2019-10-16 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 43 OCTOBER 16, 2019

in controversy because of Parker.

Would you work with him again?

Yes. I heard he was making a

movie [American Skin]. He reached

out and let me know what was

going on. I’m hopeful that that

film gets out to the world.

Bron’s stake in Joker was 25 per-

cent. Is that standard practice?

It varies. I would say it can be as

low as 15 percent and as much

as 50 percent, depending on the

movie.

What is the most money you’ve put

up for single title?

Probably Chaos Walking at

Lionsgate.

Will Chaos Walking ever open?

There were reports earlier this year

that it was unreleasable.

It’s completing the postproduc-

tion process and will be dated for

sometime next year, I believe.

Would you ever put $50 million into

a movie?

It would have to be something

pretty spectacular. Joker 2, maybe.

I’m just joking. We have never put

in that much, but it can be as high

as $30 million to $40 million.

The indie box office is strug-

gling in the age of streaming. How

has that changed your thinking?

I’m not afraid for the business.

It’s a different time. Bron needs

to be disciplined. Whereas in the

past I would have greenlit and

financed a movie for $10 million

to $15 million without a distribu-

tor, I won’t do that anymore. It’s a

dangerous place to play.

Have you met with the Apple

film team?

Yes. I’m not going to say which

project. Yet on the TV side, our

partner Media Res has, I think,

three shows with Apple, including

The Morning Show. We are also a

partner in Little Lamb, which has

Euphoria on HBO.

Bron is exploring buying

soundstages and production

facilities. Why?

There is so much content being

made around the world, and the

streamers have really locked up

a lot of space for long periods

of time. As an example, I shot a

movie in New Orleans last year,

and I had to ship a star trailer

from L.A. It cost thousands

of dollars to do that, which is

ridiculous, because I couldn’t find

one locally. And when shoot-

ing a movie in Albuquerque, we

couldn’t find some of the rigging

gear so we had to ship it in. Bron

Ventures, which we launched

earlier this year, wants to get

involved with companies that are

servicing those demands.

You have a stake in next summer’s

Ghostbusters sequel. Is there still

an appetite for this series after the

last pic struggled?

Jason and his dad, Ivan, reached

out to me and I said of course.

This is an iconic franchise.

Interview edited for length

and clarity.

(Queen & Slim, Nov. 27), Sony

(Tom Hanks’ Greyhound, set for

May 2020) and Lionsgate (Doug

Liman’s dystopian thriller Chaos

Walk ing starring Tom Holland

and Daisy Ridley). Bron is also

starting to back production outfits

like Media Res (Apple TV’s The

Morning Show) and Little Lambs

(HBO’s Euphoria). Gilbert, 47,

was raised in London, Ontario,

and went to nearby McMaster

University but dropped out and

moved to Los Angeles, where

he entered the music licensing

business. His career took a new

course when a friend called and

said he was in a jam and needed

help finishing a movie. Bron,

which is repped by Endeavor, now

ranks about 210 with operations

in L.A., New York, Toronto and

Vancouver, where Gilbert and

his wife keep their permanent

residence and raise their kids (18,

15 and 10). He sat with THR in his

Beverly Hills office to talk about

Bron’s ambitions and to reveal

that he has a stake in another

big studio tentpole — Reitman’s

Ghostbusters sequel.

How many films a year is an ideal

number for Bron?

Probably four or five that we

are producing. And then we’re

involved financially in anywhere

from eight to 10, or eight to 12,

depending on what’s happening.

On top of that, we are growing

our TV business and, in a perfect

world, I’d love to have five to eight

TV series going a year.

Did you say yes right away to tak-

ing over Bombshell, despite a rival

Showtime Roger Ailes series (The

Loudest Voice)?

Yes. It was rough putting it all

together, I’m not going to lie. But

when Charlize Theron phones,

that’s a call you take.

Were you concerned about the

security fears surrounding Joker?

It’s something you have to think

about and talk about it, but I

don’t think we got too worried.

Hopefully when you look at Bron’s

history, you’ll see a lot of the mov-

ies we’ve been involved in create

a conversation.

Bron financed and produced Birth

of a Nation, which was engulfed

RÉSUMÉ

CURRENT TITLE

Chairman-CEO, Bron.

The company

has multiple divisions

spanning film, television

and other media.

PREVIOUS JOB

Music licensing

BIG HIT

Joker ($548.3 million

worldwide)

taken in a stunning $548.3 mil-
lion worldwide as of Oct. 13, is
a defining moment for Gilbert,
and is part of a $100 million,
six-picture slate financing deal
with Warner Bros. Bron also has
a new $100 million slate deal
with MGM; the first release is The
Addams Family, which opened to
a strong $30.3 million over the
Oct. 11-13 weekend. Bron also
is making films with Universal

A compilation of

some of Gilbert’s

favorite artwork

created by Warner

Bros. for Todd

Phillips’ Joker.

Above: A gift from

Tom Hiddleston,

star of Bron’s Hank

Williams biopic

I Saw the Light (2016),

Below: A 2017 letter

from the Academy

informing Gilbert that

he is a member.