Found the Disney Photo from a few days ago. We had a BLAST! This is a cool/dorky photo. It's hard to have a cool expression on your face while jumping
into the air (as you can tell by the photo) but it was fun fun fun! The Bahamas are gorgeous!
About Joan "bankrolling" the project..... I thought I remember reading that there are a couple of producers other tan Joan and Kenny for this flick... The Producer Art Linson, mentioned in the article below is a HUGE Hollywood producer and is attached to The Runaways Movie in a BIG way. Joan is definitely holding the authority, but there are several other major money backers and I would bet most of the $$ came from the Linsons. It just makes sense that Joan would serve as Executive Producer and I'm sure that stipulation was directed before the project was even green-lighted. That was one of the major problems Joan and Kenny had with Edgeplay. Deservedly, they demand creative control. That's the ONLY was this would have worked. As for the tears, all that means to me is passion. Tears are passion and where there's passion, there's glory and greatness. I hope it translates to film. BTW, I just got back from a seven day Disney Cruise and had a BLAST. I missed reading the boards, though and I'm doing a LOT of catching up. They took some really cool photos I'll post later. They're pretty funny. The guy said, "Why don't you jump in the air like you have a guitar and love rock and roll?" and I knew exactly what to do. later gators!
David Grace .... co-producer
Joan Jett .... executive producer
Kenny Laguna .... executive producer
Art Linson .... producer
John Linson .... producer
William Pohlad .... producer
Brian Young .... executive producer
The producer is generally regarded by the studio or production company as the ultimate authority on the project, the person who is actually in charge of the film. This may or may not be true in reality; for example, Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, and Clayton Townsend served as producers on Natural Born Killers, but you don't have to have read Hamsher's very funny behind-the-scenes book Killer Instinct to know that director Oliver Stone was the true Big Kahuna on the project. Regardless, when the studio or prodco has questions or concerns, they call the producer first, not the director. Sometimes, this is accurate, and the producer is in fact the real authority on the film. Enemy of the State, Con Air, Coyote Ugly, and Gone in 60 Seconds were all directed by different men (Tony Scott, Simon West, David McNally, and Dominic Sena, respectively), but the fact that they're all so generically similar can be attributed to their being produced by the same man, Jerry Bruckheimer, a very powerful producer who puts his indelible stamp on everything he does.
At other times, this aspect of a producer's role may be viewed simply as insulation -- in other words, keeping the studio's meddlesome suits out of the director's hair. For example, David Fincher (along with stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton) was the artistic heavyweight on the film Fight Club, but he only directed and did not produce. Above him, the most experienced producer on the film (as opposed to the executive producer, which I'll get to shortly) was old pro Art Linson, who also produced Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, Michael Mann's Heat, and Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, among others. Most likely, Linson used his decades of experience and served the film in an organizational and logistical capacity, leaving all the creative decisions regarding editing, designs, photography, etc. to Fincher and his team. When the studio -- in this case, 20th Century Fox -- started getting antsy about how the Fight Club budget was adding up, they would call Linson to complain, and then it was Linson's responsibility to talk to Fincher to see where they could stretch their dollars or otherwise economize on the production. That way, the director is free to make the movie he wants with a minimum of headaches and interference, and the studio is comfortable that there's an experienced and knowledgeable person who's nominally in charge, and whom they can call when they need to kvetch.
Regardless of who actually wears the big pants on a film, the producer almost always ends up heading the financial and organizational aspect of the production. He or she supervises the budgeting process, approves major expenses, and answers to the studio or production company when there are problems. The producer also has veto power over most of the director's decisions, although in the interest of maintaining a happy set, this is usually not exercised except in crisis situations. (This changes, of course, if the director is powerful enough to have negotiated "final cut" on the film, or other perks.) And when things go wrong on the set -- if, say, on a location shoot, so many local residents have showed up to gawk that they're getting in the way, or maybe the costume truck got towed away by mistake -- it's the producer who's expected to be in charge of fixing the problem.
As mentioned above, the producer's role continues through postproduction, into editing, scoring, and especially marketing and distribution. Most directors will be fairly active while the film is being edited and scored; it's then the producer's job to look at the first cut of the film (done by the director and editor) and suggest revisions before the studio or production company get to see it. As the project marches toward completion, most directors begin to fade out of the picture. The producer usually takes the lead on cutting television commercials and theatrical trailers, deciding on posters, billboards, and other marketing material, and negotiating distribution deals with the exhibitors. The director may still be involved in certain aspects of the filmmaking process (particularly in visual-effects-heavy projects, where some effects shots are being completed two weeks before the film is scheduled to open), but when it comes to actually getting the film onto screens and convincing audiences to go to the cinema to see it, that's the producer's job.
