Back in October, I wrote about some studio in-fighting and drama around 12 Years a Slave. It was interesting to me because Brad Pitt executive produced 12 Years and without Brad, the film probably would not have been made anywhere, and now it’s one of the leading contenders for Best Picture. The gist of the controversy a few months ago was that Paramount thought Plan B should have brought 12 Years to them, per their long-standing contract, instead of finding financing and distribution elsewhere. The situation is said to have “soured” Brad’s relationship with his long-time friend and career Svengali Brad Grey, who heads Paramount. More on this in a moment.
Brad has made himself into a powerhouse producer over the past decade with Plan B, his production house. I feel like Brad’s cinematic vision is to promote talented directors with difficult projects, projects that might not cost a lot of money but that studios don’t really want to touch. Brad’s track record as a producer isn’t even hit-or-miss – before this year, Plan B barely made its money back on most of their films. But then Brad delivered the one-two punch of World War Z and 12 Years a Slave, and now everyone is talking about what a producing genius he is. Interestingly enough, Plan B’s eight-year contract with Paramount is about to end, and The Hollywood Reporter says Brad is going to move Plan B somewhere else:
The long business relationship between Brad Pitt’s production company and Paramount CEO Brad Grey is about to end, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Pitt’s Plan B production company, which is riding high on recent hits 12 Years a Slave and World War Z, will exit its home of eight years when its deal with Paramount expires at the end of 2013.
Plan B, which Pitt runs with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, is headed toward a three-year deal with Arnon Milchan’s New Regency, producer of 12 Years. RatPac Entertainment, the upstart financier-production company founded by Australian billionaire James Packer and filmmaker Brett Ratner, will serve as a finance partner on Plan B films.
“Our company is built on working with the best talent in the business. By bringing Plan B, with their solid filmmaker relationships and stellar pool of talent, into the fold with RatPac, we are doing just that,” Brad Weston, president and CEO of New Regency, said in a statement.
“There are very few partners in this business who are able to balance artistic integrity with commercial viability. Working hand in hand with New Regency and RatPac, we feel we have found the perfect fit,” a rep for Plan B said in a statement.
There were tensions between Paramount and Plan B during the troubled production of the Marc Forster-directed World War Z and more recently over 12 Years a Slave. In October, THR reported that a dispute had arisen because Paramount executives believed Plan B had breached the company’s deal with the studio by failing to offer it an opportunity to finance and distribute 12 Years. In April 2012, a few weeks before director Steve McQueen began filming the slavery drama, New Regency agreed to co-finance and distribute the picture via Fox Searchlight. The film has earned early awards buzz and is performing well at the box office, having grossed more than $35 million to date.
Still, the relationship between Pitt and Grey is said to remain amicable, and the studio will continue to partner on projects that were developed during Plan B’s tenure at Paramount.
Part of me dislikes Brad Pitt’s disloyalty to Brad Grey, who was always one of Pitt’s biggest champions. But maybe the relationship has run its course. I think both Grey and Pitt got burned BIG TIME with the production disaster of World War Z. Even though the film has gone on to the biggest hit of Pitt’s career, for the better part of two years, Paramount was seemingly pouring good money after bad, trying to save the production.
Speaking of, the sequel to World War Z was just greenlighted this week too. COINCIDENCE? I think this is probably one of the last times Pitt and Grey will work together, and maybe they both think they can squeeze some money out of a sequel. Obviously, director Marc Forster will not be returning for the sequel (Forster and Pitt basically stopped speaking to each other because of the disorganization and incompetence on-set). THR says that Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Impossible and The Orphanage, will direct the WWZ sequel. MORE ZOMBIES.
Photos courtesy of WENN, PR Photos.
Good news.
I can’t blame him for wanting to move.
We don’t know what happened behind the scenes but I’m pretty sure the beef with 12YAS was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Sometimes change is needed.
Maria you just said what I wanted to say
I’m glad for Brad and his team. Paramount acted so low rent. Doing that VF piece. Trying to throw DeDe and Jeremy under the bus. I love how Brad handled this. No fuss . took care of his business like a man does. With Class..
I read his HR interview and he kind of hinted that this was coming.
You are spot on as always lisa2
It was also said that paramount threw Dede and Jeremy under the bus and cleared Brad Pitt of any blame after the success of TYAS saying they didn’t tell the truth about TYAS which didn’t give them opportunity to market it.
Deadline has an interesting take on it stating that Brad Pitt and Brad Grey are still on good terms. http://m.deadline.com/2013/12/in-latest-producerstudio-divorce-brad-pitts-plan-b-headed-to-new-regency/
I don’t see it as disloyalty. That article that VF put out with quotes from Paramount about the WWZ issues before it came out is what I think soured the relationship. Paramount was basically saying if the movie sucks it’s Brad’s fault. That whole article made no sense for people from the studio actually commenting in.
