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JOSH McLAUGHLIN JOINING FOCUS FEATURES AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCTION

Posted Saturday, March 10th, 2012 - Comments Off on JOSH McLAUGHLIN JOINING FOCUS FEATURES AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCTION
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, March 9, 2012 – Josh McLaughlin is joining Focus Features as senior vice president, production at the worldwide film company. Focus president of production Jeb Brody made the announcement today.

Mr. McLaughlin begins work this month. Reporting to Mr. Brody, he will be based in Focus’ West Coast offices and will work with the global Focus production team in New York, London, and Los Angeles.

The executive is joining Focus directly from his position as executive vice president at Chernin Entertainment, the new media company where he worked for nearly two years with founder and chairman Peter Chernin and president Dylan Clark, growing the film production arm.

Previously, Mr. McLaughlin was executive vice president, and co-head of the motion picture division, of The Mark Gordon Company. Among the movies that he produced there was Kasi Lemmons’ award-winningTalk to Me, starring Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor, which was made with Focus Features. He worked with Mr. Gordon for two years at Mutual Film Company and then for eight years at The Mark Gordon Company, after beginning his industry career at The Gersh Agency.

Mr. Brody said, “Josh is a gifted executive who not only has extensive relationships within the creative community – particularly with directors and writers – but who also has a knack for finding and developing smart material. He will be a great addition to the Focus team.”

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world.

Current and upcoming Focus releases include Being Flynn, written and directed by Paul Weitz and starring two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and Paul Dano; Moonrise Kingdom, the new feature from Wes Anderson that will world-premiere as the opening-night film of the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival, starring Bruce Willis,

Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman; Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley; Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s ParaNorman, the new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA; Jamie Travis’ contemporary comedy For a Good Time, Call…, starring Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller; the untitled international suspense thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall for director John Crowley; the historical tale Hyde Park on Hudson, directed by Roger Michell and starring Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney; and Joe Wright’s epic love story Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, Aaron Johnson, and Jude Law.

Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

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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.”
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