Arts &Entertainment

At The Movies

L-819ducer Jonathan
Glickman on location,

With a string of hits, U-M grad
Jonathan Glickman climbs
the ladder of success in Hollywood.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

F

our years, the time it took
Jonathan Glickman to earn
a bachelor's degree from the
University of Michigan in
1991, is the length of time it took the
former Detroiter to advance from pro-
duction intern to president at Caravan
Pictures. Then, in 1998, he was
named president of production for
Spyglass Entertainment, a company
formed in 1998 that not only pro-
duces between three and five pictures
a year but develops and finances all of
its projects independently.
Behind the scenes for films such as
Inspector Gadget, Before and After and
Keeping the Faith, Glickman is pro-
ducer of Shanghai Noon, the Jackie
Chan movie debuting today at local
theaters.
Making movies has been a fast ride
for the 31-year-old, who spent the first
four months of his life in the Motor
City and keeps returning to see rela-
tives. He has no problem slowing
down a bit to share stories about his
personal route to success.
"I had interned many times and

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that it was .a new idea that would
learned that an intern must make a
make a different type of movie, and I
drastic impression," explains
like that the film appeals to all ages.
Rush
Glickman, who also produced
"It's got an 'Indiana _cones' type of
Jackie
Chan's
first
mainstream
Hour,
feel in terms of action, and at the
American movie. "I was obnoxious
heart of it, there's this great relation-
and pitched a lot of movie ideas, one
ship between Jackie Chan's character
of which we went ahead and made.
. and his partner, Owen Wilson's char-
"I had been the low man on the
totem pole and got a screenplay, While acter. The film is unpredictable, and
it's a little out there in terms of come-
You Were Sleeping, submitted by an
dy. It's not the same old jokes told
agent who was the low man on his
over and over again. It's something
totem pole. Very early on, I was able
that people don't see every day."
to get access to movies like this, and
While the name Jackie Chan is
we were able to [produce] them.
associated with violent scenes for some
"The key to [staying] in this busi-
moviegoers, Glickman hopes audi-
ness is to keep making movies, so I've
ences will realize that his films don't
been very lucky. I've been out here [in
use combat simply for its shock value.
California] for seven years, and I've
"I think there has to be some sort
made about 11 movies. We all have to
of message to it and not just violence
keep getting stuff out [to the public]."
for the sake of violence," he explains.
Shanghai Noon, an East meets West
"In both of the Jackie Chan movies
action comedy, follows the adventures
that we've made, Jackie uses violence
of men trying to free a kidnapped
to stop violent behavior. In Grosse
princess taken to the United States.
Pointe
Blank, our main character
She is played by Lucy Liu of Ally
decides
that a violent life is not worth
McBeal fame; like Glickman, Liu is a
living,
so
there's some sort of com-
U-M graduate.
mentary."
"It was on the Rush Hour set that
Glickman, the son_of U.S.
Jackie Chan first told me the story
Secretary of Agriculture Dan
that eventually became Shanghai
Noon," Glickman recalls. "I recognized Glickman and the former Rhoda Yura

of Detroit, moved to Kansas after
Michigan and then to Washington,
D.C., as his family relocated. His par-
ents were married at Temple Israel.
"Jonathan always loved movies, and
he always had a gift for gab like his
dad," recalls grandfather Sam Yura of
Farmington Hills. "We haven't seen
him as often as we'd like because he
lived outside the city. He stayed with
us when he was very young, while his
folks were visiting London, and that's
when he began walking."
With his wife, Mildred, Yura recalls
the joy of attending their grandson's
bar mitzvah and then his wedding last
year. They certainly enjoy seeing the
movies and consider him their "shin-
ing star," whose interest in produc-
tions they trace back to their daughter.
She acted in college plays while
attending U-M to become a teacher.
Glickman remembers seeing Blue
Velvet, an exploration of the dark side
of American suburbia, while in high
school and thinking for the first time
about a Hollywood career.
"I graduated college as an English
major with a couple of film classes and
went off to work for HBO in New
York," Glickman recalls. "I had proba-