Before Superman Returns.

THX1138 · 25-01-2006

This is a repost from another message board I post on. I am not the aurthor of the origional post. I had a good laugh watching the link to this video. I'm guessing some (if not most) of you have seen "An Evening with Kevin Smith"...but even if you have (and most importantly, if you haven't) here is a link to a segment from the movie where Kevin Smith is asked about what came before Superman Returns. For those who don't know, Kevin Smith was hired to write a new Superman movie back in 97, with Nicolas Cage attached as the Man of Steel, and Tim Burton slated to direct...The link above gives you the full account on Superman Lives from Kevin Smith's point of view...which goes pretty deep into the typical $hit and stupidity that tends to surround making a big summer action superhero movie. Your usual suspects are there, with dumbass producers, and beyond silly ideas for what was meant to be Superman's return to the silver screen. (And thank God we're apparently getting something much better.) Again, here is the link...WATCH IT.

Kevin Smith pretty much explained how the hollywood system works. It's a wonder why we haven't seen a movie with a Polar bear from this producer.

Anyway, I searched the net for a Biography on John peters and I Found this.

Scion of a Neapolitan hairdressing clan (the Paganos), seventh grade graduate Jon Peters entered the family business at age 14 and had established a highly lucrative beauty parlor empire (and reputation with the ladies) before gaining entrance to the film world as personal manager (and lover) to Barbra Streisand. Reportedly the model for the womanizing hairdresser played by Warren Beatty (who was a client) in "Shampoo" (1975), the brash, street-smart stylist (who claims to have introduced the blow-dryer to Southern California) scored big with his first film as producer, the Streisand vehicle "A Star is Born" (1976), a commercial smash yielding over $100 million at the box office which earned four Oscar nominations. He produced a string of best-selling Streisand albums, as well as "The Main Event" (1979), which paired his amour (and co-producer) with her "What's Up, Doc?" (1972) co-star Ryan O'Neal, but he also had success outside the Streisand orbit, producing "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) and executive producing "Caddyshack" (1980).

Peters launched one of the most successful production ventures of the 1980s when he joined with Peter Guber in 1982 to form the Guber-Peters Company. They made a perfect team, Peters playing the flamboyant say whatever comes to mind "bad cop" to Guber's intelligent, non-confrontational stay-in-the-background "good cop." Guber appeared the more likable since Peters, unafraid to alienate, always did the ugly work, provoking some to portray him as movieland's most mercurial, swaggering, power-intoxicated mogul since Harry Cohn, but the two were equal partners in their lust for money and power, always enlarging their personal fortunes regardless of how their projects fared. Together they produced "Six Weeks" (1982), "Vision Quest" (1985) and "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) but more frequently received credit as executive producers on successful movies like "Missing" (1982), "Flashdance" (1983), "The Color Purple" (1984), "Gorillas in the Mist" and "Rain Man" (both 1988). They displayed their genius for self-promotion when "Rain Man" (a project for which neither had shown much initial interest) swept the Oscars, borrowing one of the writers' statuettes and posing with it for a widely-circulated photo that gave the illusion they had produced the Academy Award-winning Best Picture, forever relegating actual producer Mark Johnson to the shadows.

Guber and Peters would go to any length to get material they wanted, even if it meant grabbing properties from others (as when they bought the film rights to "The Witches of Eastwick" out from under Rob Cohen and Don Devlin, the film's eventual executive producers), but they were at their double-dealingest, back-stabbing best when it came to their "Batman" (1989) triumph. Michael Uslan and Ben Melniker had persuaded DC Comics to sell the licensing rites for a series of "Batman" movies. Their first deal with Guber-Peters guaranteed 40 percent of whatever profit Guber and Peters received and also promised Uslan and Melniker "shall be accorded credit as the producers of the picture." The project languished for years until one day the trade papers reported "Batman" was going into production with Guber and Peters as producers. When Melniker and Uslan contacted Warner Bros. to inform them the studio was breaching the original agreement, they received an ultimatum: sign an amended contract or they would be thrown off the picture entirely. The new deal gave them nominal credit as executive producers and granted them 13 percent of "pie in the sky" net profits. Seven years after the movie's release, with box-office revenues topping $400 million, Melniker and Uslan had not seen a penny and had to content themselves with their executive producers' fees of $300,000 apiece.

