November
10The Fine Art of Re-Inventing the Rules
I was sitting across the table from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer earlier this week and found myself thinking, “These are very cool, savvy guys who know how to play by the Hollywood rule book.”Then I realized, “No, actually they’ve invented their own rule book – those are the ones they play by.”
It would be tough to think of another team that, in the same year, would produce “Frost/Nixon” and “Changeling,” the ultimate indie pictures, and also “Angels and Demons,” the ultimate studio picture. Sure, they know how to feed the studio system (witness “American Gangster” or “A Beautiful Mind”) but they also understand how to tweak it to satisfy their own artistic quirks (witness the doc “Inside Deep Throat”).
In short, Imagine’s Grazer and Howard keep surprising us. That’s why the Producers Guild is giving them its “Milestone Award” in a couple of weeks. I’m also giving them my personal “Mileage Award,” for hanging in there with each other for some 20 years.
It’s no secret that the partners at Imagine Entertainment have made a fabulous amount of money, but it’s not always been an easy journey. Fifteen years ago, they were seduced into taking Imagine public; not only did their work promptly plummet in quality, but their stock tanked. So much for Wall Street (they’re thankful for that early lesson).Two years ago, I spent some time with them the morning after the “The Da Vinci Code” opened at the Cannes Film Festival, and they were in shock from the negative reaction. Both the screening and even the accompanying party were ill-planned in every detail. Cannes hated the movie – which of course went on to gross nearly $800 million worldwide.
By the way, Howard and Grazer were typically gracious in defeat in Cannes. “What else can we mess up?” Grazer asked me at the time, with an agonized smile. “Anyone else opening a movie that we can contaminate?”
All in all, of course, the team has had remarkable success going back to their early days of “Splash” and “Night Shift.” Howard hit it big directing “Ransom” and “Cocoon,” but misfired with “The Missing.” But even his middling movies were always interesting, like “Cinderella Man” or even “The Paper.”
Neither he nor Grazer ever seem to repeat themselves because, though savvy about box office, none of their films seem designed purely as a payday. Grazer’s pushing ahead with a difficult piece on Hugh Hefner’s career, another about Mexican drug cartels. The partners concede they don’t agree on all their projects, but if one of them has a passion for a piece the other will bow to that desire.
In the years since he walked away from a hugely successful career as a kid actor, Howard has defied the usual fail-safe career strategy. The most prudent course for a filmmaker is to master a genre and build in into a brand, like Hitchcock or Wilder did so brilliantly. Howard keeps defying that axiom moving from “The Da Vinci Code” to “Frost/Nixon,” which is a superbly crafted adaptation of a hit play. Critics point out that there is no Ron Howard style, no discernibly idiosyncratic point of view, but oddly that has worked in his favor. When you see a Ron Howard movie, you’re not armed with built-in prejudices – anticipating another downer, another wordy period piece. With Howard, you never know what to expect, but you know it will have both intelligence and integrity.Grazer is an intellectually restless man, constantly asking questions and re-examining motives. For years, he kept an aide on staff whose sole job was to agitate for new ideas and introduce him to deep thinkers.
Howard, having experienced the best Hollywood had to offer as a kid actor, brought up his family in Connecticut, not Hollywood – and promptly produced a family of young actors.
Grazer maintains the company base at Universal, but spends more time in New York and Europe trying to figure our how to come up with new ways to surprise himself. At a time when other producing teams are struggling, the Imagine boys acknowledge that the process of putting together films keeps getting tougher – hammering out the budgets and the deals and changing the minds of the always wary studio. With this town showing signs of running out of energy, however, the titans of Imagine show no signs of sag.
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Haha that's rediculous. No way
Posted by: uriggible | 12/16/2011 9:22:43 AM
Haha that's rediculous. No way
Posted by: uriggible | 12/16/2011 9:07:54 AM
AkxZd1 Last a few years has been to Ibiza, so met a person there whose style of presentation is very similar to yours. But, unfortunately, that person is too far from the Internet!...
Posted by: Buy oem | 9/29/2011 2:44:20 AM
grazer is a disturbed human being but hes great at what he does......hooray for hollywood
Posted by: elderspokesman | 11/12/2008 5:13:50 PM
Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are both known to have a strong and steady track record. Ron Howard rose up through the school of Roger Corman and Brian Grazer has this savage institive energy to get things done and done well. I think they make a great team... The proof is in the pudding. As far as the comments below... some people just don''''t realise that when they have A-hole opiniions, they come across as uncool, negetive A-holes who''''s parents probably didn''''t let them play with their toys...
Posted by: Nick Dillon, THE REBEL RIDERS | 11/12/2008 10:06:18 AM
Ron Howard's never made a truly great film, yet he's done some intersting things. If not for American Gangster and Inside Man, Brian Grazer would be known as that guy who made a slew of lackluster movies with Ron Howard.
Posted by: mikeNYC | 11/12/2008 7:35:07 AM
Brian Grazer should work with old school stars like Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise on future action drama's. But even more so, Grazer should set up a future political action film for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he comes back to Hollywood. What an event film that would be. What do you say Brian?
Posted by: Mark | 11/11/2008 8:06:56 PM
Here's my take, Grazer is an obssesed egomaniac who, over time, learned how to force his agenda down people's throats and his "partner", Howard is one of the most un-artistic and, ancreative and really, when you think about it, terrible directors in Hollywood.
There's absolutely nothing special, NEW or GROUNDBREAKING about their one for us, one for you methodology. This is as Hollywood as it gets, Peter and it's embarassing that you can't see it.
So instead of singing praises to this team, why not honor people like Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. Now that's who I call powerfull, creative and positive industry leaders.
Posted by: Proman | 11/11/2008 11:13:05 AM