Scott Rudin

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Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American motion picture producer known not only for his award-winning films but for his legendary temper.

[edit] Life and Work

Rudin was born and raised in the New York City area. At 15 years old, he started working as an assistant to renowned theatre producer Kermit Bloomgarden. Later, he worked for producers Robert Whitehead and Emanuel Azenberg. In lieu of college, Rudin took a job as a casting agent and ended up starting his own company. His newly minted firm cast numerous Broadway shows, including "Pippin" (1972), for Stuart Ostrow and Bob Fosse and "Annie" (1977), for Mike Nichols. He also cast PBS's "Verna USO Girl" (1978), starring Sissy Spacek and William Hurt, and the movies "King of the Gypsies" (1978), "The Wanderers" (1979), "Simon" (1980) and "Resurrection" (1980),^[1].

In 1980, Rudin moved to Los Angeles, taking up employment at Edgar J. Scherick Associates, where he served as producer on a variety of films including "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can" (1981), the NBC mimiseries "Little Gloria... Happy at Last" (1982) and the Oscar-winning documentary "He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'" (1983)^[2].

After his stint at Edgar J. Sherick Associates, Rudin formed Scott Rudin Productions. His first film under that banner was Gillian Armstrong's "Mrs. Soffel" (1984). But, not long after, Rudin placed his production shingle in dormancy and joined 20th Century-Fox as a producer. At Fox, he met Jonathan Dolgen, a higher-level executive, with whom he would be working at Paramount Pictures years later. Rudin swiftly rose through the ranks and became president of production by 1986 at the age of 29^[3]. His stint at the top of Fox was short lived though, and he soon took up a producing deal with Paramount Pictures.

On August 1, 1992, at the age of 34, Rudin allowed his contract with Paramount Pictures to expire and signed a deal with Tri-Star Pictures. Under the terms of his Paramount agreement he was not given a development fund, the account from which top producers typically draw to cover movie development expenses. His Tri-Star deal, on the other hand, was a three-year, first-look agreement, guaranteeing him a minimum of $ 1.5 million per year, a $ 1.5 million producer fee per picture, a discretionary fund of $ 2 million-plus and a back end of about 5% of first dollar gross with lucrative built-in escalations^[4]. This arrangement counted on his producing three movies per year for the studio.

At the time, Rudin was quoted in the film industry trade paper Variety as saying, "It [the Tri-Star deal] allows me to really feel like I'm a partner with the studio rather than an employee of a studio and to feel I have control with the elements and the way the pictures are mounted... This deal gives me the ability to make what I want to make in the way I want to make them and to move freely in terms of developing and purchasing material"^[5].

His deal with Tri-Star, however, was brief, and he soon moved back to Paramount under more agreeable terms. Rudin's first look deal with Paramount Pictures lasted nearly fifteen years, ending in 2005. The terms of his contract granted him money to cover the overhead for Scott Rudin Productions and its 20 employees, a $3 million discretionary fund and a 7.5% cut of the back-end gross income.

After the resignation of Paramount's chairwoman, Sherry Lansing, and President, Jonathan Dolgen, though, Rudin left the studio and set a five-year first-look pact with Disney that allowed him to make movies under their three labels: Touchtone Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures and Miramax Films. Although he had an often contentious relationship with Lansing, her departure, along with that of Dolgen, whom Rudin had known since his early days at Fox and then at Tri-Star when Dolgen was at their parent company Sony, instigated his move.

Another significant reason for Rudin's departure was to channel his more arty fare through Disney's Miramax Films subsidiary. Since the departure of Harvey and Bob Weinstein from the division they set up in the eighties, Rudin felt he would be free at Disney to utilize its resources. The Weinsteins and Rudin had public confrontations during the production of the movie The Hours, which Rudin produced for Miramax when it was run by the duo. Laura M. Holson of The New York Times wrote on April 21, 2005: "Rudin is likely to fill the gap [left by the departure of Harvey and Bob Weinstein] by providing the sort of high-quality, offbeat art films that Disney has struggled to create on its own"^[6].

Over the years, Rudin has produced a diverse array of films, ranging from widely distributed arthouse fare to mainstream Hollywood features. He has been responsible for films by John Schlesinger ("Pacific Heights," 1990), Mike Nichols ("Regarding Henry," 1991), and first-time directors Jodie Foster ("Little Man Tate," 1991) and Barry Sonnenfeld ("The Addams Family," 1991). Sonnenfeld's "The Addams Family" became a major franchise, along with the surprise hit "Sister Act" (1992), starring Whoopi Goldberg^[7].

After a few failures with the 1992 pictures "White Sands" and "Jennifer 8" and 1993's "Life with Mikey" (1993), which struggled during that year's competitive summer slate, Rudin had huge success with the star-studded legal thriller "The Firm" and garnered critical acclaim with "Searching for Bobby Fischer." Surprisingly, shortly before "Searching for Bobby Fishcer" was released Fischer popped out of hiding in Yugoslavia after 20 years in seclusion. Rudin was quoted by Army Archerd of Variety as saying, "I'm not concerned [about the reemergence of Fischer]. It can only be good, to help publicize the picture... He [Fischer] is never seen in the movie--he never appears"^[8].

Subsequently, Rudin oversaw production of the romantic comedy "I.Q." (1994); the Paul Newman film "Nobody's Fool" (1994); the dark horse hit "Clueless" (1995), a breakout film for Alicia Silverstone; and Sydney Pollack's remake of "Sabrina" (1995). In 1996, he produced "The First Wives Club," a hit comedy starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton. Keaton also co-starred with Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in "Marvin's Room" (1996) and Albert Brooks' "Mother" (1996), starring Debbie Reynolds. Both were produced by Rudin. Later in '96, Rudin teamed with producer Brian Grazer on Ron Howard's "Ransom", which starred Mel Gibson, Rene Russo and Lili Taylor^[9]. Grazer had to get an exemption from his deal at Universal Pictures to join that project, which has been the only movie the two powerhouse producers have worked on together^[10].

