privilege. It’s enabled us to be very liberated in our ambitions. It lets us really stretch, because we feel incredibly supported and blessed to chase our passions.
Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner
We’ve been trying to get James Gray’s movie made for, what, eight years?
JG: Nine years.
DG: Our instincts feel the same as they always have: What stories do we want to tell and with whom do we want to tell them? We love filmmakers, we love directors, we love writers. And we certainly love movies that ask questions and make people think and ask questions to themselves. In an interesting way, both “Moonlight” and “Lost City of Z” have people at the center who evolve, shape-shift and wonder, “What will I be remembered for? What is my purpose here? How do I ensure keeping the bar raised for myself?”
JK: We’re also interested in the counterintuitive: James is writer-director, Barry Jenkins is a writer-director, Mike White is a writer-director, Bong Joon-Ho is a writer-director…
DG: Andrew Dominik is a writer-director.
JK: Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, with whom we’re doing another show at Netflix. That’s another very personal, intimate collaboration. David Michod is a writer-director, Felix Van Groeningen is a writer-director. We don’t need to list everybody, but the common thread is…
DG: Adam McKay!
JK: Adam McKay is a writer-director. Maybe there’s something about people who write and direct that draws us in — they feel very specific, very authored, they’re very much the point of view of somebody that causes people to see the world in a potentially new way or tell a story with new insight. That’s very appealing.
DG: We’re just holding on for dear life like everyone else in some regards. The landscape for distribution is constantly changing. Just as an example, we had a pretty significant experience with “The Normal Heart.” We tried for years and years to make that as a feature, and we ended up making it as a movie for HBO. Millions and millions of people saw it. I don’t believe that would have happened if we’d been able to make it as a feature. We couldn’t get the money to do that. We’re learning as we go. We certainly make stories to be seen and we’re very curious to see how these next couple years of releases unfolds and what that means for eyeballs. But we also love sitting in a dark theater. So I hope that there’s room for all of it to exist.
THIS ARTICLE IS RELATED TO: Film and tagged Brad Pitt, NYFF 2016, Plan B, The Lost City Of Z
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Brad Pitt Makes First Public Appearance Since Angelina Jolie Filed for Divorce
BY KAREN MIZOGUCHI
NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Brad Pitt was spotted for the first time following the announcement of his split from Angelina Jolie in September.
On Tuesday, the actor attended a private screening of Moonlight in Los Angeles, where he was joined by longtime pal and Ocean’s costar Julia Roberts. Pitt’s production company, Plan B, partnered with A24 to produce the coming-of-age drama about a gay, African-American boy, and the film has been earning Oscar buzz.
Pitt is expected to make his first red carpet appearance at the premiere of his new film Allied on Wednesday night.
not mine.credit and source: PEOPLE
NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Brad Pitt was spotted for the first time following the announcement of his split from Angelina Jolie in September.
On Tuesday, the actor attended a private screening of Moonlight in Los Angeles, where he was joined by longtime pal and Ocean’s costar Julia Roberts. Pitt’s production company, Plan B, partnered with A24 to produce the coming-of-age drama about a gay, African-American boy, and the film has been earning Oscar buzz.
Pitt is expected to make his first red carpet appearance at the premiere of his new film Allied on Wednesday night.
not mine.credit and source: PEOPLE
Brad Pitt Spotted for the First Time Following Angelina Jolie Divorce
by KENDALL FISHER
Brad Pitt has stepped out in public for the first time following his divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The actor attended a private screening of the upcoming and highly-acclaimed film Moonlight, for which his production company, Plan B, is listed as one of the executive producers. The event was held in Los Angeles, and he was joined by close pal, Julia Roberts. The pair hugged and smiled for several photos before the event.
The outing marks the first time Pitt has been photographed following the announcement of his divorce from Jolie in September.
COMMENTS:
Brad looks wonderful. It is so good to see him. Brad, you are loved. You are a good man, a good father. We all know that. Fight for your rights. Nobody believes the lies about you. Get out there and live your life. Somehow, the right things will happen.
Brad does look great! I hope he reaches out to friends and family to feel the love everyone is sending his way! Poor guy. I'm sure they have not reached a permanent agreement. Angie's camp (by Angie's camp, I mean Angie) are pathetic. No way Pitt deserves to lose his children. Absolutely no way. Hopefully his A-list friends rally around to support him and just as many rally around to out Angie on all of the eccentric, crazy selfish behavior she has exhibited for years. Seriously never watching anything with her in it again. Good luck at the box office lady. Glad you're smiling Brad!
Brad looks great. It is nice to see him smiling. Moonlight is a fine film. They did not reach a custody agreement. It is her camp spinning the situation around. The current living situation is the same until the judge makes a ruling on custody. His filing on joint custody has remained the same.
not mine.credit and source: E! ONLINE
Brad Pitt has stepped out in public for the first time following his divorce from Angelina Jolie.
The actor attended a private screening of the upcoming and highly-acclaimed film Moonlight, for which his production company, Plan B, is listed as one of the executive producers. The event was held in Los Angeles, and he was joined by close pal, Julia Roberts. The pair hugged and smiled for several photos before the event.
The outing marks the first time Pitt has been photographed following the announcement of his divorce from Jolie in September.
COMMENTS:
Brad looks wonderful. It is so good to see him. Brad, you are loved. You are a good man, a good father. We all know that. Fight for your rights. Nobody believes the lies about you. Get out there and live your life. Somehow, the right things will happen.
Brad does look great! I hope he reaches out to friends and family to feel the love everyone is sending his way! Poor guy. I'm sure they have not reached a permanent agreement. Angie's camp (by Angie's camp, I mean Angie) are pathetic. No way Pitt deserves to lose his children. Absolutely no way. Hopefully his A-list friends rally around to support him and just as many rally around to out Angie on all of the eccentric, crazy selfish behavior she has exhibited for years. Seriously never watching anything with her in it again. Good luck at the box office lady. Glad you're smiling Brad!
Brad looks great. It is nice to see him smiling. Moonlight is a fine film. They did not reach a custody agreement. It is her camp spinning the situation around. The current living situation is the same until the judge makes a ruling on custody. His filing on joint custody has remained the same.
not mine.credit and source: E! ONLINE
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Brad Pitt Attends First Post-Split Event, Alongside Julia Roberts
NOVEMBER 9, 2016 @ 8:30 AM
BY: FAITH CUMMINGS
Since news of his split from Angelina Jolie surfaced back in September, Brad Pitt has stayed almost completely out of the public eye. But he reemerged for the first time in two months at a Los Angeles screening of a film that is gaining a lot of Oscar buzz—none other than Moonlight.
