Leading up to tonight’s Producers Guild of America Awards, Darryl F. Zanack Award nominees’ annual breakfast at the Skirball Cultural Center.
The panel, moderated by PGA President Lisa Fisher, featured Steven Spielberg, who was nominated as one of the producers of his musical West Side Story.
During the conversation, the two-time Oscar winner – for “Schindler’s List” (1993) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) – shared with the audience that he would never stage another musical in his career, although I would participate as a producer on some. He is currently co-producing a musical adaptation of The Color Purple, starring Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks. He directed the 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker, which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won him his first DGA award, although he failed to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director.
Spielberg’s adoration and general thanks from all the nominated producers were well expressed at the event.
In response to a question about how producers can succeed and get into the business, Spielberg replied, “The smartest thing I do is hire women. I have always had and always will. I believe in the power of a producer. You are not just leaders. You are therapists. I rely on someone stronger than me to produce.”
He reflected on the problem of obtaining the rights to West Side Story, going to songwriter Stephen Sondheim’s home, saying, “His dogs were sniffing my crotch and I was afraid to push them away.” [as] I didn’t mean to offend him.”
He was able to achieve his goal by saying that this is an opportunity to keep the story of Romeo and Juliet alive for another 30 years. “My favorite channels are TCM and Criterion Channel, but they don’t get the highest ratings.”
One representative from each Producers Guild-nominated film took to the stage for an in-person event – Todd Black (“Being Ricardo”), Philippe Rousselet (“CODA”), Mary Parent (“Dune”), Tim White (“King Richard”), Sarah Murphy (“Licorice Pizza”), Tanya Segachian (“Dog Power”), Julie O (“Tick, tick … Boom!”) and Spielberg (“West Side Story”) – and Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast” ) and Kevin Messick (“Don’t Look Up”) appeared virtually via Zoom.
Fisher began by thanking everyone, telling the film’s producers in attendance that they “won”: “They tried to kill us, but they couldn’t.”
She also highlighted the diversity of this year’s nominees, including nine female producers. Fisher indicated that almost 50% of the guild were women.
The backing provided by streaming giant Netflix was also a common topic of discussion among the three nominated films.
Tanya Segachyan enjoyed the skill of her production team, especially The Power of the Dog director and screenwriter Jane Campion. The rights to the Thomas Savage novel have changed hands over the past 55 years, including classic actor Paul Newman, who was to play protagonist Phil Burbank, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the final film.
Julie Oh’s charisma shone brightest on stage, speaking of composer Jonathan Larson’s journey to create a stage musical: “There’s a reason Wikipedia has a page about development hell.”
Oh attended one of the five performances held in New York, starring Lin-Manuel Miranda. She was initially unaware of the show and was surprised that the rights were available.
Kevin Messick spoke about the “urgent need for climate change” in Don’t Look Up and how Adam McKay wrote the film with Jennifer Lawrence in mind. The most poignant was his answer for the hardest day on the job; “The worst day was January 7,” referring to the rebel attacks on the capital.
Todd Black talked about wanting to make a film about Lucille Ball’s life in 1995, but the comedian’s kids didn’t want it at the time. He also shared that he knew “Aaron Sorkin was the person who wrote it” in regards to the eight-year journey to making the film.
Philippe Rousselet began his opening remarks by acknowledging a good year for cinema. Discussing the path to creating CODA and eventually selling Sundance to Apple for a record $25 million, he said, “It was the most extraordinary journey of my production life.”
Mary Parent watched the rights to Dune change hands, waiting for the right opportunity to seize the moment. This moment came after several “hard passes” from different studios. It was during the filming of Godzilla (2014) that she introduced the production to Alex Garcia, and in 2013 she sold the project to Legendary. famous novel from the age of 14, knowing at that moment that she had found her director.
The parent almost hinted that Dune: Part II is “not a sequel. That’s half the story.”
King Richard producer Tim White recalled real-life Richard Williams, played in the film by top-of-the-line actor Will Smith, holding signs at a 1999 tennis game in Miami, long before he realized he wanted to make films. Together with their brother and producing partner Trevor, the couple emailed Venus Williams saying they wanted to tell the story of the Williams sisters, but received no response: “Chances [were] against us,” White says. “We have absolutely no access to the Williams family.”
Sarah Murphy spoke about the story of “Licorice Pizza” that has been in the head of writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson for a long time. She talked about Anderson spending a lot of time with producer and former child actor Gary Goetzman, on whom Cooper Hoffman’s character Gary is based, after the death of Oscar-winning Jonathan Demme. Murphy said one of the toughest questions was “getting Gary to sign the rights to life agreement.”
Branagh defended three of his female producers – Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas – and reminded everyone of accessibility during the pandemic. He received a response from two of his stars, Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan, within hours of sending them an initial email about the project. Branagh also recalled showing his family the semi-autobiographical Belfast: “There was a huge uncertainty. The most difficult moment was to show this personal story about my family, my family. My brother says what I’m saying happened to me, happened to him.”
The PGA Awards will take place today at 8:00 pm PST.
optional screen reader