For their work, Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner, along with Pitt, will receive this year’s David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18.
The Plan B origin story is a two-parter. From 2001 to 2005, Brad Pitt ran the Oscar-winning production company behind The Departed with his then-wife, Jennifer Aniston, and the late Brad Grey. But in 2005, Grey took the top job at Paramount, and the high-profile couple split, leaving Pitt in need of a new brain trust. Enter Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, both recent hires at Plan B who helped usher in the company’s new era, which has spanned hit films like World War Z and Eat Pray Love and two more best picture wins with 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight.
Fifteen years and nearly 30 films later, Plan B remains one of the most envied banners in Hollywood. Since 2013, Gardner, 52, and Kleiner, 43, have run the company with Pitt as a triumvirate and have moved aggressively in TV, backing such Emmy winners as The Normal Heart and Feud: Bette and Joan. For their work, the pair, along with Pitt, 56, will receive this year’s David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18.