While most of the country was in an Election Day frenzy, her watched the film with longtime friend and Ocean's Eleven co-star Julia Roberts. Pitt had a hand in Moonlight, as his production company, Plan B co-partnered with studio A24 to produce the movie. Roberts co-hosted the private screening alongside the actor.
Tuesday's outing won't be Pitt's last appearance of the week: He's set to take to the red carpet for the premiere of his film Allied tonight.
not mine.credit and source: INSTYLE
BY: FAITH CUMMINGS
Since news of his split from Angelina Jolie surfaced back in September, Brad Pitt has stayed almost completely out of the public eye. But he reemerged for the first time in two months at a Los Angeles screening of a film that is gaining a lot of Oscar buzz—none other than Moonlight.
While most of the country was in an Election Day frenzy, her watched the film with longtime friend and Ocean's Eleven co-star Julia Roberts. Pitt had a hand in Moonlight, as his production company, Plan B co-partnered with studio A24 to produce the movie. Roberts co-hosted the private screening alongside the actor.
Tuesday's outing won't be Pitt's last appearance of the week: He's set to take to the red carpet for the premiere of his film Allied tonight.
not mine.credit and source: INSTYLE
Thursday, November 3, 2016
‘He Wanted The Moon’: Rubicon Joins Cross Creek & Plan B For Brad Pitt Passion Project
by Anita Busch
and Patrick Hipes
November 3, 2016 12:29pm
EXCLUSIVE: Rubicon Entertainment has entered into a development deal with Cross Creek Pictures for He Wanted The Moon, the film being penned by Tony Kushner. The period drama is a co-production between Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Cross Creek. Brad Pitt is attached to star in the project still a year after he brought the Mimi Baird and Eve Claxton’s memoir himself.
He is particularly interested in the lead role of Dr. Perry Baird, a Texan Harvard-educated doctor who rose in the field of medicine in the 1920s studying the root of manic depression, a condition that ultimately befell him. Mimi Baird is his daughter.
Word that Rubicon has come aboard the Pitt picture comes as they and Cross Creek are also teaming on The French Quarter, developing and producing a TV series based on Gangs Of New York author Herbert Asbury’s early 20th century book about the New Orleans underworld.
Plan B’s Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are on to produce He Wanted the Moon alongside Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson. Doug McKay, Nathan Grubbs, Robert Kaplan, Marc Senter and Michael Whalen will be executive and co-executive producers on behalf of Rubicon.
not minr.credit and source: DEADLINE
and Patrick Hipes
November 3, 2016 12:29pm
EXCLUSIVE: Rubicon Entertainment has entered into a development deal with Cross Creek Pictures for He Wanted The Moon, the film being penned by Tony Kushner. The period drama is a co-production between Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Cross Creek. Brad Pitt is attached to star in the project still a year after he brought the Mimi Baird and Eve Claxton’s memoir himself.
He is particularly interested in the lead role of Dr. Perry Baird, a Texan Harvard-educated doctor who rose in the field of medicine in the 1920s studying the root of manic depression, a condition that ultimately befell him. Mimi Baird is his daughter.
Word that Rubicon has come aboard the Pitt picture comes as they and Cross Creek are also teaming on The French Quarter, developing and producing a TV series based on Gangs Of New York author Herbert Asbury’s early 20th century book about the New Orleans underworld.
Plan B’s Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are on to produce He Wanted the Moon alongside Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson. Doug McKay, Nathan Grubbs, Robert Kaplan, Marc Senter and Michael Whalen will be executive and co-executive producers on behalf of Rubicon.
not minr.credit and source: DEADLINE
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Is Brad Pitt the wokest white man in Hollywood?
June 14, 2016
SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD
How Brad Pitt’s production company is making marquee movies by and about black folks.
Folks, this isn’t fun. Just two years ago, after director Steve McQueen’s hauntingly beautiful masterpiece 12 Years a Slave won best picture at the Oscars, many hoped it would mark the start of continued and lasting change in the film business.
Then came two years of #OscarsSoWhite.
Discussions about meaningful diversity in Hollywood and how to achieve it have reached an impasse. News media and online masses continue to criticize the film industry for continuing to specialize in telling stories by and about white guys and catering disproportionately to the whims of teenage boys. Meanwhile, the Big Six (that would be film studios 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros., not these guys) and their subsidiaries keep soldiering through public-relations disasters that implicate their institutional sclerosis. See: Ghost in the Shell, Doctor Strange, Aloha, Pan, Gods of Egypt and Exodus: Gods and Kings, as the latest examples. Ghost in the Shell and Doctor Strange have yet to be released. But the others were box-office flops. With few exceptions, instead of making changes, the movie industry, and by extension, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has responded with a mix of reflexive defensiveness, contempt and recalcitrance.
Hollywood’s ruling class could absolutely do with a shake-up to rid it of the homogeneity that plagues its ranks. As producer Effie Brown would say, we are well overdue for a cinematic landscape that “looks like America,” but, in the words of abolitionist Harriet Tubman via actress Viola Davis, we “can’t seem to get there no how.” In 2015, while promoting the weirdly entertaining, if polarizing, Chi-Raq, director Spike Lee proposed a Rooney Rule for Hollywood, citing the absence of black executives with green-light power, as a way to curb diversity blunders (disclosure: ESPN and The Undefeated are the home of Spike Lee’s Lil’ Joints). It’s a vital but incomplete solution. Lee’s argument absolves currently employed white executives, unlikely to be fired anytime soon, from responsibility to make their films reflect the fast-changing demographics of the country. It does nothing to hold them accountable for the current sorry state of affairs, continually documented in annual diversity studies from the University of Southern California and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, not to mention internal studies from the Writers Guild and Directors Guild of America. Surely, there’s something else to be done.
And there is. There’s an outfit run by three rich white folks that has proven it. In three years, Plan B, the production company run by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, has gone from an eclectic studio offering up an array of really white, if mostly decent films (Running with Scissors, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Kick-Ass) to a company that has produced a slate of profitable, award-winning marquee properties by and about people of color.
This is not to diminish the efforts of Lee Daniels, Will Packer, Oprah Winfrey, Reggie Hudlin, Nate Moore, Lee and other black Hollywood power brokers, but their labor and money alone is not enough to effect the sort of change that would move the needle on years-long stagnating diversity numbers. Otherwise, the revolution would already be here. It is to say this, however: White Hollywood, get it together. There’s no excuse for this.
The big studios thrive on exhaustively duplicating successful ideas, which explains the glut of vampire and werewolf-themed properties following the mania over Twilight. It explains the ubiquity of zombies, and the existence of the Divergent franchise following the runaway numbers of the Hunger Games movies. It’s the reason we now have two massive competing cinematic universes based on comic book series.
