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Good Machine

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Good Machine Productions
IndustryIndependent film
Founded1990; 33 years ago (1990)
FoundersTed Hope
James Schamus
Defunct2003; 20 years ago (2003)
FateMerged with USA Films and Universal Focus
SuccessorsFocus Features
This Is That Productions
Headquarters,
United States
ProductsMotion pictures
OwnersJames Schamus
Vivendi (2000–2003)
ParentUniversal Studios (2000–2003)
DivisionsGood Machine International

Good Machine Productions was an American independent film production, film distribution, and foreign sales company started in the early 1990 by its co-founders and producers, Ted Hope and James Schamus. David Linde joined as a partner in the late 1990s and also started the international sales company Good Machine International.[1] They sold the company to Universal Pictures,[2] where it was then merged with USA Films and Universal Focus to create Focus Features.[3] Hope, along with the heads of production development and business affairs (Anthony Bregman, Anne Carey, and Diana Victor) then went on to form the independent production company This Is That Productions. Schamus and Linde became co-presidents of Focus Features.[4]

In 2001, the Museum of Modern Art celebrated the tenth anniversary of Good Machine's work, commemorating their support of international and domestic filmmakers.[5]

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Independent film

Independent film

An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.

Film distribution

Film distribution

Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing and release strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing and other matters. The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater or television, or personal home viewing. For commercial projects, film distribution is usually accompanied by film promotion.

Ted Hope

Ted Hope

Ted Hope is an American independent film producer based in New York City. He is best known for co-founding the production/sales company Good Machine, where he produced the first films of such notable filmmakers as Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Moisés Kaufman, and Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, among others. Hope later co-founded This is That with several associates from Good Machine. He later worked at the San Francisco Film Society and Amazon Studios.

James Schamus

James Schamus

James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York-based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.

David Linde

David Linde

David Linde is the CEO of the Los Angeles, California-based film production company Participant, a position to which he was appointed in October 2015. Prior to his role at Participant, Linde had leading roles at Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Good Machine, and Lava Bear Films, where films released during his tenures collectively earned more than $14 billion globally, with 158 Oscar nominations and 34 wins.

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Focus Features

Focus Features

Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as a division of Universal Pictures, which is itself a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally.

Anne Carey

Anne Carey

Anne Carey is President of Production at Archer Gray, a media production, finance, and venture investment company based in New York City. In her career as an independent producer, Carey has been associated with filmmakers such as Ang Lee, Anton Corbijn, Bill Condon, Todd Field, Greg Mottola, Tamara Jenkins, Alan Ball, Mike Mills and Nicole Holofcener. Carey’s films have been distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Warner Independent Pictures, Focus Features, Miramax and HBO; and her films have played and premiered at major domestic and international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

This Is That Productions

This Is That Productions

This Is That Productions was one of the leading independent feature film production companies. Established in 2002, and based in New York City, the company was founded and fully owned by Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Anthony Bregman, and Diana Victor. The four partners previously worked together at the groundbreaking Good Machine, which Ted Hope co-founded in 1991.

Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Background

Good Machine was involved in production and/or distribution of a number of films, including Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and Ride with the Devil; Hal Hartley[6] projects such as Flirt (1995),[7] Edward Burns's The Brothers McMullen and Todd Solondz's Happiness.[8]

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Ang Lee

Ang Lee

Ang Lee is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. As a filmmaker Lee's work is known for its emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and a range of accolades.

The Ice Storm (film)

The Ice Storm (film)

The Ice Storm is a 1997 American drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on Rick Moody's 1994 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Glenn Fitzgerald, Jamey Sheridan, and Sigourney Weaver. Set during Thanksgiving 1973, The Ice Storm is about two dysfunctional New Canaan, Connecticut, upper-class families who are trying to deal with tumultuous social changes of the early 1970s, and their escapism through alcohol, adultery, and sexual experimentation.

Ride with the Devil (film)

Ride with the Devil (film)

Ride with the Devil is a 1999 American Revisionist Western film directed by Ang Lee and starring Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jeffrey Wright, and Jewel in her feature film debut. Based on the novel Woe to Live On, by Daniel Woodrell, the film, set during the American Civil War, follows a group of men who join the First Missouri Irregulars, also known as the Bushwhackers—guerrilla units loyal to pro-Confederacy units of the state—and their war against Northern Jayhawkers allied with the Union army. Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jonathan Brandis, Jim Caviezel, Mark Ruffalo, and Celia Weston are featured in supporting performances.

Hal Hartley

Hal Hartley

Hal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue.

Flirt (1995 film)

Flirt (1995 film)

Flirt is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley and produced by Good Machine.

Edward Burns

Edward Burns

Edward Fitzgerald Burns is an American actor and filmmaker. He first came to attention, performing all four duties, in The Brothers McMullen (1995), his ultra low-budget independent film that went on to be a worldwide hit. Other film appearances include Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Holiday (2006), Man on a Ledge (2012), Friends with Kids (2012), and Alex Cross (2012). Burns directed movies such as She's the One (1996), Sidewalks of New York (2001), and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012). On television, he starred as Bugsy Siegel in the TNT crime drama series Mob City and as Terry Muldoon in TNT's Public Morals.