Dede, the woman in the pic with Brad, has even said stuff about she didn’t understand why all what was said happened.
Agreed. Paramount showed their ass in the VF article, predicting doom and gloom.
And then what happened? The movie did so well that the sequel has been approved for production. Can you imagine working with backstabbers like that?
Deleted double post
Brett Ratner? He makes terrible movies
How is Brad being disloyal to Brad Grey. Paramount was disloyal to Brad. Bad talking a film that you are behind before it hits theaters. How would you characterize that move. If anyone should be pissed it is Brad Pitt. but notice he is not slamming them or given unnamed quotes.
and Marc and Brad were speaking to each other. I’m sure they may have had conflicts but not everyone is a 3 year old. You move pass that and do your job. Exactly what they both did. Again you never heard either of them speak ill of the other. If they did have a problem they didn’t discuss it in the press. Both have and were very professional; despite the reporting to the differ.
I think that the Brad’s are still friends, and understand that business is business. I would not be surprised if Brad Grey is gone in a few years.. or earlier.. He has a lot of people on his back.
As usual lisa you didn’t leave any stone unturned 🙂 😉
World War Z was a terrible film. I don’t care how much money it made. I say that as a person who loves zombie movies and loves Brad Pitt. The plot of WWZ was an absolute mess and the zombies weren’t remotely scary. I was really disappointed. Hopefully, the sequel will be much better. Maybe I just don’t like Marc Forster. I thought he really screwed up “Quantum of Solace”, too.
Me too, I usually love zombie movies and TV shows (huge fan of The Walking Dead) but for me it was World War Z for Zzzzz.
Agreed. Was disappointed to hear that they’re going back to make a sequel of this mess. To what, perpetuate “Brangelina runs away from zombies with the kids, part II?” Because that’s exactly what the movie felt like, a metaphor of what Brad and Angelina’s life would be like if civilization broke down, they had no money or bodyguards and they were forced to deal with the swarm of real people coming after them.
Max Brooks, the author of World War Z, didn’t hate the movie when he saw it because he said it resembled nothing of the book. And that’s the crux of it: why buy the rights to an excellent novel, use its name and not use anything of the storyline? Eh.
Maybe the sequel will fall more in line w/the books–but how do you make a film based on a book that is basically interviewing the survivors? I was a bit perplexed on that one–someone said there was an original script that followed the book, but never put the link up.
There were a couple of obvious ways they could’ve kept it more in line with the book: documentary with flashbacks; or just have an ensemble cast with a set of stories that are thematically linked, but don’t really intersect (like Love Actually).
But restructuring with a central “hero” character – while not necessary – wasn’t the main issue. The problem was they a) didn’t follow any of the scenarios in the book, and b) made huge changes to the mechanics of the zombies, which makes most of the book scenarios impossible to cover in the sequel, even if they wanted to.
It’s not like book-fans were really wedded to the documentary structure, it’s the specific stories (everyone has their own favourites) and the global/political feel.
That said, I did enjoy the movie as an action blockbuster. (I knew it was going to be nothing like the book before going in, so I wasn’t expecting it to be something it wasn’t.) It just seems silly to waste money on rights if you’re only going to use the title. Just make a movie called Brad Pitt vs the Zombie Hordes, save some money, and leave the rights free for someone else who wants to make a closer adaptation.
(But on the bright side, I am glad Brooks got some cash and publicity out of it.)
@Lucrezia,
I am in agreement with you. WWZ wasn’t a terrible movie…it just wasn’t WWZ. I think Pitt even acknowledged that he set out to make a different film, I don’t remember his explanation of why it didn’t come together. I don’t mind that they are making a follow up. It only makes sense because they raked in the dough on the first one. My one complaint is that as long as Pitt and company hold the rights and are franchising it, there is little hope of ever seeing a movie/t.v. mini-series based on the actual book. It was one hell of a good read.
I loved WWZ ( and all things Zombie) i cant wait for the sequel.
Team Daryl and michonne !!!!
I found it a fun popcorn action movie too.
And The Walking Dead hasn’t been good since the 1st season.
It was a terrible zombie movie.
28 Days Later was a fantastic zombie movie. Even the resident Evil series are better (well, not the last one maybe) zombie movies. Shawn on the Dead was better.
I didn’t read the book, so I went into the movie with zero expectations beyond a good zombie movie. It sucked. Every part of it sucked, from the typical “dad makes pancakes to show the family is happy” to the very stupid end.
and the zombies themselves made stupid “cawing” noises? wth?
and the whole scene in Israel? you mean this guy had the idea to defend the city and build a haven but no one took the damn microphone from the kid, so she’d shut up? and a helicopter couldn’t blow the zombies away? come ON.
stupid.