Not only does Plan B consistently put forth films by and about people of color, it hasn’t lost its shirt in the process. It picks winners, it makes money, and judging from its future projects, it’s going to keep doing it. Maybe the Big Six should be copying it.
The high point in Plan B’s history, of course, is when it won best picture for 12 Years a Slave and then film made history as the first work by a black director to claim the honor. The following year, its poignant civil rights heavy-hitter Selma, co-produced with Winfrey, dominated awards-season conversations, especially after both director Ava DuVernay and star actor David Oyelowo found themselves on the receiving end of Oscar snubs.
Now there’s already anticipation building for Moonlight, the sophomore effort from writer-director and Miami native Barry Jenkins. Moonlight, a coming-of-age drama set in Miami during the drug wars of the 1980s and ’90s, is based on the Tarell McCraney play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Scheduled for release later this year, it stars André Holland, Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. A24, the indie distributor behind last year’s Ex Machina and the recent The Lobster, is financing and distributing the project. Plan B is co-producing.
Jenkins, a former employee of Harpo Productions, made his feature debut in 2008 with the terrific Medicine for Melancholy, a contemplative, desaturated exploration of romantic and racial ennui that starred Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins. Jenkins is also set to adapt the soulful, wildly ambitious Atticus Lish novel Preparation for the Next Life with Plan B and HBO.
The vibrant, undeniable force that stands today is vastly different from the Plan B that began as a partnership between Pitt and his then-wife Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey at Warner Bros. in 2001. The company was still in its infancy when it netted its first credit on Troy (2004), followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and The Departed (2006). There was no obvious creative through line and when Pitt and Aniston split in 2005, Aniston walked away from the company. When Grey became head of Paramount in 2005, Plan B followed.
Pitt and Aniston had met Gardner, the daughter of an investment banker and a nonprofit executive from Winnetka, Illinois, when they were interviewing candidates to run Plan B. Gardner, 48, had a literary background at William Morris Agency. A graduate of Columbia University, she’d spent her postgraduate years working on films in the art department or as a location manager.
“I knew [Pitt] was a kindred spirit when we talked about the company and we had a lot of crossover with our ideas: wanting it to be a safe harbor for filmmakers, a place where people might come where the energy and the protection felt singular. He also is a cinephile, so it’s a treat to work with him,” Gardner told Anne Thompson while promoting 12 Years a Slave. “He also really believes in the shelf life of a movie, which is to say he doesn’t put a lot of stake in opening weekends. He believes movies are found over a long period of time. He said to me one year after we made Jesse James and A Mighty Heart, ‘I couldn’t be prouder and those movies will find their place and their time.’ ”
Pitt and Gardner ran Plan B together and they promoted Kleiner, who joined as a creative executive in 2003, to co-president in 2013. In December 2013, Plan B’s contractual partnership with Paramount was set to expire and the company struck a three-year deal with New Regency (which co-financed 12 Years a Slave), and Brett Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment financing company. The deal punctuated a shift. An operation that had been dedicated to making a mix of starring vehicles for Pitt (including the bloated 2013 World War Z), and off-the-beaten-path films broadened its spectrum of offerings to include people of color, both onscreen and behind the camera.
The current Hollywood climate is one characterized by risk aversion and a widespread allergy to imagination. Yet Plan B landed on the Hollywood Reporter’s 2015 list of the town’s 30 most powerful film producers by doubling down on original voices and unexpected stories, earning it the label of “one of the most daring outfits around.”
Plan B doesn’t just want to work with minority filmmakers. Pitt, Kleiner and Gardner are interested in backing work that’s groundbreaking and exceptional, and once they find talent they like, they tend to return to the same wells. It’s not that Plan B has some secret, special sauce squirreled away in a vault in the studio’s Wilshire Boulevard offices. The company’s modus operandi seems to be:
Think of it this way: Pitt and Plan B are John Stockton. The filmmakers and actors of color with whom they work are Karl Malone. Pitt leverages his star power, access and reputation to get you the ball, and then he gets out of the way. In a perfect world, one in which people of color had the same access to the resources that Plan B enjoys, there would be no need for a Stockton figure at all. Alas, that world, as it currently stands, is about as real as Negrotown.
In the film industry, the ball comes in the form of access to capital and distribution, the requisite support to make a film successful in the form of press and advertising, and when appropriate, awards-season campaigning.
As a producer, Pitt understands the weaknesses and biases of the star system and has thrown his power behind countering, if not outright rejecting it. This is especially crucial in disproving the canard that there aren’t more films starring people of color because people of color aren’t capital-M, capital-S Movie Stars, who can guarantee butts in seats.
So, how do you become an A-List Movie Star if you’re never offered Movie Star roles? You need producers and financiers like Pitt to take a chance on you and to believe in you. And overwhelmingly, the people holding those purse strings are white. (Thanks generational wealth predicated on a bedrock of structural racism! You really are everywhere, all the time.) Before 12 Years a Slave, Chiwetel Ejiofor, 38, was an actor whose face you knew from something — he’s the guy from Love Actually! And Salt! And Amistad! And American Gangster! — but you’d probably have to scroll through his IMDb page to figure out which supporting role it was. But Ejiofor so utterly embodied his 12 Years a Slave character Solomon Northrup that it’s difficult to envision anyone else in the role. The movie made the case that he’s absolutely a leading man. But according to Ejiofor, that probably would not have happened had Pitt not agreed to be in the film.
“You know, without him, there wouldn’t be a film,” Ejiofor told Vulture’s Jada Yuan in 2013. “He was just so instrumental in making this film happen. He’s such a champion of filmmakers and the things that he believes in and can put his weight behind. … I don’t know what the full machinations are, but I imagine that him being around and lending that kind of support and weight to something is very freeing for [financiers]. They think, ‘OK, well, we can give the director some latitude.’ ”
Ejiofor is slated to star in a future Plan B property, Marching Powder. The film, based on the book by Rusty Young, tells the tale of British drug smuggler Thomas McFadden’s unexpectedly strange experience during a six-year sentence in a Bolivian prison beset by corruption. Plan B, like many operations, consistently mines the indie world for up-and-coming actors and directors. That’s essentially what Universal did with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who leaped directly to the big leagues after making a splash at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival with his charming debut comedy Safety Not Guaranteed. The difference is that Plan B actually works with people of color. It takes so-called risks on relative unknowns, something the rest of the film industry, including the indie world, has been loath to do with nonwhite talent.