The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen is a 1995 American comedy-drama film written, directed, produced by, and starring Edward Burns. It deals with the lives of the three Irish Catholic McMullen brothers from Long Island, New York, over three months, as they grapple with basic ideas and values—love, sex, marriage, religion and family—in the 1990s. It was the first Fox Searchlight film.

Todd Solondz

Todd Solondz

Todd Solondz is an American filmmaker and playwright known for his style of dark, socially conscious satire. Solondz's work has received critical acclaim for its commentary on the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia," a reflection of his own background in New Jersey. His work includes Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), Storytelling (2001), Palindromes (2004), Life During Wartime (2009), Dark Horse (2011), and Wiener-Dog (2016).

Happiness (1998 film)

Happiness (1998 film)

Happiness is a 1998 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by Todd Solondz, that portrays the lives of three sisters, their families, and those around them. The film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for "its bold tracking of controversial contemporary themes, richly-layered subtext, and remarkable fluidity of visual style," and the cast received the National Board of Review award for best ensemble performance.

History

Launched in 1990 from a small loft space in lower Manhattan by writer/producer/Columbia professor James Schamus and his partner, Ted Hope, Good Machine produced many important independent films over the years, among them Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995) and The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee, 1993). The company survived by doing line producing for hire and keeping overhead costs low. Many films were commercially successful thanks to centrist marketing strategies. David Linde joining in 1997 and creating the foreign sales company gave Schamus, Hope and Linde greater control of Good Machine's products, increased financing sources, and provided information about what people in the marketplace wanted.[9] In 1997, it was announced that Good Machine would become the foreign sales agent of films produced and distributed by October Films, in order to acquire worldwide rights of the films.[10] In 1998, it struck a deal with Universal.[11] Previously, the company had a one-time production deal with 20th Century Fox, which was signed in 1996.[12] It was dismantled in 2002, when it merged with Focus Features.[13]

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James Schamus

James Schamus

James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York-based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.

Ted Hope

Ted Hope

Ted Hope is an American independent film producer based in New York City. He is best known for co-founding the production/sales company Good Machine, where he produced the first films of such notable filmmakers as Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Moisés Kaufman, and Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, among others. Hope later co-founded This is That with several associates from Good Machine. He later worked at the San Francisco Film Society and Amazon Studios.

Safe (1995 film)

Safe (1995 film)

Safe is a 1995 psychological drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore. Set in 1987, it follows a suburban housewife in Los Angeles whose monotonous life is abruptly changed when she becomes sick with a mysterious illness caused by the environment around her.

The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 romantic comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Ang Lee. The story concerns a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet and he has to hide the truth of his gay partner. It was a co-production of Lee's Good Machine production company, and the Taiwanese Central Motion Picture Corporation.

October Films

October Films

October Films was a major U.S. independent film production company and distributor founded in 1991 by Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky as a means of distributing the 1990 film Life Is Sweet.

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Disbandment

In 2003, Good Machine was acquired by Universal Pictures.[14] James Schamus and David Linde remained with Universal, serving as co-presidents of Focus Features.[15]

Ted Hope chose to part with the company to form the This is that Corporation[16] (This Is That Productions) with Good Machine Director of Development Anne Carey, Director of Production Anthony Bregman, and Director of Business Affairs Diana Victor. Under the This Is That banner they produced films such as Adventureland, The Savages, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.[17]

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Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

Focus Features

Focus Features

Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as a division of Universal Pictures, which is itself a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally.

Anne Carey

Anne Carey

Anne Carey is President of Production at Archer Gray, a media production, finance, and venture investment company based in New York City. In her career as an independent producer, Carey has been associated with filmmakers such as Ang Lee, Anton Corbijn, Bill Condon, Todd Field, Greg Mottola, Tamara Jenkins, Alan Ball, Mike Mills and Nicole Holofcener. Carey’s films have been distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Warner Independent Pictures, Focus Features, Miramax and HBO; and her films have played and premiered at major domestic and international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Adventureland (film)

Adventureland (film)

Adventureland is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Greg Mottola, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart and co-starring Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Martin Starr, and Margarita Levieva. Set in the summer of 1987, recent college grad James Brennan (Eisenberg) is making big plans to tour Europe and attend graduate school in pursuit of a career in journalism. However, financial problems force him to look for a summer job instead of traveling abroad, which places him at Adventureland, a run-down amusement park in western Pennsylvania and loosely based on the "Adventureland" local theme park in Farmingdale, New York. There he meets Emily Lewin (Stewart), a co-worker with whom he develops a quick rapport and relationship.

The Savages (film)

The Savages (film)

The Savages is a 2007 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American science fiction romantic drama film written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Michel Gondry, and starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Pierre Bismuth created the story with Kaufman and Gondry. The film features an ensemble supporting cast that includes Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. The title of the film is a quotation from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope. The picture uses elements of psychological drama, science fiction, and a nonlinear narrative to explore the nature of memory and romantic love.

