Brad Grey - FishbowlLA

Paramount Pictures Proposes $700 Million Upgrade

Marcus Vanderberg — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:03:18 +0000

Paramount Pictures announced plans Tuesday for a $700 million upgrade at its Hollywood studio.

As part of the project, Paramount would build five new, 20,000-plus square-foot soundstages and tear down four old, 5,000-square-foot soundstages. Other upgrades include new post production facilities and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified headquarters building.

The 25-year plan, dubbed the Hollywood Project, is expected to generate 7,300 jobs during the construction phase and $3.1 billion in economic output annually.

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Hollywood, Meet Bollywood

Richard Horgan — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:00:00 +0000

There was a big to-do on the Paramount Pictures lot yesterday involving LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey, California Film Commissioner Amy Lemisch and Indian producers Bobby Bedi and L. Suresh.

As part of a city declaration, it was agreed that efforts will be made to create something called the Los Angeles-India Film Council to nurture more Southern California shoots for Bollywood film and TV projects. Recent large-budget Indian productions filmed locally include My Name is Khan (2010), Kites (2010) and Kambakkht Ishq (2009). (Yes, Bollyood is friendly with the letter “K”.)

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Sad But True, Viacom Lets 7% Go — And We Mean Employees, Not Films

Dan Cox — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:55:53 +0000

The hits just keep on comin’. Viacom succumbed to the cost-cutting measures with a seven percent shave that included Paramount Vantage chief Nick Meyer (pictured at right) and 500 more at MTV Networks, Variety reports.

“Like all other divisions of the company, Paramount too is adapting to the changing conditions and, as a result, we will reduce our global workforce,” Paramount chairman-CEO Brad Grey wrote Thursday in a memo circulated to staff. “These reductions are across the studio: accounting, business/legal affairs, corporate and government affairs, home entertainment, human resources, information technology, production, studio lot operations and Vantage.”

For Paramount, more are expected soon.

Bad day, week, month at Paramount.

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Bernie Brillstein Dies at 77

Dan Cox — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:26:15 +0000

Bernie Brillstein, one of the premiere manager/producers in the industry and the orchestrator behind the careers of John Belushi, Jim Henson and a slew of ‘Saturday Night Live’ stars, died this week from complications stemming from double-bypass heart surgery in February.

Brillstein ran the most successful management company in Hollywood in the 1980s and ’90s, repping such stars as Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Geena Davis, Martin Short, Jim Belushi, Dabney Coleman, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Nicolas Cage, Rob Lowe and Jay Tarses.Brillstein partnered with Brad Grey in 1991. After producing such shows with Brillstein as “The Sopranos,” “Just Shoot Me,” “NewsRadio” and “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.” Grey went on to become the chairman and CEO for Paramount Pictures.

Brillstein was an outgoing, avuncular Santa Clause type who will be sorely missed.

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Paramount Lays Off 60 for an Internal Merger?

Dan Cox — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:50:50 +0000

Paramount Pictures, in the interest of merging its marketing, distribution and physical production departments will lay off as many as 60 overlapping positions, the studio announced today and Deadline Hollywood Daily reported.
Paramount chairman Brad Grey had no comment on the layoffs, but was very upbeat about the potential for Paramount with a number of upcomig films, like “Transformers 2″ and “Star Trek.” Grey addressed reporters at Herb Allen’s Sun Valley Media Conference in mid-July.
“Over the past three years, as we have rebuilt and grown the organization, Paramount and Paramount Vantage have consistently looked to evolve in a way that best serves our filmmakers, their creativity and our consumers,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures and John Lesher, President, Paramount Film Group. â€œWe are grateful for the immense contributions from so many Paramount and Vantage professionals who have been instrumental in our successes. Moving forward, this new structure provides us with a solid foundation as we prepare for our upcoming slate of diverse films, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, G.I. Joe, Star Trek and Transformers 2, to name a few.”
Nick Meyer, President, Paramount Vantage, added: â€œSimilarly, Paramount Vantage looks forward to leveraging this new organization to release The Duchess, Defiance and Revolutionary Road later this year, as well as our exciting slate for 2009 and beyond. With the addition of our new EVP of Production and Acquisitions, Guy Stodel, and the talented team we already have in place, Vantage is well positioned for the future.”

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Dauman, Grey Mum About Redstone Succession

Chris Ariens — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:05:10 +0000

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Paramount Chairman Brad Grey and Viacom CEO and President Philippe Dauman, after having an enjoyable Allen & Co.-sponsored lunch, refused to discuss the New York Times item this morning about Viacom founder Sumner Redstone settling with his daughter Shari to buyout her interest in the company. Redstone and Viacom reps were not available. But both Dauman and Grey, walking as quickly away from the pair of journos tracking them, said: “We aren’t commenting on that.”