“The independent finance world is pretty, pretty bad,” Dear White People director Justin Simien recently told IndieWire. “That’s where ‘films don’t travel’ bulls— [comes from] — it really has its roots in the minds of financier, the obsession with the ‘bankable’ diverse star. Which is sad, because [the independent world] is where the people who are on the outside of the industry have to make their films. We can’t make our first films in a studio. It doesn’t really happen anymore.”
The result of Plan B doing what few of its counterparts will has been that its films have become a reliable place to see promising nonwhite faces who face a harder climb up the mainstream food chain. This extends to Plan B productions built around white protagonists such as The Big Short and the upcoming War Machine.
Some of the credit for this goes to casting director Francine Maisler, who convinced McQueen to hire actress Lupita Nyong’o after she saw her perform at a Los Angeles acting showcase when Nyong’o was fresh out of Yale School of Drama. Maisler then created an audition tape and sent it to McQueen, already on location in Louisiana. Maisler worked on 2015 best picture contender The Big Short, where she cast Adepero Oduye as a manager at a Wall Street investment bank. Oduye turned in a powerful, heart-wrenching performance in 12 Years a Slave as Eliza, the woman who is inconsolable after her child is ripped away from her at the auction block. And Maisler is responsible for casting Pitt’s upcoming military satire War Machine, which features Keith Stanfield (Straight Outta Compton, Short Term 12, Selma, Miles Ahead) and R.J. Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl).
“If I can change somebody’s life who may have never gotten a chance otherwise, that is the most exciting part of my job,” Maisler told the Los Angeles Times in 2013.
Because of its industry cachet, Plan B makes it possible for existing talent to be seen and recognized by many more eyeballs and therefore becomes a valuable career stepping-stone for people such as Stanfield, Nyong’o, Jenkins and the still-criminally underused Oduye.
The impact of working on one Plan B film has paid dividends for Oyelowo, though we can lay just as much credit for his ascendance at the feet of DuVernay. The two have both benefited from a fruitful, creative partnership, and it was Oyelowo who lobbied producers to hire DuVernay to direct Selma. Still, in 2014, Oyelowo signed on to co-star with Nyong’o in the film adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel Americanah, which Plan B has optioned and is producing. The same year, his chops shone in the HBO film Nightingale, which also bears the Plan B stamp. This year, Nyong’o and Oyelowo are co-starring in a Disney property, Queen of Katwe, which opens in September. And for Nyong’o, this comes after roles in Jungle Book and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (full disclosure: Disney owns ESPN, and therefore The Undefeated).
When DuVernay made Selma for $20 million, it was the biggest film, in terms of budget and profile, of her career. And now? The woman is directing a major adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, also for Disney. DuVernay is so busy she just had to back out of the sci-fi thriller Intelligent Life, which Nyong’o is toplining, by the way. A freakin’ Barbie doll has been created in her image.
But what’s just as important as the fact that Plan B is providing a springboard for black talent to make the jump from indie obscurity is the mix of the stories in which it’s invested. Americanah, if done well, has the potential to be a moving, smart romantic drama that encompasses identity and immigration. Moonlight offers an important and rarely seen exploration of black gay sexuality.
As an actor, Pitt, 52, has been one of the biggest modern beneficiaries of the Hollywood star system. As writer Lucy Kaylin characterized his ascendance in 2005: he’s enjoyed “an all-star’s easy lope from obscurity to fame.”
He swaggered into the national consciousness as the larcenous, Stetson-tipping ladykiller in 1991’s Thelma and Louise and rose to the ranks of heartthrob thanks to turns in 1994’s Legends of the Fall and 1998’s Meet Joe Black. He’s the wisecracking wingman to George Clooney’s Danny Ocean and boasts films with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), Guy Ritchie (Snatch) and the Coen brothers (Burn After Reading).
He married quintessential girl-next-door Aniston in 2000. And then there was that famously bro-y quote that landed in GQ, from an interview with Kaylin that took place just days after Aniston filed for divorce in 2005:
Amid the chirps and tweets and the late-day sun squeezing hard through the branches, we small talk down the path — me telling him about a funny call I just got from my kid, which reminds him of a phone message he just got from his mom: “I’m disappointed in you, I’m angry with you, but whatever you do I’ll always love you,” Pitt quotes her as saying, which he clearly enjoyed. “All my bitches are mad at me right now,” he says with a laugh, declining to elaborate.
No matter. He was forgiven soon enough. Of course he was. He’s Eddie Fisher in the aughts version of the Eddie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds-Liz Taylor Hollywood love triangle, except this time Rachel from Friends was Debbie and Lara Croft was Liz. And Eddie? Well, Eddie’s just lucky.
His partnership with Angelina Jolie following Mr. and Mrs. Smith further increased the public’s fascination with him, though that’s finally settled somewhat, more than a decade into their relationship and six Benetton kids later.
Still. Who wouldn’t take a meeting with this guy, the one who’s inspired one of the most idiosyncratic and hilariously specific artifacts of internet fandom?
Pitt is uniquely positioned to upend Hollywood convention precisely because of the position he enjoys in it. In his quest to do so, he’s helped by his stardom, his wealth, his marriage to Jolie, his straight, white maleness, and of course, that pretty face. Depressingly, a recent study by two University of Colorado professors found that while the perception of white men in the workplace remains unchanged when they advocate for diversity, women and nonwhites are actually seen as less competent and are judged more harshly for doing the same.
In 2004, Pitt was guest on Oprah. Winfrey invited him to offer his thoughts on privilege.
Winfrey: “You have had these dashing good looks all of your life. Even when you were a little kid, even when you were a little boy, you were a dashing, good-looking little boy. Did you realize early on that dashing good looks worked in your favor?”
Pitt: “Well — serious question, yes? No, it’s true. You certainly see — I was quite aware of certain advantages and disadvantages. I saw doors opening — ”
Winfrey: “What would be the disadvantage?”
Pitt: “Hubris is the disadvantage. And not being tested properly. I was painfully aware of some doors opening where they didn’t for others and I would ask my mother. My mother would come to our rooms when we were little and talk us to sleep … and I remember asking her about this at a very young age, Why isn’t the world fair? Why is it not fair? And she said to me that it’s not, but this means that you have more responsibility. And it’s something that’s always rung in my head. … There’s the true answer.”
Pitt then immediately deflected by turning to face the audience and mentioning how inspiring he found a recent trip Winfrey had made to Africa. He reached over for a beat and took her hand. “That really inspired me,” he said, “and sent me down some paths along those lines.”
Pitt seems to be drawing inspiration from his doppelgänger, Spy Game co-star and Sundance Film Festival founder, Robert Redford. Redford also directed Pitt in A River Runs Through It (1992). Both men parlayed early mainstream Hollywood success into creating specific, independent-minded lanes for themselves, and they’re both revered for doing it.
