Little Miss Sunshine Producers Get the Oscar Axe

Here's the THR story on Bona Fide producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa getting the axe on accepting the Oscar for "Little Miss Sunshine." The Academy decided not to include manager-producer-turned-studio-chief Brad Grey's name on "The Departed," and struck Berger and Yerxa from the five "Sunshine" producers. The movie wouldn't exist without them. They're the ones who had worked on Alexander Payne and Tom Perotta's "Election" and got to know Matthew Broderick's then-assistant, Michael Arndt, who gave them the screenplay when he finished it because he really liked and respected them. (They also produced Perotta's Little Children.)

"The problem is with the Academy's rule-of-three; two of the five would have had to voluntarily drop out," writes THR film editor Gregg Kilday. "It seems it would have been fairer if either Ron or Albert dropped out, leaving one of them to be represented. Marc Turtletaub would remain one of the three, since it was his money. But then you'd have to lose either his old partner David Friendly or his new partner Peter Saraf, and that must have been impossible." (Friendly cares so much about indie film that he wants to go back to making studio comedies because there's more money in it.)

I'm starting to think this Academy rule of three thing sucks. Little Miss Sunshine without Albert and Ron? They're the ones who stuck with the writer and the directors through thick and thin. And found Turtletaub. They're the quiet solid good guys who do the work, consistently, year in, year out. Damn.

UPDATE: I'm up in Santa Barbara to do a writing panel; ran into Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton after their directors' panel. Faris was upset, saying, "Ron and Albert brought us in," that all five producers did their bit along the way, and that Yerxa and Berger shouldn't be cut out.

UPDATE: At the SAG awards, Little Miss Sunshine star Greg Kinnear made a point of thanking all five producers, not three or two, but five, he said.

Comments

[girladvenger]

I'm glad this happened because I'd think what happen this year in the PGA sucked big time.

When does the excuse that a producer's work is not valuable because he get a better job offer and turned to rest of his work to another partner to complete. Even the director said Brad Grey deserved the credit and Brad Pitt did the major casting and development...From what Matt Damon said...it was Brad who came to him with the script and opportunity and spent time with Leo brought the script and was his baby in development.

While the PGA said all Little Miss Sunshine producers are eligible the Academy dumb 3 producer rule is out of step with current producing standards.

[SHR]

I don't think motives or "good guys" are the issues at all, but if Yari was the money guy last year and he got axed why couldn't they axe Turtletaub and keep Berger or Yerxa? And since when do partners deserve credit just because they are partners? Both the PGA and the Academy are still not playing on the up and up, especially as concerns producers.Perhaps this is because MOST producers really do very little and that is why it takes five of them to produce a movie.

[R.M.S.]

In this day and age of "purity", "integrity" and "respect", this is one of the great upsets of the year. Probably equal to this wonderful special laugh of a film finding its way down the yellow brick road to success. I thought that great (& not so great) films of today & days gone by were about the written word. Were it not for Berger & Yerxa, it would have never seen the light of day. How unjust & blinded can the film business continue to be. It's feeling very BUSH. All are accountable. John Huston is rolling in his grave.

[Alan Wainwright]

Marc Turtletaub is not a nice man. His money comes from selling "The Money Store" for 2.1 billion dollars to Bank One at the height of the market in 1998 (don't believe me? check it out on Google). The market then collapsed for these types of loans (high interest loans to low income people. nice.), because the underlying financials were unsound. Bad due diligence by Bank One, or cooking the books by The Money Store? Then, Bank One had to shut down The Money Store for 2 billion dollars (yes, what they paid for it), throwing hundreds of people out of work. Then, they had to deal with class-action lawsuits over illegal lending practices on their loans, most of which had originated under Turtletaub. He then decided he wanted to make movies, opening Deep River Productions, and bought his way into the business, demanding total control and pissing lots of important people off along the way.There are people who worked on "Little Miss Sunshine" at Deep River for years who didn't even get a "special thanks" in the credits once he threw them out, shut down Deep River and took it to his new company, Big Beach Productions. It doesn't surprise me he threw Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger overboard - the real creative producers behind "Little Miss Sunshine." I wonder when all his dirty dealing will come back to haunt him.

[KTG]

I think this the most patently unfair credit determination by the Academy. Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger are the producers of the movie. Period. They developed it, they found the financing, they were on location. They worked on post. Mr.Turtletaub doesn't know how lucky he was when Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger approached him about financing. I am sickened by this cold blooded, wrongful decision. I guess enough money does buy producer credits after all. I thought that went out of vogue when Pia Zadora won best actress at the Golden GLobes.

[William]

Marc Turtletaub is one of the nicest fairest people I have met-
William