arts&life
film
La La Lovely
ABOVE: Emma
Stone and
Ryan Gosling
in La La Land
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Native-son
Gary Gilbert
is breaking
records.
details
The Academy Awards will
be televised at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 26, on ABC.
38
February 23 • 2017
A
s comedian Jimmy
Kimmel delivers his
opening routine at
Sunday’s Academy Awards
presentation, La La Land pro-
ducer Gary Gilbert will be in
attendance with 14 reasons to
celebrate well before any win-
ners are announced.
That’s the number of
Oscar nominations the criti-
cally acclaimed musical has
received, making Hollywood
history by tying the record for
the most Oscar nominations
ever received for a single film.
In the Academy’s 89-year his-
tory, there have only been two
other films that received 14
nominations: All About Eve in
1950 and Titanic in 1997.
Gilbert, 52, who grew up in
Southfield, is the founder and
president of Gilbert Films,
which also produced The Kids
Are All Right (2010) and Garden
State (2004) as well as numer-
jn
MGM musicals like Singin’ in
ous other films. La La Land
the Rain, so popular decades
broke records in January with
ago.
seven nominations and seven
It has been six years since
wins at the Golden Globes
La La Land came to
(those watching might
Gilbert’s attention.
have caught a glimpse
“It was in 2011, dur-
of Gilbert on the
ing the awards season
stage).
for The Kids Are All
“Damien Chazelle
Right, when our stu-
created a magical love
dio, Focus Features [a
story, set in a whim-
division of Universal
sical world where
Pictures], approached
dreams do come true
us regarding a tiny
but often not without
Gary Gilbert
workshop they were
paying a price,” Gilbert
creating called Story
says of the writer-
director. “The film is a great
Camp,” Gilbert explains.
“The idea of Story Camp
escape, which I’m sure plenty
was to introduce very young
of people could use in these
wannabe writers-directors to
times.”
producers. At the time, Damien
Emma Stone, portraying
was only 25 years old, and he
an aspiring actress, and Ryan
hadn’t directed a film yet. He
Gosling, as an aspiring pianist
was a wannabe first-time direc-
wanting to open his own jazz
tor who hadn’t started writing
club, sing and dance through
the script yet; all he had was a
a love-etched tale in a musical
treatment, an outline for a pro-
reminiscent of the old classic
posed script.
“It was a couple of years
before his first hit, Whiplash,
which was managed by
another production company.
For the next several years, we
continued to develop the La
La Land script with Damien.
From the very start, we loved
the music, which was all com-
posed by Justin Hurwitz, who
had been Damien’s roommate
at Harvard.” (For more on
Hurwitz, see “Jews Winning
Awards” in this issue.)
Gilbert, who especially
appreciates the opening scene
of La La Land with cast mem-
bers dancing along a crowded
freeway, explains that, as a
general rule, he favors work-
ing with stories that touch the
heart.
“My production choices
come down to the stories, lov-
ing them and wanting to share
them with the world,” he says.