Like Redford, Pitt possesses a frankness and self-awareness that’s allowed him to sidestep the characterization of dilettante (that cringe-inducing attempt at an Austrian accent in Seven Years in Tibet notwithstanding), something that comes across even in his earliest interviews. Before his 1991 breakout role in Thelma and Louise, Pitt played Walker Lovejoy on a not-great Fox show called Glory Days. The promos for it were painfully earnest.
“Unfortunately, a lot of television to me is a fast-food fashion show and it’s because of money and time and I understand it has to be that way, but it gets kinda frustrating,” he said in an a 1990 interview with Entertainment Tonight, then 26 years old and still clearly unpolished.
The interviewer, who is off-camera, tees up an easy softy for Pitt to give the show some praise, noting how nice it is that Pitt has a “personal opinion”: “Maybe you’re quite proud then, to be involved in a show — ”
Pitt refused to take the bait.
“If it gets there, yeah,” he said. “That’s the plan. We’re not there yet.”
As he rose through the ranks to become a certified A-lister, Pitt maintained that no-B.S. sensibility. He seems to understand the off-putting nature of soliciting credit for something that should have been happening all along. The most profound example of this was at the 2014 Oscars, when 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture.
The best picture Oscar is awarded to a film’s producers. Pitt went up and, in 22 seconds, issued thanks on behalf of the production to the academy and to Solomon Northrup. And then, true to form, he got out of the way. He turned over the rest of the broadcast, and the last words of the night, to his director and fellow producer, whom he introduced as “the indomitable Mr. Steve McQueen.”
“There are a lot of people I need to thank, so I’ll just push on,” McQueen said, clearly overcome with emotion and stumbling through his words. “My wonderful cast and crew, Plan B … Brad Pitt — without him, this film would just not have been made.”
12 Years a Slave was a transformative film for Pitt and a testament to the power of what a brilliant piece of art can accomplish and the lasting effects it can have on its patrons.
“It’s why I got into film in the first place,” Pitt said in a TODAY show interview with Ann Curry. “It’s one of those few films that cuts to the base of our humanity. It’s not until I saw Solomon Northrup’s story that I fully, fully grasped the utter horror of losing your freedom or denying another their freedom, taking their freedom, splitting their family apart. It’s abhorrent.”
For all the effort Plan B has put forth in seeking quality stories about people of color and the actors and directors to bring them to life, the company is not particularly interested in shouting about it.
When I requested to speak to Pitt, Kleiner or Gardner about what drove the company’s pivot toward championing such stories, a Plan B representative called me from South Korea, where production was just beginning on Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho’s new film Okja (Plan B is co-producing with Netflix), to decline. These days, Pitt generally doesn’t talk to reporters unless he’s promoting a project. We didn’t feel like holding the story until press junkets for Moonlight or War Machine rolled around.
However, when Vanity Fair asked in 2015, as Plan B was in the depths of an Oscar campaign for Selma, Gardner had this to say:
“Everyone needs voices, you know. The fact that [white men] are such a singular source of people making the most popular form of entertainment — that makes zero sense. … If you care about history, which I think we do, then the bandwidth of story that is available to be told, and the bandwidth that is necessary to be thorough, just naturally encompasses people of all walks of life — all races, all cultures, all genders, all inclinations, all faiths. I think we come at it from that place.”
not mine.credit and source: THE UNDEFEATED
SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD
How Brad Pitt’s production company is making marquee movies by and about black folks.
Folks, this isn’t fun. Just two years ago, after director Steve McQueen’s hauntingly beautiful masterpiece 12 Years a Slave won best picture at the Oscars, many hoped it would mark the start of continued and lasting change in the film business.
Then came two years of #OscarsSoWhite.
Discussions about meaningful diversity in Hollywood and how to achieve it have reached an impasse. News media and online masses continue to criticize the film industry for continuing to specialize in telling stories by and about white guys and catering disproportionately to the whims of teenage boys. Meanwhile, the Big Six (that would be film studios 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros., not these guys) and their subsidiaries keep soldiering through public-relations disasters that implicate their institutional sclerosis. See: Ghost in the Shell, Doctor Strange, Aloha, Pan, Gods of Egypt and Exodus: Gods and Kings, as the latest examples. Ghost in the Shell and Doctor Strange have yet to be released. But the others were box-office flops. With few exceptions, instead of making changes, the movie industry, and by extension, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has responded with a mix of reflexive defensiveness, contempt and recalcitrance.
Hollywood’s ruling class could absolutely do with a shake-up to rid it of the homogeneity that plagues its ranks. As producer Effie Brown would say, we are well overdue for a cinematic landscape that “looks like America,” but, in the words of abolitionist Harriet Tubman via actress Viola Davis, we “can’t seem to get there no how.” In 2015, while promoting the weirdly entertaining, if polarizing, Chi-Raq, director Spike Lee proposed a Rooney Rule for Hollywood, citing the absence of black executives with green-light power, as a way to curb diversity blunders (disclosure: ESPN and The Undefeated are the home of Spike Lee’s Lil’ Joints). It’s a vital but incomplete solution. Lee’s argument absolves currently employed white executives, unlikely to be fired anytime soon, from responsibility to make their films reflect the fast-changing demographics of the country. It does nothing to hold them accountable for the current sorry state of affairs, continually documented in annual diversity studies from the University of Southern California and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, not to mention internal studies from the Writers Guild and Directors Guild of America. Surely, there’s something else to be done.
And there is. There’s an outfit run by three rich white folks that has proven it. In three years, Plan B, the production company run by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, has gone from an eclectic studio offering up an array of really white, if mostly decent films (Running with Scissors, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Kick-Ass) to a company that has produced a slate of profitable, award-winning marquee properties by and about people of color.
This is not to diminish the efforts of Lee Daniels, Will Packer, Oprah Winfrey, Reggie Hudlin, Nate Moore, Lee and other black Hollywood power brokers, but their labor and money alone is not enough to effect the sort of change that would move the needle on years-long stagnating diversity numbers. Otherwise, the revolution would already be here. It is to say this, however: White Hollywood, get it together. There’s no excuse for this.
The big studios thrive on exhaustively duplicating successful ideas, which explains the glut of vampire and werewolf-themed properties following the mania over Twilight. It explains the ubiquity of zombies, and the existence of the Divergent franchise following the runaway numbers of the Hunger Games movies. It’s the reason we now have two massive competing cinematic universes based on comic book series.
