Well, isn't this quite the youthful shake-up! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has announced the producers who will create next year's Oscars telecast: previous telecast director Don Mischer and Rush Hour/X-Men 3 director Brett Ratner. Does this mean less snooze and more explosions for the annual awards season centerpiece?
Movie producers routinely say they're about artistic integrity, but Metalwork Pictures' Andrew Levitas finds himself in the unique position of actually being an artist himself, having come up through the New York City art scene as a heralded painter, sculptor, and photographer. So when he speaks of box office potential as being almost incidental to a film as work of art, he's the rare producer who actually sounds genuinely unconcerned with financial returns.
Film producer and studio executive Laura Ziskin passed away Sunday after a public battle with cancer, having established a distinguished career as one of Hollywood's most prominent female producers. Her notable credits include Pretty Woman (1990), Hero (1992), To Die For (1995), As Good as It Gets (1997), as well as all three of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films and the upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man. Ziskin was 61.
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