Former Disney chairman Michael Eisner wouldn’t admit as much, but he had to be pleased that he didn’t have to worry about any potential SAG strike. SAG is sitting down today with the AMPTP to possibly avert such a strike, but Eisner flat out refused to discuss it. “I won’t talk about the SAG strike,” he said. “I won’t go there.”

But Eisner did talk about his buddy Jeff Katzenberg‘s presentation on 3-D. “It was incredible and Jeff did a great job with identifying the technology behind the 3-D presentations,” he said.

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LAT In 90 Seconds

Greg — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:48:48 +0000

Animated Picture Book: In honor of Horton Hears A Who! (which the FBLA Toddler highly recommends), LAT puts together a picture book of famous people giving voice to famous animated characters. One complaint: This should include audio clips.

First Celeb Testimony in Pellicano Case: Gary Shandling took the stand yesterday. We still don’t understand why Brad Grey isn’t wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Pussy Pundit: Sex scandal in the news? Call Heidi Fleiss. We live in a weird, weird world.

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LAT In 90 Seconds — A Second Look

Greg — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:23:28 +0000

Funniest Lede: Deborah Netburn wins the kiss with this lede about how depleted our TiVos have become during the writers’ strike: “Boop. Boop. Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop. BONK.” OK. It was funny to us.

Fin: Jill Grey has filed for divorce after 25 years of marriage to Paramount Pictures head Brad Grey.

I’m Mad As Hell And … Whatever: Tom O’Neil is embarrassed by the Golden Globes fiasco. Again, we gotta ask, is it really a shock that the network would forgo “news” for fluff?

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KTLA Fingers Brad Grey for John McTiernan

Kate — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:52:44 +0000

KTLA reports on director John McTiernan getting a four-month sentence on Monday for lying to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano.

You know, this guy:

Or do they mean this guy:

The gent in the first photo looks a lot like Brad Grey.

The Fishbowl has traps for the unwary.

Earlier:
McTiernan to plead guilty: LAT, AP

(and thanks to sharp-eyed reader LG)

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Giuliani Raises Funds in Brentwood

Kate — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 07:57:16 +0000

Ambassador Rockwell Schnabel and Jon Liebman hosted the Rudy Giuliani fundraiser in Brentwood last night. Buzz Aldrin, Gary Sinese, Dyan Cannon, Jerry Bruckheimer, Lionel Chetwynd, Mike Antonovich, and around 100 others paid $2300 to hear Giuliani discuss national service, saying our soldiers fight an unpopular war yet have resolve is because they are there willingly. Lincoln and the mistakes made during the Civil War were also part of the speechifying.

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In The Trades

Kate — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:59:55 +0000

Variety:

Kiss has launched a comic book company. The first title, Kiss 4K, will debut at the Wizard World convention in Los Angeles in March. The second title is expected to be Kiss Girls, which features four teenagers who

talk about shopping and are about as dysfunctional as anyone until something happens to them and they get to wear the Kiss makeup and look good doing it.

That’s a super-feat right there.

Former business opponents, Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun have formed a new multimedia production company, BermanBraun, a TV-focused production company with strong film and Internet components. But since Grey and Bob Iger don’t get along, and Berman is unlikely to make deals with Brad Grey and Paramount, look for this shop to end up at FOX, NBC-Uni or CBS.

Hollywod Reporter

ABC has cast Donny Osmond to host its newest reality series, The Great American Dream Vote. Eight deserving victims plead with audience to make their dream come true. Winner gets dream–loser gets Mormon underwear.

Ray Richmond doubts the efficacy of rehab for Isaiah Washington. Silly man, look what it’s done for Lindsay Lohan!

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LAT in 90 Seconds

Greg — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:30:00 +0000

MySpace Memorial Redux: What a lovely story about how kids use MySpace as memorials for friends lost. What a lovely nine-month-older story about how kids use MySpace as memorials for friends lost. Remember when the Column One was referred to as a “Non-Dupe,” as in non-duplicated?

Raise High The Fences, Minuteman: The foreigners are flocking to Hollywood. Looking for an angle — any angle — in this boring as all get-out award season, the LAT alights on the fact that

“The plots of three best picture nominees (Babel, The Queen and Letters From Iwo Jima) unfold overseas and four of the five women competing for the best actress Oscar (Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet) are not American. Britain’s Paul Greengrass (United 93) and Stephen Frears (The Queen) were nominated for best director, as was Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel).

We congratulate the LAT on finding a story in this dull heap.

Going For Gold? It would be uncouth for Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey to lobby for producers credit for the Warner Bros. film The Departed. And no one in Hollywood ever acts uncouth. Right?

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UPDATE: Gail Berman Out at Paramount!

Kate — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:29:29 +0000

UPDATE:
Gail Berman walked the plank at Paramount with two years left on her contract. Claudia Eller at the LA Times points out that this is another loss for Brad Grey, while Nikki Finke sees another woman in power become a woman in peril: Berman’s not even getting the golden handshake of a production deal.

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