Not only does Plan B consistently put forth films by and about people of color, it hasn’t lost its shirt in the process. It picks winners, it makes money, and judging from its future projects, it’s going to keep doing it. Maybe the Big Six should be copying it.
The high point in Plan B’s history, of course, is when it won best picture for 12 Years a Slave and then film made history as the first work by a black director to claim the honor. The following year, its poignant civil rights heavy-hitter Selma, co-produced with Winfrey, dominated awards-season conversations, especially after both director Ava DuVernay and star actor David Oyelowo found themselves on the receiving end of Oscar snubs.
Now there’s already anticipation building for Moonlight, the sophomore effort from writer-director and Miami native Barry Jenkins. Moonlight, a coming-of-age drama set in Miami during the drug wars of the 1980s and ’90s, is based on the Tarell McCraney play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Scheduled for release later this year, it stars André Holland, Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. A24, the indie distributor behind last year’s Ex Machina and the recent The Lobster, is financing and distributing the project. Plan B is co-producing.
Jenkins, a former employee of Harpo Productions, made his feature debut in 2008 with the terrific Medicine for Melancholy, a contemplative, desaturated exploration of romantic and racial ennui that starred Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins. Jenkins is also set to adapt the soulful, wildly ambitious Atticus Lish novel Preparation for the Next Life with Plan B and HBO.
The vibrant, undeniable force that stands today is vastly different from the Plan B that began as a partnership between Pitt and his then-wife Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey at Warner Bros. in 2001. The company was still in its infancy when it netted its first credit on Troy (2004), followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and The Departed (2006). There was no obvious creative through line and when Pitt and Aniston split in 2005, Aniston walked away from the company. When Grey became head of Paramount in 2005, Plan B followed.
Pitt and Aniston had met Gardner, the daughter of an investment banker and a nonprofit executive from Winnetka, Illinois, when they were interviewing candidates to run Plan B. Gardner, 48, had a literary background at William Morris Agency. A graduate of Columbia University, she’d spent her postgraduate years working on films in the art department or as a location manager.
“I knew [Pitt] was a kindred spirit when we talked about the company and we had a lot of crossover with our ideas: wanting it to be a safe harbor for filmmakers, a place where people might come where the energy and the protection felt singular. He also is a cinephile, so it’s a treat to work with him,” Gardner told Anne Thompson while promoting 12 Years a Slave. “He also really believes in the shelf life of a movie, which is to say he doesn’t put a lot of stake in opening weekends. He believes movies are found over a long period of time. He said to me one year after we made Jesse James and A Mighty Heart, ‘I couldn’t be prouder and those movies will find their place and their time.’ ”
Pitt and Gardner ran Plan B together and they promoted Kleiner, who joined as a creative executive in 2003, to co-president in 2013. In December 2013, Plan B’s contractual partnership with Paramount was set to expire and the company struck a three-year deal with New Regency (which co-financed 12 Years a Slave), and Brett Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment financing company. The deal punctuated a shift. An operation that had been dedicated to making a mix of starring vehicles for Pitt (including the bloated 2013 World War Z), and off-the-beaten-path films broadened its spectrum of offerings to include people of color, both onscreen and behind the camera.
The current Hollywood climate is one characterized by risk aversion and a widespread allergy to imagination. Yet Plan B landed on the Hollywood Reporter’s 2015 list of the town’s 30 most powerful film producers by doubling down on original voices and unexpected stories, earning it the label of “one of the most daring outfits around.”
Plan B doesn’t just want to work with minority filmmakers. Pitt, Kleiner and Gardner are interested in backing work that’s groundbreaking and exceptional, and once they find talent they like, they tend to return to the same wells. It’s not that Plan B has some secret, special sauce squirreled away in a vault in the studio’s Wilshire Boulevard offices. The company’s modus operandi seems to be:
- Find people of color, usually in the indie world, whose talents might otherwise be overlooked or underappreciated.
- Facilitate and provide giant platforms for those talents to shine.
- Repeat.
Think of it this way: Pitt and Plan B are John Stockton. The filmmakers and actors of color with whom they work are Karl Malone. Pitt leverages his star power, access and reputation to get you the ball, and then he gets out of the way. In a perfect world, one in which people of color had the same access to the resources that Plan B enjoys, there would be no need for a Stockton figure at all. Alas, that world, as it currently stands, is about as real as Negrotown.
In the film industry, the ball comes in the form of access to capital and distribution, the requisite support to make a film successful in the form of press and advertising, and when appropriate, awards-season campaigning.
As a producer, Pitt understands the weaknesses and biases of the star system and has thrown his power behind countering, if not outright rejecting it. This is especially crucial in disproving the canard that there aren’t more films starring people of color because people of color aren’t capital-M, capital-S Movie Stars, who can guarantee butts in seats.
So, how do you become an A-List Movie Star if you’re never offered Movie Star roles? You need producers and financiers like Pitt to take a chance on you and to believe in you. And overwhelmingly, the people holding those purse strings are white. (Thanks generational wealth predicated on a bedrock of structural racism! You really are everywhere, all the time.) Before 12 Years a Slave, Chiwetel Ejiofor, 38, was an actor whose face you knew from something — he’s the guy from Love Actually! And Salt! And Amistad! And American Gangster! — but you’d probably have to scroll through his IMDb page to figure out which supporting role it was. But Ejiofor so utterly embodied his 12 Years a Slave character Solomon Northrup that it’s difficult to envision anyone else in the role. The movie made the case that he’s absolutely a leading man. But according to Ejiofor, that probably would not have happened had Pitt not agreed to be in the film.
“You know, without him, there wouldn’t be a film,” Ejiofor told Vulture’s Jada Yuan in 2013. “He was just so instrumental in making this film happen. He’s such a champion of filmmakers and the things that he believes in and can put his weight behind. … I don’t know what the full machinations are, but I imagine that him being around and lending that kind of support and weight to something is very freeing for [financiers]. They think, ‘OK, well, we can give the director some latitude.’ ”
Ejiofor is slated to star in a future Plan B property, Marching Powder. The film, based on the book by Rusty Young, tells the tale of British drug smuggler Thomas McFadden’s unexpectedly strange experience during a six-year sentence in a Bolivian prison beset by corruption. Plan B, like many operations, consistently mines the indie world for up-and-coming actors and directors. That’s essentially what Universal did with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who leaped directly to the big leagues after making a splash at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival with his charming debut comedy Safety Not Guaranteed. The difference is that Plan B actually works with people of color. It takes so-called risks on relative unknowns, something the rest of the film industry, including the indie world, has been loath to do with nonwhite talent.