Rudin also co-produced, with Robert Redford, Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Jonathan Hare's non-fiction book "A Civil Action" (1998), starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall. The two stars play opposing lawyers, who represent the residents of Woburn, Mass., on the one hand, and the multi-million dollar corporations Beatrice Foods and Grace Industries, on the other. The film dramatizes events of the suit, which is the largest environmental out-of-court settlement in Massachussets's history, totalling $69.4 million.

Recent films produced by Rudin include "In & Out," starring Kevin Klein; the hit The Truman Show, with Jim Carrey; the Matt Stone and Trey Parker developed movies, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police; Martin Scorsese's "Bringing Out the Dead"; the [[John Travolta vehicle, "A Civil Action"; "Sleepy Hollow," with Johnny Depp; "Wonder Boys," starring Michael Douglas, based on the award-winning novel by Michael Chabon; "Shaft," the remake with Samuel L. Jackson; the comedy hit "Zoolander," starring Ben Stiller; Wes Anderson's two arthouse hits "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"; the well-received Jack Black starrer "The School of Rock"; "Orange County," written by "The School of Rock" writer, Mike White; "The Manchurian Candidate," with Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber; Richard Eyre's "Iris," starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, the latter of whom won an Oscar for his supporting role; "The Stepford Wives," starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Bette Middler, Jon Lovitz and Roger Bart; M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village"; David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees"; Mike Nichols' "Closer," starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts; "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," starring Jim Carey; "Freedomland," with Denzel Washington; and "Failure to Launch," starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey; among many others.

His most current films are Notes on a Scandal, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench; Venus, starring Peter O'Toole; and The Queen, starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. O'Toole, Mirren and Dench have been nominated for Oscars for their leading roles in their respective films, Blanchett has been nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in Notes on a Scandal and Patrick Marber has been nominated for his screenplay, also for Notes on a Scandal. Most notably, The Queen has been nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, along the film's director, Stephen Frears, for Best Director and its writer, Peter Morgan, for Best Screenplay.

Rudin is currently developing adaptations of the novels The Corrections, Special Topics in Calamity Physics and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. He is also in various stagse of production on the following projects, among many others: Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," starring Daniel Day-Lewis; "The Other Boleyn Girl," which is based on the best-selling novel of the same name; Kenneth Lonergan's "Margaret"; David Gordon Green's "The Goat"; an untitled Alan Ball project; and two Wes Andreson pictures, "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," which is based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name.

Rudin also continues to produce for the theatre. He co-produced the unsuccessful staging of David Henry Hwang's "Face Value" with Stuart Ostrow and Jujamcyn Theaters. He started a deal with Jujamcyn Theaters to develop and produce new plays for the theater chain. In 1994, Rudin won Best Musical Tony Award for his production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's "Passion." The following year, he, along with others, produced Kathleen Turner's Broadway comeback, "Indiscretions," and Ralph Fiennes New York theatre debut, "Hamlet." In 1996, Rudin produced the revival of the Stephen Sondheim and Larry Gelbart musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", which starred Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Mark Linn-Baker. Rudin also produced "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" "Beckett/Albee," and the 2004 revival of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Rudin engaged in a lawsuit with Stephen Sondheim over the composer's latest musical, Bounce, a development that partially contributed to the production's demise^[11].

Rudin ranked #18 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List, up from his 2002 position at #26^[12].

Rudin, who is openly gay, continues to live in New York City with his life partner, John Barlow, a broadway theatre publicist and founding partner of Barlow Hartman Public Relations. Rudin has family in Wilmington, Delaware, including a nephew, Sam, and a niece, Allie.

[edit] Rudin's assistants

It is estimated that Rudin has had anywhere between 120 and 250 assistants over a four year period, earning him a reputation as one of the entertainment industry's most feared bosses ^[13]. There are other Hollywood moguls who fit the build, such as Jeremy Zimmer (chronicled in David Rensin's book, "The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up"^[14]), Judith Regan, Joel Silver, and Harvey Weinstein, among others, but Rudin is often cited as the most verbally abusive. Not surprisingly, two of the hottest heads in Hollywood, Rudin and Weinstein, feuded during the production of The Hours, a movie that was produced by Rudin at Miramax Films, the mini-major movie studio Weinstein ran with his brother Bob for Disney at the time.

Rudin said, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "There is one shop in town [Miramax] that is making challenging movies. I think it's incredible that he [Weinstein] has found a way to run a business making these kind of movies." However, "we are both control freaks. We both want to run our own shows. When I'm doing a Miramax movie, I work for him. And I don't like that feeling. I chafe under that. I especially chafe under it when I feel that I'm on a leash."^[15]

Accounts of the relationship between Rudin and his assistants unfold like a drama, literally. The experiences of Andrea Sachs in the novel, The Devil Wears Prada (novel), in which she is an assistant to a verbally abusive fashion mogul named Miranda Priestly has been described as frighteningly similar to life under Rudin. Rudin is rumored to have been the inspiration for Buddy Ackerman, the crude, verbally abusive movie mogul played by Kevin Spacey in the film Swimming with Sharks; Nikki Finke counters that allegation, stating that the actual model is Barry Josephson.^[16]

The portly Rudin is said to recruit his assistants into enforcing his dietary preferences, screaming through the door for his latest weight-reducing food of choice. For this reason "String cheese!" is a particuarly well-known catchphrase amongst Hollywood assistants.