How Brad Pitt Scored the 2020 Producers Guild Achievement Award
Brad Pitt is everywhere these days, from revealing interviews in the New York Times Magazine to Oscar parties to support “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” But he’s also a top producer, a partner with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner in Plan B. The respected trio will accept the coveted David O. Selznick Achievement Award — recognizing an outstanding body of work in motion pictures — at the 2020 Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
Plan B is behind a raft of distinctive film and television projects; Pitt, Kleiner and Gardner place a premium on developing emerging talent and ignoring commercial concerns. This unconventional strategy has yielded Best Picture winners “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight,” and Oscar-winners “If Beale Street Could Talk,” starring Regina King, and “The Big Short,” as well as Oscar-nominated “Vice,” “Selma” and “The Tree of Life.” Other films include Pitt-starrers “Ad Astra” and “World War Z” (which has a sequel in the works), “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” directed by Joe Talbot, Netflix’s “The King,” starring Timothee Chalamet, and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
They are currently in post-production on “Blonde,” directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Ana de Armas for Netflix, and Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and starring Steven Yeun for A24.
On the television side, Plan B garnered a Primetime Emmy Award for “The Normal Heart” and Emmy nominations for “Feud: Bette and Joan,” “Big Men,” and “Nightingale,” and also executive-produced “The OA.”
Past Selznick Achievement Award winners include Steven Spielberg, Barbara Broccoli, Saul Zaentz, Gale Anne Hurd, Brian Grazer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, David Heyman and last year, Marvel’s Kevin Feige.
“For nearly two decades, Plan B has been at the forefront of bringing unique and compelling stories that inspire, motivate and connect to diverse audiences,” said Producers Guild of America Presidents, Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher. “Their devotion to tackling some of America’s most timely topics with a fresh perspective and distinct voice in their storytelling is vital to raising the bar of the art and craft of filmmaking.”
