Friday, January 17, 2020



How would you describe a Plan B movie?
DEDE GARDNER The year that 12 Years a Slave and World War Z came out, Brad said, “Well, that makes sense. That defines Plan B.” (Laughs.) The films are so disparate. But it’s always been story-driven.
JEREMY KLEINER We work on things that have an ambition. That could take a number of forms: stylistic, thematic, technical, degree of difficulty. But there’s usually a reach for something.
What is the breakdown of duties?
GARDNER Between me and Kleiner, there is no breakdown. We both do it all. I think one of the things that’s so remarkable about our partnership is how interchangeable we can be. We sort of speak without speaking. And then that is also true on the ones that Brad is more intimately involved in. That ebbs and flows depending on if he’s off acting in something. But Brad is very involved. He’s a real cinephile.
KLEINER This is reflected in Brad’s choices as an actor and producer: He marches to his own drummer in a very unique way. He really has his own sensibilities. He doesn’t copy or attempt to mimic something.
You produced Bong Joon Ho’s previous film, Okja. Did you have an opportunity to produce Parasite?
GARDNER God, we wish. But that was an entirely Korean production. We would make anything with him.
KLEINER When he won the Palme d’Or, we were texting him in real time as the results came through, and we couldn’t have been more excited. It would be a total dream to reunite with him. He is a true master.
Dede, you are the only woman to have won two best picture Oscars. Thoughts on that accomplishment?
GARDNER I mean, lots and lots of people have won things. I just feel really grateful to have been involved in the movies. We do this because we love filmmakers.
What’s the one project you’ve wanted to get off the ground but haven’t been able to?
GARDNER Black Hole, right, Jeremy?
KLEINER That’s the one I was thinking of. We’ve been working on that for over a decade. Clearly speed isn’t always our finest attribute. But Rick Famuyiwa has done an incredible adaptation that we’re hoping to make this year.
Will a World War Z sequel ever be a reality?
KLEINER Someday. We love Max Brooks’ book. We love the universe of it. It doesn’t feel like the World War Z is done and over with.
You acquired the rights to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book on Harvey Weinstein. What is the timeline on that project?
GARDNER We’re getting the script right now from Rebecca Lenkiewicz. She’s a British playwright and an amazing writer. So that’s very active.
What’s the biggest challenge facing producers today?
KLEINER The pace of change is so quick that dogmas about what works and what the market is and all the bedrocks of certainty are hard to come by. You’re relying on resourcefulness, on instinct, on relationships, on being nimble, being flexible, not being dogmatic. And that can be challenging. But in that is a lot of opportunity.


“For a long time people tried to figure out ‘What is Plan B?’” says Plan B principal Dede Gardner, who along with fellow executives Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt will receive the David O. Selznick Award at the 31st annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 18. “I remember Brad came to us the year that we released ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘World War Z’ with a grin on his face: ‘That’s Plan B.’ Truthfully, it’s narratively driven. We are real lovers of stories, and that’s been the singular guidepost since the very beginning.”
Those films, along with a prestigious, awards and nomination-heavy output including “Selma,” “The Big Short,” “Moonlight,” “Vice” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” form the sort of enviable body of work over the course of Plan B’s two decades — one Kleiner says is informed by the fluid Pitt-influenced development culture “of trying to stay present tense and be inspired, when the inspirations arrive in whatever form: a filmmaker or a book or a piece of journalism.”
“Brad’s a true cinephile, and genuinely blows our mind constantly with the amount that he sees, the depth to which he goes to investigate as a filmmaker,” Gardner says. “His curiosity is an inspiring thing to be around.”
Kleiner also praises Pitt’s cinematic insights. “The language he uses is as specific as his choices are as an actor.”
Gardner, Kleiner says, demonstrates the courage to tackle complicated material that inspires respect, while she praises her partner for keen intuition for the needs of a disparate array of filmmakers. Plan B’s enduring partnership is also key to its success.
“Longevity is an underrated characteristic in creative industry,” Gardner says. “We have a lot of moments in meetings where we don’t say a word to each other, but we know exactly what the other person is saying.”


“That’s a Brioni suit,” says Brad Pitt, with utter conviction, in the Coen brothers film Burn After Reading. His character Chad Feldheimer is by no means a style connoisseur – he wears bright-red gym kit for much of the film – but he recognises the house’s distinctive Roman cut at a mere glance.
While this interaction was in a fictional context in 2008, the appointment of Pitt as Brioni ambassador late last year formalised the relationship in real life. The first campaign images, released today, were photographed in Hollywood by Swedish photographer Mikael Jansson. “It was almost too good to be true,” says Brioni design director Norbert Stumpfl, of the coming together of man and brand. “We created a tuxedo for him for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and it was immediately a perfect match. He loves the tailoring and the new direction the brand has taken.”
That new direction is, in fact, an old direction: a return to the house’s roots as a tailor on a large scale. As seen at Pitti Uomo in Florence on Tuesday, in a presentation marking the house’s 75th anniversary, today’s Brioni majors on well-cut suits, overcoats and presentable casualwear catering to the well-to-do working man. “It’s about wearing super-luxurious garments but not caring too much about how they’re put on,” says Stumpfl. “A collar can stick out, the buttons on a jacket sleeve are ‘carelessly’ unbuttoned, the tie underpart is slightly showing.”
This move follows a difficult period in Brioni’s recent history, in which the company rapidly cycled through creative directors – most notably menswear personality Justin O’Shea, the former buying director of Mytheresa, who lasted only six months. “The company went through a lot of changes,” says Stumpfl, who joined the house from Berluti in 2018. “It veered away from its history and DNA, and lost direction this way.”
The pairing with Pitt is inarguably more in tune with the house’s roots. A few days ago at the Golden Globes ceremony, where he was awarded best supporting actor for his role in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, Pitt wore a black three-piece mohair Brioni tuxedo that looked at once both polished and relaxed: his unbuttoned jacket was slightly boxy, the trousers were loose-fitting and the waistcoat was fastened louchely low. “He wears the clothes in the right way and the clothes don’t wear him,” adds Stumpfl. “Men want to be like him and women love him. It does not get any better.”

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