When Sony acquired Columbia Pictures in 1989, it needed managers to put in charge of the studio and, on the strength of "The Witches of Eastwick", "Rain Man" and particularly that year's mega-hit "Batman", Guber and Peters--a pair of cowboy producers with little corporate management experience between them--were hired to run the show. It was probably the worst business decision in the history of Hollywood. The deep pockets of the Japanese conglomerate could withstand the profligate spending but could not abide Peters' knock-around persona, and the hard-nosed Sony view that business should be conducted in a businesslike fashion prevailed. Peters was out while the more administratively capable Guber stayed. Post-Guber, Peters has produced the relatively uninspiring "Money Train" (1995), "My Fellow Americans" (1996) and "Rosewood" (1997) but has his sights set on another big blockbuster with the movie version of "The Wild Wild West" (1999). Other projects in the works are a movie about Muhammad Ali to be directed by Ron Howard and a "Superman" movie starring Nicolas Cage as the 'man of steel' under Tim Burton's direction. With any luck, this P T Barnum of producers could roar to the forefront yet again.

Also Credited As: John H. PetersBorn: on 06/02/45 in Van Nuys, CaliforniaJob Titles: Producer, Personal manager, Beauty-parlor owner, HairdresserFamily
Daughter: Caleigh Peters. mother, Christine Peters
Daughter: Skye Peters. mother, Christine Peters
Father: Jack Peters. of Cherokee descent; owned a diner in Hollywood; dropped dead of a heart attack when Peters was 10
Mother: born into an Italian hair-dressing clan, the Paganos
Son: Christopher Peters. born on September 23, 1968; mother, Lesley Ann Warren
Son: Jordan Peters.
Significant Others
Wife: Christine Forsyth. married in 1987; divorced in 1988
Wife: Lesley Ann Warren. married in 1967; divorced in 1975; mother of Peters' son Christopher
Companion: Barbra Streisand. met in 1974 when he styled a wig for her; became her personal manager and later produced the remake of "A Star Is Born"; godmother to Peters' two daughters
Companion: Catherine Zeta-Jones. reportedly turned down Peters' marriage proposal; no longer together
Companion: Kim Basinger. relationship lasted the duration of the "Batman" shoot
Companion: Mindy Williamson. dating in 1996
Companion: Vendela. became engaged in July 1993; no longer together
Companion: . married at age 14 to a 15-year-old; annulled by the time Peters was 22
Milestones
1956 Rode a donkey as one of Cecil B De Mille's cast of thousands in "The Ten Commandments"
1974 Break came when he styled a wig for Barbra Streisand, receiving first feature credit for "wig design" on "For Pete's Sake"
1976 Produced first feature film, "A Star is Born"; considered casting himself in the Kris Kristofferson role until his pitiful, off-key warbling convinced him to reconsider
1979 Co-produced (with Streisand) "The Main Event"
1980 Formed Jon Peters Organization
1980 Formed the Boardwalk Co with Guber and Neil Bogart
1980 Joined with Peter Guber to become co-owner and co-managing director of Polygram Pictures
1981 Boardwalk dissolved
1982 Guber and Peters sold Polygram and formed the Guber-Peters Company
1987 Guber-Peters Company merged with (Chuck) Barris Industries forming Guber-Peters-Barris Productions; Peters crowed "We're a real studio now" to the LOS ANGELES TIMES (company renamed Guber-Peters Entertainment Company--GPEC--after Australian shopping mall and TV magnate Frank Lowy bought out Barris)
1989 Sony purchased Columbia Pictures and at great expense ($800 million to buy Peters and Guber out of their contract with Warner Bros) installed him and Guber as co-heads of the studio at $2.75 million a piece per year
1991 Resigned (really forced out by Guber and Sony) as co-chair of Columbia Pictures Entertainment and severed all ties with GPEC; continued affiliation with Columbia through his own production company (film, music and TV)
1995 First producing credit post-Guber, "Money Train"
1999 Produced "The Wild Wild West", directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Will Smith, Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline; Robert Conrad, star of the 1960s CBS-TV series source material also appeared
Became Streisand's personal manager
Grew up in Van Nuys, CA in the San Fernando Valley
Opened his own string of beauty salons
Went to work in a hairstyling shop at age 14

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