Filmography

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Keep It for Yourself

Keep It for Yourself

Keep It for Yourself is a 1991 black-and-white short drama film written and directed by Claire Denis.

Pushing Hands (film)

Pushing Hands (film)

Pushing Hands is a 1991 comedy-drama film directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, his feature directorial debut. It stars Sihung Lung as a Chinese Tai Chi master living in New York, who struggles to find his place in the world. The film shows the contrast between traditional Chinese ideas of Confucian relationships within a family and the much more informal Western emphasis on the individual. Together with Ang Lee's two following films, The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), it forms his "Father Knows Best" trilogy, each of which deals with conflicts between an older and more traditional generation and their children as they confront a world of change.

Fine Line Features

Fine Line Features

Fine Line Features was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. From 1991 to 2005, under founder and president Ira Deutchman, Fine Line acquired, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavor than its parent company, including such critically acclaimed films as Hoop Dreams, The Player, Short Cuts, Night on Earth, Spanking the Monkey, Shine, My Own Private Idaho, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. In 2005, New Line teamed up with fellow Time Warner subsidiary HBO to form Picturehouse, a new specialty film label into which Fine Line was folded into.

Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman

Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 Taiwanese comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang. It stars Sihung Lung, Wang Yu-wen, Wu Chien-lien, and Yang Kuei-mei. as members of the Zhu family navigate the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. Part of Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy and similar to Lee's other works, this film deals with the transition from tradition to modernity. It is Lee's only film, to date, to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan.

Genre Films

Genre Films

Genre Films, usually credited as Kinberg Genre, is a production company founded by screenwriter-producer-director Simon Kinberg.

Flirt (1995 film)

Flirt (1995 film)

Flirt is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley and produced by Good Machine.

Safe (1995 film)

Safe (1995 film)

Safe is a 1995 psychological drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore. Set in 1987, it follows a suburban housewife in Los Angeles whose monotonous life is abruptly changed when she becomes sick with a mysterious illness caused by the environment around her.

American Playhouse

American Playhouse

American Playhouse is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

She's the One (1996 film)

She's the One (1996 film)

She's the One is a 1996 American romantic comedy film written and directed by New York actor and director Edward Burns. It stars Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz. The film features one of Tom Petty's few movie soundtracks, and is named after the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name.

Film4 Productions

Film4 Productions

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982. It is especially known for its gritty, kitchen sink-style films and period drama.

Pandora Film

Pandora Film

Pandora Film, or Pandora Filmproduktion, is a German film production and distribution company, founded by Karl Baumgartner and Reinhard Brundig. The last film they distributed was Norwegian Wood (2007), which was released in 2004 in Germany.

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was a British and American film studio founded in 1975 as an American film studio, which became a European competitor to Hollywood within decades, but was eventually sold to Seagram Company Ltd. in 1998 and was folded in 2000. Among its most successful and well known films were The Deep (1977), Midnight Express (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Flashdance (1983), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), Fargo (1996), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Game (1997) and Notting Hill (1999).

Source: "Good Machine", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 22nd), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Machine.

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References
  1. ^ McClintock, Pamela (9 September 2011). "James Schamus' Life on the Film Festival Circuit". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  2. ^ Verrier, Richard (2002-05-03). "Universal Studios to Acquire Good Machine". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  3. ^ "Universal buys Good Machine and merges it with USA Films". Screen. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  4. ^ Anderson, Ariston (11 May 2016). "Locarno Film Fest to Honor Producer David Linde". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  5. ^ "Museum of Modern Art celebrates Good Machine's 10th anniversary," The Advocate (FEBRUARY 13 2001).
  6. ^ "Good Machine [us]". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  7. ^ Macnab, Geoffrey (2013). FilmCraft. Producing. Swart, Sharon. Burlington, MA: Focal Press. ISBN 978-0240823744. OCLC 859154290.
  8. ^ "Good Machine [us]". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-10-30.
  9. ^ Hopewell, John (5 August 2016). "David Linde Talks About His Career, China, the Future of Film at Locarno". Variety. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  10. ^ "October Machine-ready". Variety. 1997-07-31. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  11. ^ Petrikin, Chris (1998-08-27). "U tools deal with Good Machine". Variety. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  12. ^ Roman, Monica (1997-05-08). "MACHINE FOR HIRE". Variety. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  13. ^ Harris, Dana; DiOrio, Carl (2002-05-03). "Good Machine buy alters Focus at U". Variety. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  14. ^ Verrier, Richard. "Universal Studios to Acquire Good Machine," Los Angeles Times (MAY 3, 2002).
  15. ^ Anderson, Ariston (11 May 2016). "Locarno Film Fest to Honor Producer David Linde". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  16. ^ Macaulay, Scott. "Indie Film is Alive," Filmmaker Magazine (Sep. 14, 2017).
  17. ^ Pond, Steve. "Ted Hope, Anne Carey Shut Doors, Stay in Business," The Wrap (Sept. 28, 2010).

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