Keith Calder
Encyclopedia
Keith Calder is a British
-born independent film
producer
best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
(2006) and The Wackness
(2008) with Felipe Marino
and Joe Neurauter
.
(USC) Peter Stark Producing Program
in 2004, Calder and fellow Stark graduates Felipe Marino
and Joe Neurauter
set up a production company
, Occupant Films, in 2005. According to Calder, he joined together with Marino and Neurauter because "If you're by yourself in the industry, it's easy to convince yourself you're doing well. Having partners allows you to get an objective view." Through USC's writing division, the three producers found their first script, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
by Jacob Forman, within a week of starting the company. After its completion, the film was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
and was bought by The Weinstein Company
, though it was re-sold and has yet to be released in the United States. Occupant Films' second project was The Wackness
, written and directed by Jonathan Levine
, with whom the trio had worked on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. Working with Levine for a second time, Calder said that "We want to continue working with strong, creative partners and build a long, lasting relationship with them." Neurauter commented that "We saw a lot doors open once we sold Mandy Lane, but it's a whole different level to have a movie [The Wackness] released. It gives you a totally different perception in the community." Marino said that, having produced two feature films, "The goal in the upcoming years is to do two to three movies per year." In 2008, he was named one of Variety
s "10 Producers to Watch" alongside Marino and Neurauter.
Calder is producing Bunraku
, a 2010
upcoming noir
martial arts
live action/animation
hybrid film, written and directed by Guy Moshe, and starring Josh Hartnett
, Woody Harrelson
, Ron Perlman
, Kevin McKidd
, Demi Moore
and Gackt. With Marino and Neurauter, he has another film in post-production, The Key Man by Peter Himmelstein; Peep World, to be directed by Barry Blaustein; a police thriller written by Pat Healy
and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo; and is developing a third script by Levine called Positive. He teaches a producing course, "The Negotiation Game", at USC.
, though he now lives in Los Angeles
. His biggest source of inspiration as a producer is Mike Nichols
' 1967 film
The Graduate
, "because it's a smart, strong, personal vision and story but appealing and accessible to a wide, mainstream audience". Calder is the son of Clive Calder
, the founder of Jive Records
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a 2006 American horror-thriller film, although it has also been described as a slasher film. Originally finished in 2006, the film premiered at a number of film festivals throughout 2006 and 2007. Notable premieres include Toronto Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival,...
(2006) and The Wackness
The Wackness
The Wackness is a 2008 American coming of age drama film by Jonathan Levine and starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, and Olivia Thirlby. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and was released in the U.S. on July 3, 2008.-Plot:...
(2008) with Felipe Marino
Felipe Marino
Felipe Marino is an American independent film producer best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and The Wackness with Keith Calder and Joe Neurauter.-Career:...
and Joe Neurauter
Joe Neurauter
Joe Neurauter is an Austrian-born independent film producer best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and The Wackness with Keith Calder and Felipe Marino.-Career:...
.
Career
After graduating from the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
(USC) Peter Stark Producing Program
USC School of Cinematic Arts
The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...
in 2004, Calder and fellow Stark graduates Felipe Marino
Felipe Marino
Felipe Marino is an American independent film producer best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and The Wackness with Keith Calder and Joe Neurauter.-Career:...
and Joe Neurauter
Joe Neurauter
Joe Neurauter is an Austrian-born independent film producer best known for his work on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and The Wackness with Keith Calder and Felipe Marino.-Career:...
set up a production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, Occupant Films, in 2005. According to Calder, he joined together with Marino and Neurauter because "If you're by yourself in the industry, it's easy to convince yourself you're doing well. Having partners allows you to get an objective view." Through USC's writing division, the three producers found their first script, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a 2006 American horror-thriller film, although it has also been described as a slasher film. Originally finished in 2006, the film premiered at a number of film festivals throughout 2006 and 2007. Notable premieres include Toronto Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival,...
by Jacob Forman, within a week of starting the company. After its completion, the film was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
2006 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2006 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7 to September 16, 2006. Opening the festival was Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, a film that "explores the history of the Inuit people through the eyes of a father and daughter."In a press release...
and was bought by The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
, though it was re-sold and has yet to be released in the United States. Occupant Films' second project was The Wackness
The Wackness
The Wackness is a 2008 American coming of age drama film by Jonathan Levine and starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, and Olivia Thirlby. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and was released in the U.S. on July 3, 2008.-Plot:...
, written and directed by Jonathan Levine
Jonathan Levine
Jonathan A. Levine is an American film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Levine won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for his film The Wackness. In January 2010, it was announced that he will direct a project entitled Warm Bodies...
, with whom the trio had worked on All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. Working with Levine for a second time, Calder said that "We want to continue working with strong, creative partners and build a long, lasting relationship with them." Neurauter commented that "We saw a lot doors open once we sold Mandy Lane, but it's a whole different level to have a movie [The Wackness] released. It gives you a totally different perception in the community." Marino said that, having produced two feature films, "The goal in the upcoming years is to do two to three movies per year." In 2008, he was named one of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s "10 Producers to Watch" alongside Marino and Neurauter.
Calder is producing Bunraku
Bunraku (film)
Bunraku is a 2011 martial-arts action film written and directed by Guy Moshe based on a story by Boaz Davidson. The film stars Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman, Kevin McKidd, and Gackt and follows a young drifter in his quest for revenge.The title Bunraku is derived from a...
, a 2010
2010 in film
The year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...
upcoming noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
martial arts
Martial arts film
Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...
live action/animation
Live-action/animated film
A live-action/animated film is a motion picture that features a combination of real actors or elements: live-action and animated elements, typically interacting.-History:...
hybrid film, written and directed by Guy Moshe, and starring Josh Hartnett
Josh Hartnett
Joshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and aspiring producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax...
, Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
, Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character...
, Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
, Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
and Gackt. With Marino and Neurauter, he has another film in post-production, The Key Man by Peter Himmelstein; Peep World, to be directed by Barry Blaustein; a police thriller written by Pat Healy
Pat Healy
Pat Healy was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Glen Rovers and is an internationally acclaimed sportsman in tennis, cricket, squash, volleyball and rugby. Healy was also a member of the Cork senior inter-county team in the 1950s...
and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo; and is developing a third script by Levine called Positive. He teaches a producing course, "The Negotiation Game", at USC.
Personal life
Calder was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, though he now lives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. His biggest source of inspiration as a producer is Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
' 1967 film
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....
The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
, "because it's a smart, strong, personal vision and story but appealing and accessible to a wide, mainstream audience". Calder is the son of Clive Calder
Clive Calder
Clive Calder is a South African-born and UK based record executive and businessman primarily known for co-founding the Zomba Group and its subsidiary Jive Records. The relocation of Warner Music Group Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr...
, the founder of Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
.