Mr. Mudd
Mr. Mudd is a film production company founded in 1998 by Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, and Russell Smith. The company is known for producing the films Ghost World (2001), Juno (2007) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), all three of which received critical acclaim.
Formation of the company
The company is named for a Thai man (and convicted murderer)[1] named Mr. Mudd who acted as Malkovich's driver while he was making The Killing Fields in 1984.[2]
Malkovich met Russell Smith in high school, where Smith was a star basketball player for the
Malkovich met Lianne Halfon in the late 1980s while she was an executive at
Having Malkovich's name attached to the company did not initially prove valuable. According to Smith, writers and financers kept turning down Mr. Mudd because they assumed Malkovich would want to star in the film. The company was forced to stop mentioning Malkovich's involvement, and did not look for a property for Malkovich to act in for three years.[1]
Operations
Malkovich describes his involvement in the company as minimal, limited to finding novels and plays which might be worth producing.[2] Russell Smith, however, says that Malkovich also is good at developing a property, provides excellent script notes, and has a strong sense of good editing.[1] According to Halfon, the three principals are attracted to properties for very different reasons, but each has the "same sensibility": "Each of us might pick up a different book, but what that person finds interesting in that book will be something the other two will see as something that can make a movie."[1]
Halfon has described the three principals as very hands-on during production. "We are there every day on the set, we're there at the answer print, we're there at the mix, we're there at the delivery. We supervise the transfer to DVD," she told Filmmaker magazine in 2003. Helping writers and directors protect their vision of what the film should be, she says, is what draws filmmakers to Mr. Mudd.[1]
Beginning in 2003, Mr. Mudd became more involved in producing films for television. The principals say they enjoy the faster production times which television offers.[1]
The company had a financing and development deal with United Artists which ended in 2004.[2] The deal funded production costs, but not Mr. Mudd's overhead. When the UA deal ended, Mr. Mudd began raising money for its projects through private equity financing.[2] Mr. Mudd signed a first-look deal with Mandate Pictures in July 2008.[3]
Notable films produced by Mr. Mudd
Year | Film | Awards | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | Ghost World | Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male |
[1] |
2002 | The Dancer Upstairs | ||
How to Draw a Bunny | |||
2004 | The Libertine
|
BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
2006 | Art School Confidential
|
[1] | |
2007 | Juno | Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay |
|
2009 | Which Way Home | Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming-Long Form
|
|
Afterwards | |||
2011 | Young Adult | [4] | |
2012 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature | |
2013 | Broken City
|
[3] | |
Chávez
|
[5] | ||
Labor Day | |||
2015 | Demolition | [6] |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Inside Outsiders." Filmmaker. Spring 2003. Accessed 2015-04-07.
- ^ a b c d e f Gross, Michael Joseph. "Mr. Mudd's Wild Ride (in Indie Land)." New York Times. March 5, 2006.
- ^ a b Siegel, Tatiana. "Mandate, Mr. Mudd team for 'Towns'." Variety. October 23, 2008.
- Screen Daily. March 24, 2010. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (June 5, 2012). "Participant Media Picks Up Diego Luna's Historical Drama 'Chavez' for North America". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
- ^ "Jean-Marc Vallee Set To Helm 'Demolition' For Mr. Mudd". deadline.com. Retrieved June 15, 2013.