About Joan "bankrolling" the project..... I thought I remember reading that there are a couple of producers other tan Joan and Kenny for this flick... The Producer Art Linson, mentioned in the article below is a HUGE Hollywood producer and is attached to The Runaways Movie in a BIG way. Joan is definitely holding the authority, but there are several other major money backers and I would bet most of the $$ came from the Linsons. It just makes sense that Joan would serve as Executive Producer and I'm sure that stipulation was directed before the project was even green-lighted. That was one of the major problems Joan and Kenny had with Edgeplay. Deservedly, they demand creative control. That's the ONLY was this would have worked. As for the tears, all that means to me is passion. Tears are passion and where there's passion, there's glory and greatness. I hope it translates to film. BTW, I just got back from a seven day Disney Cruise and had a BLAST. I missed reading the boards, though and I'm doing a LOT of catching up. They took some really cool photos I'll post later. They're pretty funny. The guy said, "Why don't you jump in the air like you have a guitar and love rock and roll?" and I knew exactly what to do. later gators!
David Grace .... co-producer
Joan Jett .... executive producer
Kenny Laguna .... executive producer
Art Linson .... producer
John Linson .... producer
William Pohlad .... producer
Brian Young .... executive producer
The producer is generally regarded by the studio or production company as the ultimate authority on the project, the person who is actually in charge of the film. This may or may not be true in reality; for example, Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, and Clayton Townsend served as producers on Natural Born Killers, but you don't have to have read Hamsher's very funny behind-the-scenes book Killer Instinct to know that director Oliver Stone was the true Big Kahuna on the project. Regardless, when the studio or prodco has questions or concerns, they call the producer first, not the director. Sometimes, this is accurate, and the producer is in fact the real authority on the film. Enemy of the State, Con Air, Coyote Ugly, and Gone in 60 Seconds were all directed by different men (Tony Scott, Simon West, David McNally, and Dominic Sena, respectively), but the fact that they're all so generically similar can be attributed to their being produced by the same man, Jerry Bruckheimer, a very powerful producer who puts his indelible stamp on everything he does.
At other times, this aspect of a producer's role may be viewed simply as insulation -- in other words, keeping the studio's meddlesome suits out of the director's hair. For example, David Fincher (along with stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton) was the artistic heavyweight on the film Fight Club, but he only directed and did not produce. Above him, the most experienced producer on the film (as opposed to the executive producer, which I'll get to shortly) was old pro Art Linson, who also produced Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, Michael Mann's Heat, and Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, among others. Most likely, Linson used his decades of experience and served the film in an organizational and logistical capacity, leaving all the creative decisions regarding editing, designs, photography, etc. to Fincher and his team. When the studio -- in this case, 20th Century Fox -- started getting antsy about how the Fight Club budget was adding up, they would call Linson to complain, and then it was Linson's responsibility to talk to Fincher to see where they could stretch their dollars or otherwise economize on the production. That way, the director is free to make the movie he wants with a minimum of headaches and interference, and the studio is comfortable that there's an experienced and knowledgeable person who's nominally in charge, and whom they can call when they need to kvetch.
Regardless of who actually wears the big pants on a film, the producer almost always ends up heading the financial and organizational aspect of the production. He or she supervises the budgeting process, approves major expenses, and answers to the studio or production company when there are problems. The producer also has veto power over most of the director's decisions, although in the interest of maintaining a happy set, this is usually not exercised except in crisis situations. (This changes, of course, if the director is powerful enough to have negotiated "final cut" on the film, or other perks.) And when things go wrong on the set -- if, say, on a location shoot, so many local residents have showed up to gawk that they're getting in the way, or maybe the costume truck got towed away by mistake -- it's the producer who's expected to be in charge of fixing the problem.
As mentioned above, the producer's role continues through postproduction, into editing, scoring, and especially marketing and distribution. Most directors will be fairly active while the film is being edited and scored; it's then the producer's job to look at the first cut of the film (done by the director and editor) and suggest revisions before the studio or production company get to see it. As the project marches toward completion, most directors begin to fade out of the picture. The producer usually takes the lead on cutting television commercials and theatrical trailers, deciding on posters, billboards, and other marketing material, and negotiating distribution deals with the exhibitors. The director may still be involved in certain aspects of the filmmaking process (particularly in visual-effects-heavy projects, where some effects shots are being completed two weeks before the film is scheduled to open), but when it comes to actually getting the film onto screens and convincing audiences to go to the cinema to see it, that's the producer's job.
