“For a long time people tried to figure out ‘What is Plan B?’” says Plan B principal Dede Gardner, who along with fellow executives Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt will receive the David O. Selznick Award at the 31st annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18. “I remember Brad came to us the year that we released ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘World War Z’ with a grin on his face: ‘That’s Plan B.’ Truthfully, it’s narratively driven. We are real lovers of stories, and that’s been the singular guidepost since the very beginning.”
Those films, along with a prestigious, awards and nomination-heavy output including “Selma,” “The Big Short,” “Moonlight,” “Vice” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” form the sort of enviable body of work over the course of Plan B’s two decades — one Kleiner says is informed by the fluid Pitt-influenced development culture “of trying to stay present tense and be inspired, when the inspirations arrive in whatever form: a filmmaker or a book or a piece of journalism.”
“Brad’s a true cinephile, and genuinely blows our mind constantly with the amount that he sees, the depth to which he does to investigate as a filmmaker,” Gardner says. “His curiosity is an inspiring thing to be around.”
Pitt’s Plan B Partners Talk Harvey Weinstein Book Adaptation, ‘World War Z’ Sequel
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.
PGA Awards
The Producers Guild unveiled the year’s best in film and TV producing Saturday at the 31st annual PGA Awards at the Hollywood Palladium, with Universal’s 1917 taking the top film prize. It keeps the momentum going strong for Sam Mendes’ World War I epic, which is produced and financed by Amblin Partners and New Republic, after it picked up the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama earlier this month.
Other honorees included Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B, who received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures.
• x032 January 18 – Producers Guild Awards – Los Angeles, CA
Watch Brad, Leo and Quentin Talk ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ at ‘FYC’ Q&A
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and writer-director Quentin Tarantino may have shown up a little late coming from the annual AFI Awards lunch (Jan 03), but the point is, they showed up! We weren’t lying! The trio sat down with For Your Consideration host Scott Mantz as part of the FYC Screening Series at ArcLight Cinemas, where Tarantino revealed that he watches the show!
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Château Miraval to Premiere Rosé Champagne
The Provence pink powerhouse is teaming with one of the top grower Champagne producers. Plus, behind the scenes of the new Piper-Heidsieck Prohibition-themed Oscars bottle
When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie separated nearly four years ago, rosé observers wondered what would become of their Côtes de Provence estate, Château Miraval. At very least, it would likely be stuck in custody limbo while terms of the divorce dragged on, wrote the skeptics.
Instead, things have been busier than ever, with the co-owning Perrin family of the Rhône’s Château de Beaucastel propping up Miraval through the difficult split of its other parents. Last year, we reported that Miraval had unveiled a shiny new top-of-the-line cellar and released a new (record-breaking) prestige rosé cuvée, Muse de Miraval, from the vineyard’s best and oldest parcels. Now, winemaker Marc Perrin tells us a Miraval Champagne is next.
“We are working very hard on that right now with Rodolphe Péters, from Pierre Péters,” Perrin told us. One of Champagne’s hottest grower-producers, Péters has made a splash with his unusual rosé-making technique, blending a saignée of Pinot Meunier with Chardonnay—though no word yet on the style of the Miraval Champagne. “We will create the only Champagne house which only makes rosé,” said Perrin. “We are going to try to push the quality of rosé as far as possible in Champagne.” We’re feeling confident Miraval’s new marriage of talents can make it work.
Leonardo DiCaprio on his Oscar nod, Brad Pitt and Ricky Gervais
In “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays a struggling actor who can only dream of being nominated for an Academy Award. He has to fight for good parts, is never recognized for industry accolades and is forced to travel overseas to get work.
You and costar Brad Pitt seem to have grown especially close on the awards trail. How has your friendship evolved since filming?
Both of us connected with the relationship that the two characters have in the film — the support system they have for one another. Having grown up in this industry around the same time and places, we just clicked into these people. It was a really natural, implicit understanding. It was amazing working with Brad.
At the Golden Globes this month, he cracked that he thought Jack should’ve shared the life raft with Rose at the end of “Titanic.” Were you surprised by the depth of his “Titanic” knowledge?
He always comes prepared with some good quip on stage — especially the last-minute ones.
Amazon Strikes Overall TV Deal With Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment & Sets Mystery Drama ‘Outer Range’
Amazon has struck an exclusive overall television deal with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.
This marks the first ever exclusive TV agreement for Plan B, which met with a number of studios and streamers before setting up TV home at Amazon Studios.
Under the pact, Plan B, run by co-presidents Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, have teamed with the streamer on thriller drama Outer Range, created by playwright Brian Watkins. It centers on a rancher fighting for his land and family, who discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness. Zev Borow, Heather Rae, and Plan B Entertainment executive produce.
At Amazon, Plan B already is producing Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel. The story centers on young Cora (Thuso Mbedu), a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia who learns about the Underground Railroad from Caesar (Aaron Pierre), a recent arrival from Virginia; both decide to escape. The show is set to air later this year.