“The independent finance world is pretty, pretty bad,” Dear White People director Justin Simien recently told IndieWire. “That’s where ‘films don’t travel’ bulls— [comes from] — it really has its roots in the minds of financier, the obsession with the ‘bankable’ diverse star. Which is sad, because [the independent world] is where the people who are on the outside of the industry have to make their films. We can’t make our first films in a studio. It doesn’t really happen anymore.”
The result of Plan B doing what few of its counterparts will has been that its films have become a reliable place to see promising nonwhite faces who face a harder climb up the mainstream food chain. This extends to Plan B productions built around white protagonists such as The Big Short and the upcoming War Machine.
Some of the credit for this goes to casting director Francine Maisler, who convinced McQueen to hire actress Lupita Nyong’o after she saw her perform at a Los Angeles acting showcase when Nyong’o was fresh out of Yale School of Drama. Maisler then created an audition tape and sent it to McQueen, already on location in Louisiana. Maisler worked on 2015 best picture contender The Big Short, where she cast Adepero Oduye as a manager at a Wall Street investment bank. Oduye turned in a powerful, heart-wrenching performance in 12 Years a Slave as Eliza, the woman who is inconsolable after her child is ripped away from her at the auction block. And Maisler is responsible for casting Pitt’s upcoming military satire War Machine, which features Keith Stanfield (Straight Outta Compton, Short Term 12, Selma, Miles Ahead) and R.J. Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl).
“If I can change somebody’s life who may have never gotten a chance otherwise, that is the most exciting part of my job,” Maisler told the Los Angeles Times in 2013.
Because of its industry cachet, Plan B makes it possible for existing talent to be seen and recognized by many more eyeballs and therefore becomes a valuable career stepping-stone for people such as Stanfield, Nyong’o, Jenkins and the still-criminally underused Oduye.
The impact of working on one Plan B film has paid dividends for Oyelowo, though we can lay just as much credit for his ascendance at the feet of DuVernay. The two have both benefited from a fruitful, creative partnership, and it was Oyelowo who lobbied producers to hire DuVernay to direct Selma. Still, in 2014, Oyelowo signed on to co-star with Nyong’o in the film adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel Americanah, which Plan B has optioned and is producing. The same year, his chops shone in the HBO film Nightingale, which also bears the Plan B stamp. This year, Nyong’o and Oyelowo are co-starring in a Disney property, Queen of Katwe, which opens in September. And for Nyong’o, this comes after roles in Jungle Book and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (full disclosure: Disney owns ESPN, and therefore The Undefeated).
When DuVernay made Selma for $20 million, it was the biggest film, in terms of budget and profile, of her career. And now? The woman is directing a major adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, also for Disney. DuVernay is so busy she just had to back out of the sci-fi thriller Intelligent Life, which Nyong’o is toplining, by the way. A freakin’ Barbie doll has been created in her image.
But what’s just as important as the fact that Plan B is providing a springboard for black talent to make the jump from indie obscurity is the mix of the stories in which it’s invested. Americanah, if done well, has the potential to be a moving, smart romantic drama that encompasses identity and immigration. Moonlight offers an important and rarely seen exploration of black gay sexuality.
As an actor, Pitt, 52, has been one of the biggest modern beneficiaries of the Hollywood star system. As writer Lucy Kaylin characterized his ascendance in 2005: he’s enjoyed “an all-star’s easy lope from obscurity to fame.”
He swaggered into the national consciousness as the larcenous, Stetson-tipping ladykiller in 1991’s Thelma and Louise and rose to the ranks of heartthrob thanks to turns in 1994’s Legends of the Fall and 1998’s Meet Joe Black. He’s the wisecracking wingman to George Clooney’s Danny Ocean and boasts films with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), Guy Ritchie (Snatch) and the Coen brothers (Burn After Reading).
He married quintessential girl-next-door Aniston in 2000. And then there was that famously bro-y quote that landed in GQ, from an interview with Kaylin that took place just days after Aniston filed for divorce in 2005:
Amid the chirps and tweets and the late-day sun squeezing hard through the branches, we small talk down the path — me telling him about a funny call I just got from my kid, which reminds him of a phone message he just got from his mom: “I’m disappointed in you, I’m angry with you, but whatever you do I’ll always love you,” Pitt quotes her as saying, which he clearly enjoyed. “All my bitches are mad at me right now,” he says with a laugh, declining to elaborate.
No matter. He was forgiven soon enough. Of course he was. He’s Eddie Fisher in the aughts version of the Eddie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds-Liz Taylor Hollywood love triangle, except this time Rachel from Friends was Debbie and Lara Croft was Liz. And Eddie? Well, Eddie’s just lucky.
His partnership with Angelina Jolie following Mr. and Mrs. Smith further increased the public’s fascination with him, though that’s finally settled somewhat, more than a decade into their relationship and six Benetton kids later.
Still. Who wouldn’t take a meeting with this guy, the one who’s inspired one of the most idiosyncratic and hilariously specific artifacts of internet fandom?
Pitt is uniquely positioned to upend Hollywood convention precisely because of the position he enjoys in it. In his quest to do so, he’s helped by his stardom, his wealth, his marriage to Jolie, his straight, white maleness, and of course, that pretty face. Depressingly, a recent study by two University of Colorado professors found that while the perception of white men in the workplace remains unchanged when they advocate for diversity, women and nonwhites are actually seen as less competent and are judged more harshly for doing the same.
In 2004, Pitt was guest on Oprah. Winfrey invited him to offer his thoughts on privilege.
Winfrey: “You have had these dashing good looks all of your life. Even when you were a little kid, even when you were a little boy, you were a dashing, good-looking little boy. Did you realize early on that dashing good looks worked in your favor?”
Pitt: “Well — serious question, yes? No, it’s true. You certainly see — I was quite aware of certain advantages and disadvantages. I saw doors opening — ”
Winfrey: “What would be the disadvantage?”
Pitt: “Hubris is the disadvantage. And not being tested properly. I was painfully aware of some doors opening where they didn’t for others and I would ask my mother. My mother would come to our rooms when we were little and talk us to sleep … and I remember asking her about this at a very young age, Why isn’t the world fair? Why is it not fair? And she said to me that it’s not, but this means that you have more responsibility. And it’s something that’s always rung in my head. … There’s the true answer.”
Pitt then immediately deflected by turning to face the audience and mentioning how inspiring he found a recent trip Winfrey had made to Africa. He reached over for a beat and took her hand. “That really inspired me,” he said, “and sent me down some paths along those lines.”
Pitt seems to be drawing inspiration from his doppelgänger, Spy Game co-star and Sundance Film Festival founder, Robert Redford. Redford also directed Pitt in A River Runs Through It (1992). Both men parlayed early mainstream Hollywood success into creating specific, independent-minded lanes for themselves, and they’re both revered for doing it.
