Produced By Case Study: Lydia Dean Pilcher

Produced By — Summer 2008

A classic film noir once posited of New York that there
were "eight million stories in the naked city." And until
recently, there were roughly the same number of reasons a producer could find not to shoot a movie there: It's too expensive. It's too cumbersome. There's no place to park. Having two baseball teams damages crew unity.

Several years ago, the Producers Guild put itself at the forefront of a coalition of groups lobbying for legislation to make producing entertainment in New York more affordable. And as the PGA's representative on the New York Production Alliance, Lydia Dean Pilcher, can rightly claim a measure of creclit for the incentives that have helped to jump-start the New York production sphere.

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Documenting Drama

Continental Magazine — November 2006

Film producer Lydia Dean Pilcher is confident enough in her vision to spell it out for us. “The challenge,” she says, “is to make significant and meaningful work that can reach a popular audience and still not compromise the artistic merits.”

It’s a challenge Pilcher has met working behind the scenes with many of today’s visionary directors to produce some of the most message-oriented films in recent memory, including "Cradle Will Rock," "Iron Jawed Angels," "Normal," "Disappearing Acts," "Hysterical Blindness," and "Vanity Fair." (Her credits also include non-message movies, such as "The Talented Mr. Ripley.")

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The Namesake, A Film Preview

Associated Content, Denver, CO

The greatest journeys … are the ones that bring you home.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri is looking forward to her New York Bestseller ‘The Namesake’ taking on new life as a film, directed by Mira Nair. Lahiri will also be making a fleeting guest appearance as Aunt Jhumpa. Kal Penn (of ‘Harold and Kumar’ fame) will be taking on his first dramatic role as Gogol Ganguli. Termed as a comedy/drama/romance, ‘The Namesake’ follows the story of this Bengali family from their early beginnings in Calcutta to their life as Americans.

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Trio Looking Into 'The Future'

Daily Variety - April 2004

The "Iron Jawed Angels" trio of producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, director Katja von Garnier and screenwriter Sally Robinson will reteam on a theatrical feature adapted from Alice Hoffman's bestselling novel "The Probable Future."

Published last summer by Doubleday, Hoffman's book is a murder mystery centering on three generations of New England women with extraordinary gifts revealed to each on her 13th birthday. When the youngest family member acquires the ability to see how people will die, she asks her father's help to prevent a death she has foreseen, setting off a terrible chain of events.

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A Hard-Earned Right

Savannah Morning News - February 2004

Lydia Dean Pilcher knows Politics.

Just ask her about the donkey.

Pilcher, a movie producer, grew up in Atlanta with a donkey that lived next door in the neighbor's back yard. It was the living and breathing mascot of the Fulton Democratic Party, which her parents were heavily involved in.

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The Gotham 50:
Lydia Dean Pilcher

Daily Variety - April 1998

Lydia Dean Pilcher clearly is not afraid of a little hard work. On the heels of directing and producing "Reno Finds Her Mom," which airs on HBO on Mother's Day, Pilcher, 38, is currently producing Tim Robbins' latest directorial endeavor, "The Cradle Will Rock," which focuses on the controversy surrounding the ban of Marc Blitzstein's 1937 musical drama of the same title. "Reno" was Pilcher's first project Stateside after producing two films back-to-back in far-flung locales. In Hong Kong, she produced Wayne Wang's latest film, "Chinese Box," and in India, she produced Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love." Pilcher previously worked with Nair on "The Perez Family" and "Mississippi Masala," and will produce her next untitled project, which begins filming in Bombay next year.

While in the throes of production on Robbins' "Cradle," Pilcher has already laid the groundwork for her next project, "Jesus' Son." She will serve as exec producer on the film adaptation of Denis Johnson's book of the same name. Filming is scheduled to begin in the fall.