By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

BRETT RATNER AND DON MISCHER TO PRODUCE 84TH ACADEMY AWARDS® TELECAST

Posted Thursday, August 4th, 2011 - Comments Off on BRETT RATNER AND DON MISCHER TO PRODUCE 84TH ACADEMY AWARDS® TELECAST
Be Sociable, Share!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mischer to also serve as telecast director

Beverly Hills, CA – Brett Ratner and Don Mischer will produce the 84th Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced today.  This will be Ratner’s first involvement with the Oscar show; Mischer will for the second year in a row serve as a producer and as the telecast director.

“I was so impressed with Brett when I met with him to discuss the Oscar show,” said Sherak.  “He has an incredible love of film and its history and is a true student of the business of movies.  He’s unbelievably creative and knows how to take risks that are both interesting and inspiring.  Together with Don Mischer – who, by the way, just earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the 83rd Academy Awards – I think these two will give us a fantastic Oscar show that you won’t want to miss.”

“I’m thrilled that Don will again bring his tremendous expertise to the Oscar telecast,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson.  “And Brett has a really smart and fresh take for the show.  They have great chemistry, and their vision meshed so well with ours.”

“Making movies has been my dream since childhood, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have made several, but the Oscar show is in a league of its own,” said Ratner.  “It will be fantastic to work with a live television master like Don to meld the glamour of legendary Hollywood with the enormous talents who thrill moviegoers today.”

“The Academy Awards are in a class by themselves, and I’m elated that the Academy has asked me to return,” said Mischer. “I hope to take the wealth of knowledge I now have about the Oscars, which is a completely unique kind of show, and work with Brett to create an evening that is fast-paced, fun, and memorable to movie fans and Oscar fans everywhere.”

Ratner’s work spans movies, including eight features; numerous television series; over 100 music videos; and a multitude of commercials. A native of Miami Beach, he is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he now serves on the Dean’s Council.  He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Simon Wiesenthal Center.  Ratner’s next directorial release is “Tower Heist,” due out in November, and he will soon begin directing “39 Clues” for DreamWorks, based on the popular young-adult book series published by Scholastic, as well as “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” for MGM. Ratner’s film producing credits include “Horrible Bosses,” currently in release, as well as an upcoming adaptation of “Snow White,” in which Julia Roberts will play the Queen.

Additionally, Ratner has produced documentaries about the legendary photographer Helmut Newton and the actor John Cazale, and he executive produced the documentary  “Catfish” as well as the upcoming “Seriously Funny – The Comic Art of Woody Allen,” which will debut on PBS in November as a two-part installment of the “American Masters” series.

In addition to the 83rd Academy Awards, Mischer’s producer/director credits include “We Are One:  The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial,” “The Kennedy Center Honors,” several Super Bowl half-time shows and the opening ceremonies of both Winter and Summer Olympic Games.  He has also produced specials with a wide range of musical performers, including Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Bono, Barbra Streisand, Justin Timberlake and Yo Yo Ma.  Among the many honors he has earned are 15 Emmy Awards, 10 Directors Guild of America Awards, two NAACP Image Awards and a Peabody Award.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

# # #

ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards – in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners – the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.

FOLLOW THE ACADEMY
www.oscars.org
www.facebook.com/TheAcademy
www.youtube.com/Oscars
www.twitter.com/TheAcademy

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on BRETT RATNER AND DON MISCHER TO PRODUCE 84TH ACADEMY AWARDS® TELECAST

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon