March 26, 2004
A-listers beef up Par event
Hollywood Reporter
By Chris Gardner
Photo: Spark St. Jude
LAS VEGAS — Committed to partnering with theater owners to present “the best show in town,” Paramount Pictures packed ShoWest’s priciest punch by pulling out all the stops and all their stars for Wednesday night’s Gala Dinner.
The last ShoWest showing by Paramount came in 1997, so it was fitting that the glitzy, A-list event served as a throwback to the big-budget events of past conventions. Even the studio’s top brass seemed surprised at the level of talent that turned out to help Paramount pump its 2004 slate.
“This is the most incredible dais I’ve ever seen,” motion picture group chairman Sherry Lansing said while checking out this year’s crop of stars seated around her, including Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Denzel Washington, Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Burt Reynolds, Bette Midler, Faith Hill, Marisa Tomei, Cedric the Entertainer, Liev Schreiber, Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Jon Lovitz, Seth Green, Dax Shepard, Nia Long, Jane Krakowski, Sienna Miller, Luke Mably, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and Tom Kenny.
Combined, the actors are the key ingredients to the studio’s slate, which executives are hoping — though they failed to make mention of it onstage Wednesday — will help the studio rebound from a series of misfires at the boxoffice during the past year. Rather, it was the studio’s past successes and future releases that took center stage along with the famous names.
Rob Friedman, chief operating officer at Paramount Pictures and vice chairman of the motion picture group, emceed the first portion of the presentation, kicking off by thanking the talent and his Paramount peers — Lansing, Viacom chairman Jonathan Dolgen and domestic distribution president Wayne Lewellen. He also welcomed new production topper Donald De Line and marketing chief Gerry Rich to the studio family.
“Over the past seven years, when we all started to work together, becoming friends and developing projects, caring about those projects and spending sleepless nights worrying about projects, we managed to put some movies together,” he said. ” ‘Titanic,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘School of Rock’ and ‘Sum of All Fears’ are a few that come to mind. Now it’s 2004, and we couldn’t be prouder of our product lineup for this year and beyond.”
For her part, Lansing saluted the work of the theater owners in providing state-of-the-art equipment to enhance the moviegoing experience. “But no matter how perfect your theater is, none of it will matter unless we give you good movies, and that’s what tonight is all about,” she said. “Your success is our success. I hope you enjoy the reel as much as we do.”
As the lights went down, the reel took center stage. On display for the crowd of more than 2,500 were Paramount’s upcoming “The Prince & Me,” starring Julia Stiles and Mably; “Mean Girls,” starring Lohan and Fey; “Without a Paddle,” starring Reynolds, Green and Shepard; “The Stepford Wives,” starring Kidman, Midler, Broderick, Hill and Close; “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” starring Paltrow, Law and Angelina Jolie; “What’s It All About, Alfie?” starring Law, Susan Sarandon, Tomei, Long, Krakowski and Miller; “The Manchurian Candidate,” starring Washington, Streep and Schreiber; “The Weather Man,” starring Cage and Caine; “Coach Carter,” starring Jackson; “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” starring Carrey, Streep, Browning and Aiken, and “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” featuring Kenny. The reel also contained peeks at “Suspect Zero,” “Sahara” and “M:I-3.”
The actors weren’t only on display on the big screen, though. Friedman and Lewellen presided over what Friedman referred to as an experimental move, a Q&A session featuring questions posed to the actors by high-level exhibition executives from the audience. The fun-filled exercise saw Reynolds and Caine charm the crowd.
Not one to sit back and fade into the scenery, Carrey provided the most crowd-pleasing turn. After being asked what was the most challenging part of his role in “Lemony Snicket,” Carrey cracked, “The most challenging part was my childhood.” He then launched into an explanation of the industry. “Hollywood needs money, we need cash if these movies are expected to get off the ground,” he joked. “Why do we all take these parts — love. We all need love,” he pleaded, jumping up onto the table and extending his arms out toward the audience.
Paramount brass and the ShoWest audience also paid tribute to Gino Campagnola, executive vp electronic cinema in domestic distribution. Friedman told the crowd that Campagnola was officially stepping down from his post after 54 years of service to the studio.
