November
28
Goodbye Power 100, Hello EW's Smart List
This Friday, Entertainment Weekly will publish a new standalone special issue, the first Hollywood “Smart List.” The brain behind this rejuvenated list, which replaces the tired old EW Power 100, is my old colleague Sean Smith, ex-of Newsweek and Premiere, who worked with me on quite a few Premiere power lists. We prided ourselves on reporting the hell out of those lists, and that's what EW has done here, too. A phalanx of EW reporters canvassed the film industry, conducting hundreds of background interviews, seeking info on “the savants and the wunderkinds whose ideas are driving the film industry forward,” according to EW.
Needless to say, anticipation of which actors, directors, producers and agents made the list is already building. Those who can’t wait until the magazine hits newsstands Friday can find just who made the cut-- right here. The question is, having abandoned the old Power 100 model--which readers were far less interested in than the super-driven power-mongers in NY and LA--will folks care about this reinvention of the list? I suspect it makes for better reading, and focuses attention on some worthy folks like FX master John Knoll and composer Gustavo Santaolalla.
EW can't help but go back to some of the same old/same old list of names: Steven Spielberg, Bob Zemeckis, Dick Cook and Brian Grazer are still on there. But otherwise, it's pretty interesting: Number one is Judd Apatow, because "you can't argue with success," says Smith. "He has his finger on the pulse of comedy right now, he's king of it and made three stars out of Steve Carell, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill would never have been movie stars. He's made himself a household brand."
At the start of the process back in August, as LA bureau chief Smith commandeered seven film reporters in LA and three in NY, he found that it was hard to steer clear of old "power list" habits. "We kept slipping back into power discussions," he says. "We had to rethink. I kept telling them we were free to recalibrate, to consider the overall influence on the future of the industry." The list gets more surprising the farther down you go--including an entry for one Roderick Jaynes, the well-known editor of the Coens brothers' movies--a fake name for the Coens themselves.
Here's the top 20 of the top 50, with the rest on the jump:
Entertainment Weekly's 50 Smartest People in Hollywood:
1. Judd Apatow, director/writer/producer
2. Steven Spielberg, director/producer
3. James Cameron, director/producer
4. Ari Emanuel, partner of the Endeavor Agency
5. Will Smith, actor/producer
6. Meryl Streep, actor
7. Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight
8. Tyler Perry, actor/director/writer/producer
9. David Heyman, producer
10. John Knoll, visual-effects supervisor of Industrial Light & Magic
11. Brian Grazer, producer
12. Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios
13. George Clooney, actor/director/producer
14. Jerry Bruckheimer, producer
15. Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment
16. Peter Jackson, director/producer
17. Will Ferrell, actor/producer
18. Robert Zemeckis, director
19. Tom Rothman, co-chair of Fox Filmed Entertainment
20. Ben Stiller, actor/director/producer
21. Johnny Depp, actor/producer
22. Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation
23. Brad Bird, writer/director
24. Emmanuel Lubezki, cinematographer
25. Zack Snyder, director
26. Stacey Snider, CEO of DreamWorks SKG
27. Michael Moore, documentarian
28. Paul Greengrass, director
29. J.J. Abrams, producer/director
30. Jodie Foster, actor/director
31. Kathleen Kennedy, producer
32. Thelma Schoonmaker, editor
33. Angelina Jolie, actor
34. Sacha Baron Cohen, actor/writer/producer
35. Tim Palen, co-president of film marketing for Lionsgate
36. Modi Wiczyk, co-CEO of Media Rights Capital
37. Guillermo del Toro, writer/producer/director
38. Diablo Cody, screenwriter
39. Mary Zophres, costume designer
40. Jeff Skoll, founder of Participant Productions
41. Stefan Sonnenfeld, president of Company
42. Daniel Battsek, president of Miramax Films
43. Beth Swofford, agent at CAA
44. Roderick Jaynes, editor
45. Cate Blanchett, actor
46. Jeff Walker, Comic-Con impresario
47. Amy Powell, senior vice president of interactive marketing at Paramount
48. Gustavo Santaolalla, composer
49. Sarah Polley, actor/writer/director
50. Ben Affleck, actor/director/writer/producer
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It's refreshing to see people like John Knoll and Brad Bird on the list. It tells me this isn't just another "power list" cobbled together by folks pandering to the studio spin masters. With few exceptions these folks are actually changing what we are seeing on the big screen, and in a good way. As for Mr. Knoll, if he and the kids at ILM keep putting imagery on the screen like Davy Jones I think it's a safe bet he'll be back on this list next year.
Posted by: Old Timer | November 28, 2007 at 05:23 PM
John Knoll on the list is a sweet pick. But where are Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, and David Fincher? But overall a very good list.
Posted by: actionman | November 29, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Exactly what qualifies Meryl Steep for this list? She's incapable of separating reality from fantasy and couldn't answer the question "do you want to win the war on terror' both in a movie and an interview. She's in a hollywood 'fog' like most of them. and angelina jolie? for what?
Posted by: Joe | November 30, 2007 at 07:13 AM
John Cusak?
Posted by: PHn | November 30, 2007 at 08:52 AM
I suspect that if Fincher and Mann had boxoffice cred right now, they'd be on the list. Every person on this list was passionately argued and these guys lost out on their grosses, as it were. Streep had Prada last year, and Lions for Lambs is not her fault, god knows--she's a magnificent actress. It's an odd list read separate from the explanations for why these folks were picked, which is in the mag.
Posted by: anne thompson | November 30, 2007 at 09:32 AM
"44. Roderick Jaynes, editor" does not exist. If fictional characters can make this list, where's Dr. Benton Quest?
Posted by: JD | November 30, 2007 at 12:44 PM
No Spike Lee?
Posted by: S | November 30, 2007 at 09:45 PM
Scott Rudin?
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