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Posted: |
Jun 10, 2023 - 7:46 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The last film for which Walter Mirisch served as an executive producer was the 2016 remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. The film, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, had all new characters from the 1960 original. In the film, seven gunmen from a variety of backgrounds are brought together by a vengeful young widow to protect her town from the private army of a destructive industrialist.
Director Antoine Fuqua met with studio executives to review actors for the film, but was unhappy that all of the actors under studio consideration were white. He felt the audience would be better able to identify with characters who came from a wide variety of backgrounds, coming together for a common cause.
James Horner scored the film after he and Antoine Fuqua became close friends while making SOUTHPAW (2015). According to Fuqua, one month after Horner's accidental death, Horner's team visited Fuqua on the film's set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to deliver the score material that Horner had completed. Horner had been so inspired after reading the script that he began composing the score during pre-production. Horner reportedly wrote seven pieces for the film. Simon Franglen fleshed out the score based on the themes that Horner wrote, and both men are credited in the film. Sony Classical released the soundtrack CD.
The $90 million production broke even in the U.S. and was moderately profitable overall, with a $162 million worldwide gross.
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Posted: |
Jun 11, 2023 - 4:30 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Walter Mirisch served three terms as president of the Producers Guild of America and four terms as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" (1976), the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy for his "consistently high quality of motion picture production” (1978), the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which is given to an individual whose "humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry" (1983), and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Motion Pictures from the Producers Guild (1996).
The Mirisch Company’s films garnered 87 Academy Award nominations and 28 Oscars, including back-to-back best-picture wins for THE APARTMENT (1960) and WEST SIDE STORY(1961), as well as for IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), which brought Mirisch his personal Oscar win.
The 50th anniversary (2017) reunion of the principal talents behind IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT: Walter Mirisch, Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones, and Norman Jewison (Rod Steiger had died in 2002)
Walter Mirisch will be remembered for supporting the work of a number of the best directors of his time, particularly Billy Wilder, John Sturges, and Norman Jewison, who all made multiple pictures for The Mirisch Company. We’ll be watching his films for decades to come.
I’ll give Mirisch the final word, with this anecdote: "A couple of years ago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York honored me, and at the event, they asked Eli Wallach to come and speak about me. And I hadn't seen Eli a lot in recent years. He always lived in New York, and we didn't run across one another too often. But Eli got up, and he said, ‘You know, I think I owe my whole career to Walter Mirisch,’ and I perked up … I was as interested as I hope you all are now, to hear what this is. And Eli says, ‘You know, until I met Walter Mirisch, I was just another Jewish actor in New York. After I met him, I became a Mexican bandit for life.’"
Farewell, Walter.
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I agree with the remarks above. Most readable stuff! Thank you, Bob.
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