Like Redford, Pitt possesses a frankness and self-awareness that’s allowed him to sidestep the characterization of dilettante (that cringe-inducing attempt at an Austrian accent in Seven Years in Tibet notwithstanding), something that comes across even in his earliest interviews. Before his 1991 breakout role in Thelma and Louise, Pitt played Walker Lovejoy on a not-great Fox show called Glory Days. The promos for it were painfully earnest.
“Unfortunately, a lot of television to me is a fast-food fashion show and it’s because of money and time and I understand it has to be that way, but it gets kinda frustrating,” he said in an a 1990 interview with Entertainment Tonight, then 26 years old and still clearly unpolished.
The interviewer, who is off-camera, tees up an easy softy for Pitt to give the show some praise, noting how nice it is that Pitt has a “personal opinion”: “Maybe you’re quite proud then, to be involved in a show — ”
Pitt refused to take the bait.
“If it gets there, yeah,” he said. “That’s the plan. We’re not there yet.”
As he rose through the ranks to become a certified A-lister, Pitt maintained that no-B.S. sensibility. He seems to understand the off-putting nature of soliciting credit for something that should have been happening all along. The most profound example of this was at the 2014 Oscars, when 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture.
The best picture Oscar is awarded to a film’s producers. Pitt went up and, in 22 seconds, issued thanks on behalf of the production to the academy and to Solomon Northrup. And then, true to form, he got out of the way. He turned over the rest of the broadcast, and the last words of the night, to his director and fellow producer, whom he introduced as “the indomitable Mr. Steve McQueen.”
“There are a lot of people I need to thank, so I’ll just push on,” McQueen said, clearly overcome with emotion and stumbling through his words. “My wonderful cast and crew, Plan B … Brad Pitt — without him, this film would just not have been made.”
12 Years a Slave was a transformative film for Pitt and a testament to the power of what a brilliant piece of art can accomplish and the lasting effects it can have on its patrons.
“It’s why I got into film in the first place,” Pitt said in a TODAY show interview with Ann Curry. “It’s one of those few films that cuts to the base of our humanity. It’s not until I saw Solomon Northrup’s story that I fully, fully grasped the utter horror of losing your freedom or denying another their freedom, taking their freedom, splitting their family apart. It’s abhorrent.”
For all the effort Plan B has put forth in seeking quality stories about people of color and the actors and directors to bring them to life, the company is not particularly interested in shouting about it.
When I requested to speak to Pitt, Kleiner or Gardner about what drove the company’s pivot toward championing such stories, a Plan B representative called me from South Korea, where production was just beginning on Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho’s new film Okja (Plan B is co-producing with Netflix), to decline. These days, Pitt generally doesn’t talk to reporters unless he’s promoting a project. We didn’t feel like holding the story until press junkets for Moonlight or War Machine rolled around.
However, when Vanity Fair asked in 2015, as Plan B was in the depths of an Oscar campaign for Selma, Gardner had this to say:
“Everyone needs voices, you know. The fact that [white men] are such a singular source of people making the most popular form of entertainment — that makes zero sense. … If you care about history, which I think we do, then the bandwidth of story that is available to be told, and the bandwidth that is necessary to be thorough, just naturally encompasses people of all walks of life — all races, all cultures, all genders, all inclinations, all faiths. I think we come at it from that place.”
not mine.credit and source: THE UNDEFEATED
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Brad Pitt's Plan B, Disney Team for True-Life Immigrant Tale 'Dr. Q' (Exclusive)
10:40 AM PST 3/1/2016 by Borys Kit
Matthew Lopez will write the script focusing on the life story of brain surgeon Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa.
Walt Disney Studios is developing a feature project based on the true-life story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico who became the current head of brain tumor surgery at John Hopkins Hospital.
Plan B, the production company run by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, is producing the project, known as Dr. Q. Matt Lopez, the playwright behind the acclaimed Civil War drama The Whipping Man, is set to pen the screenplay.
Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa crossed the border from Mexico when he was 19, living illegally in the country as he worked on farms in California. He saved up for English classes and then saved up to attend school. He showed a propensity for the medical arts and attended Harvard Medical School. He became a celebrated brain surgeon and cancer researcher, penning cover stories in the fields of science and medicine while also being a cover subject. He is the director of brain tumor surgery at the John Hopkins Hospital.
Plan B’s relationship with Quinones-Hinojosa began in 2007 after execs first heard his story on a radio program.
Disney sees Dr. Q being a modestly budgeted inspirational drama, in the mold of its recently wrapped movie Queen of Katwe — an inspirational true story of a young Ugandan girl who becomes a chess champion — starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo.
Tendo Nagenda, who oversaw Katwe and also worked at Plan B before joining Disney, is shepherding Dr. Q with Allison Erlikhman.
Lopez’s most recent play was The Legend of Georgia McBride. The scribe was a staff writer on HBO’s The Newsroom and worked with Plan B on an adaptation of Your Face Tomorrow by Spanish novelist Javier Marias. He is repped by CAA.
not mine.credit and source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Matthew Lopez will write the script focusing on the life story of brain surgeon Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa.
Walt Disney Studios is developing a feature project based on the true-life story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico who became the current head of brain tumor surgery at John Hopkins Hospital.
Plan B, the production company run by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, is producing the project, known as Dr. Q. Matt Lopez, the playwright behind the acclaimed Civil War drama The Whipping Man, is set to pen the screenplay.
Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa crossed the border from Mexico when he was 19, living illegally in the country as he worked on farms in California. He saved up for English classes and then saved up to attend school. He showed a propensity for the medical arts and attended Harvard Medical School. He became a celebrated brain surgeon and cancer researcher, penning cover stories in the fields of science and medicine while also being a cover subject. He is the director of brain tumor surgery at the John Hopkins Hospital.
Plan B’s relationship with Quinones-Hinojosa began in 2007 after execs first heard his story on a radio program.
Disney sees Dr. Q being a modestly budgeted inspirational drama, in the mold of its recently wrapped movie Queen of Katwe — an inspirational true story of a young Ugandan girl who becomes a chess champion — starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo.
Tendo Nagenda, who oversaw Katwe and also worked at Plan B before joining Disney, is shepherding Dr. Q with Allison Erlikhman.
Lopez’s most recent play was The Legend of Georgia McBride. The scribe was a staff writer on HBO’s The Newsroom and worked with Plan B on an adaptation of Your Face Tomorrow by Spanish novelist Javier Marias. He is repped by CAA.
not mine.credit and source: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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