Arts & Entertainment

Mr. Fix-It

Hollywood producer (and former Detroiter) Bill Mechanic co-helms a retooled
Academy Awards telecast — and has a film nominated for an Oscar, too!

Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

A

s Michigan works hard at build-
ing a strong niche in the film
industry, a Michigan-bred film
executive is working hard at building a
strong showcase for the 82nd Academy
Awards ceremony.
Bill Mechanic, chairman and CEO of
Pandemonium Films and former chair-
man and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox
Filmed Entertainment, is co-producer of
the Oscars telecast set for 8 p.m. Sunday,
March 7, on ABC. He is working with
director-producer Adam Shankman.
"The two biggest things that will make
this year's program different are the 10
(instead of five) best-picture nomina-
tions and two (instead of one) hosts:' says
Mechanic, whose on-camera presenters
and talent will be introduced by Steve
Martin and Alec Baldwin.
"This will be the first time for this many
nominations since the 1930s and the first
time for two hosts in 50 or 60 years.
"The additional nominations will
impact the show because they allow a
greater variety of pictures to get into [con-
sideration] and mean a lot of people will
know the pictures. Films like The Blind
Side and Avatar are hugely popular, but
they won't hurt the smaller ones. The vot-
ers rank their choices so there could be
some surprises:'
Mechanic, who began working on the
Academy Awards telecast in October,
has given the program just about his
full attention, setting aside filmmaking
responsibilities. He terms the experience
"refreshing" because preparing for a live
broadcast moves more swiftly and with
more intensity than moviemaking.
"I was chosen and then asked to
find a partner',' explains Mechanic, 59,
whose educational path moved through
Southfield High School and Michigan
State University.
"They suggested people I didn't think
I wanted to work with, and I started to
think about who would complement me. I
didn't know Adam, but I called him.
"We sat down over lunch and were com-
ing from the same place in terms of what
we wanted out of the show; and we agreed,
even in our first lunch, about having the

two hosts, getting a different rhythm,
making the program funnier and being
showmen about it.
"We're two basically different people
with very similar goals and tastes in a
lot of ways. Other than dance or perfor-
mances, for which Adam has a huge back-
ground and I defer to him (Shankman,
director of the film version of Hairspray,
is a judge on TV's So You Think You Can
Dance), we do almost everything together,
and the collaboration has worked tremen-
dously well."
While growing up in Michigan,
Mechanic wanted to be a writer, not
anticipating a career that would put
him at the helm of films such as Titanic,
Independence Day, Boys Don't Cry, X Men
and Cast Away, among others.
"When I was at Michigan State, I wrote
a film review for a journalism class:'
Mechanic recalls. "It got published, and I
got hired. One thing led to another, and
my love of movies allowed me to go to
film school and come out as a writer.
"I freelanced movie articles and taught
film history at the University of Southern
California. I went on to take a job in one
of the first paid TV services starting up
in the country and was made the head of
programming."
As Mechanic's career expanded, he went
on to executive positions with Paramount
Pictures and the Walt Disney Company,
holding responsibilities for film and TV
initiatives. Under Mechanic, Twentieth

Century Fox, in 1998, was the No. 1 studio
in worldwide box-office gross.
"Every creative decision is a business
decision, and every business decision is a
creative decision:' says Mechanic, whose
positions have required administrative
attention in both areas.
"In a business that is so costly as
motion pictures, you can't not be aware
that every decision made has some eco-
nomic impact, starting from how big the
movie is and how wide the audience is.
Those tell you how much you can spend."
On the creative side, some of his films
have delved into issues and viewpoints
he deems important — the heroism in
Braveheart, the roots of violence and teen
alienation in Fight Club and the intimate
human drama pitted against epic back-
drops in Titanic.
Anastasia, which shows a female role
model able to resolve problems herself,
was made with his daughter in mind.
Mechanic met his wife, Carol (nee
Whitener), at Michigan State.
As planning for the Academy Awards
goes forward, Mechanic has a special
interest. His animated film, Coraline, is an
Oscar nominee.
"At first, I thought it was kind of cute
that I'm nominated in a year that I'm
producing the show:' he says. "Then, it
stopped being so cute when the [broad-
cast] workload, which is pretty hefty,
started meshing a little bit with things
they needed me to do on Coraline for the

Coraline, produced by Mechanic and about a little girl originally from Michigan

(whose dad wears an MSU sweater), is nominated for best animated feature film.

Bill Mechanic: "This will be the first

time for this many [best picture] nom-
inations since the 1930s and the first

time for two hosts in 50 or 60 years."

award process. It's really hard to have two
things at one time?'
Mechanic, who was a bar mitzvah, has
not seen the Israeli film Ajami (see story
on page 38), which has been nominated
for best foreign language film, but he has
been approving the clips to be shown.
While Mechanic's work is centered in
California, where now having his own com-
pany allows him to make only movies he
wants to make, Michigan still has a hold.
Some of his wife's family members
remain in the state, and that is a draw. The
influence of his early years is seen in some
specifics of Coraline, in which he decided
to reference places like the Detroit Zoo.
"The only times I generally go back to
Michigan is if I do something for Michigan
State,' says Mechanic, whose upcoming
cinema projects include a couple of com-
edies. "I've just been asked to participate in
a state government initiative about motion
pictures and television so I'm trying to help.
"I think making films in Michigan is
good for the state. Obviously, the impact of
the decline of the auto industry is pretty
horrendous so anything that promotes jobs
and income is good. We have a film we'll
shoot in Michigan if it gets financed." ❑

The 82nd Academy Awards will be
telecast 8 p.m. Sunday, March 7, on
ABC.

March 4 - 2010

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