Give me the Umbrella Corporation any day.
The split has probably been in the making for a while especially with Paramount bringing in Bruckheimer. Plus Paramount doesn’t make that many movies per year and there really isn’t that much room on their plate for the kind of movies Plan B wants to make. Paramount doesn’t want to make the type of films Plan B is interested un they are more interested in making a small number of big franchise movies every year along with one or two midsize dramas or comedies. Seems with Plan B going to New Regency they will be able to get more movies out there that studios would normally not be interested in. The only films Paramount had backed for Plan B over the past 8 years or so was Mighty Heart and WWZ. So all in all, its best for all interested parties involved. Sometimes things aren’t personal but just pure business. Especially since it seemed Plan B had to always go outside of Paramount for any if its projects.
Your use of the term “Svengali,” says it all.
Paramount makes very few movies a year and those tend to be tentpoles whereas Pitt wants to produce smaller films. Most of the movies produced by Plan B were released by other distributors so it makes sense for him to find a more suitable partner. Paramount is getting Bruckheimer from Disney anyways, so they don’t really have room for Brad anyways.
I’m sure the relationship has been rocky for the past year and half both parties have essentially admitted as much. However, both company should be better off by going their separate ways.
It has been announced already that Plan B will be working with New Regency Films. And Plan B will team up with a production company called the BratPac owned by some billionaire.
It is also rumored that said billionaire is Miranda Kerr’s boyfriend.
It seems that Brad wants to retain his ability to be an artist. He wants to support creative films, and he clearly does not have much of a stomach for mainstream films. Good for Brad staying true to his character.
Doesn’t have the stomach for mainstream films? You’re kidding, right? What do you call WWZ?
Apparently the issue was with Dede , Jeremy and Brad Gray, not Brad and Brad….but Brad Pitt is the most loyal to Dede and Jeremy so that’s who he went with.
I just find it interesting that Brad Pitt moved from one Brad (Brad Grey) to another Brad (Brad Weston). So many Brad… 🙂
World War Z was one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen. The zombie effects were great, blah, blah. The end was like they were told they had 5 minutes to wrap it up. In all, a complete and total waste of time.
I remember that article–which actually sheds a lot of light on how Brad (and by extension, Angelina) were doing in the first year or so of their relationship. Because right around the time Angelina got pregnant (October/November/December–those months) was when the rumors were floating around that Brad Grey was leaving, and Brad Pitt–the producer–was DONE. Dede said that basically every producer/studio head in town was telling her and Jeremy that Brad Pitt was only a producer for the vanity of it all, and now that Brad Grey was gone, Brad Pitt would be selling the company and they’d need new jobs by the end of it.
Look how well he showed them. I think it also shows what a great guy he is–in the same article it says that he paid their salaries with his own money until they got back on their feet. And I do like that beyond saying ‘game on f-kers’, Brad hasn’t said a bad word about anyone who was involved, when he had plenty of opportunity to do so.
I don’t know about him, but with my partner pregnant, two young kids at home already, other work I had to worry about (films), in between trying to fit all that around my partner’s schedule (filming, humanitarian work) AND trying to spend time w/my kids–I don’t know how he didn’t throw in the towel then. I’m sure plenty of people expected it–and I don’t think anyone would’ve blamed him if he did. But I’m glad Angelina has supported him through the highs and lows of the whole thing, even if it was just a hug—he feasibly could’ve been laughed out of the producing world.
Virgilia, I truly do like and respect you, so I don’t want this to come across as a personal attack, but I have to disagree that Brad saying “game on, fuckers” was a classy thing to do.
That’s what I said–beyond him saying that, he hasn’t said a bad word about anyone. And even then–he didn’t name any names. If I’m remembering it right, he said it in response to everyone (all the producers in Hollywood) who said that his production company was going to fold because Brad Grey left.
And besides–what you said wasn’t a personal attack.
I don’t care how much money the first movie made; it was awful. All his press before it hit theaters really paid off. It’s too bad people don’t care about the content of the actual film when spending their money. This is proof.
I feel another perfume commercial coming!
Another two minutes, another seven million. 😉
good I loved the last one.
I’m sure you did, Lisa2. Inevitable….
well don’t be mad Holly.. you and the others I’m sure will have something else to rag on him about. And as you said…
it is Inevitable..
LOL Holly…I see what you did there!!
I love zombies. And I really enjoyed WWZ. I found the zombies terrifying! After getting used to the slow moving “walkers” on the Walking Dead…these scared the heck outta me! Brad Pitt acting like a gentleman during the entire contentious process doesn’t surprise me. He always does.