Future of big films relies on global co-operation argues Hollywood producer Paula Wagner
One of the world best known film producers has said big budget films need to increasingly be made for a global audience with producers on different continents working together to help achieve scale and mass reach.
L:R Rosemary Blight and Paula Wagner: ‘coproduction is an exciting idea’
Hollywood producer Paula Wagner, who produced movies like Mission Impossible and The Last Samurai, told the Screen Forever conference that international coproductions would be a growing trend in the future.
“It is an exciting idea,” said Wagner. “Producers from Australia, the US, and China working together and doing organic coproduction. I think there is great opportunity.”
Citing her experience on The Last Samurai Wagner told the room: “You can’t make a film like that alone and more than ever we are in a collaborative time.
“You need a lot of producers working together.”
Wagner also spoke about the need to be innovative in the way that films are financed today.
“It is harder to finance them,” said Wagner. “But I think that we have to find a way to make them for the right price.
“When you have a passion for something and you believe there is an audience for it and it has a great story then there is a way to do it because there are so many more outlets for distribution, which is the good news.
“There are opportunities for the smaller films. The blockbluster film is not going away and I think the genre that fits into the blockbuster film is not going to change… but the good news is more outlets for content, more distribution, more television being made and I think you have Netflix, Amazon, Google you have Apple – who will get into the act – there are all these opportunities.”
On film financing she added: “There are all these individuals who are stepping up and saying I want to be in the film business from private equity. There are more creative ways which is why you sometimes see 15 executive producers on a tiny little film.
“Everybody wants their credit and that is why we have to preserve the produced by credit.”
Asked by moderator Rosemary Blight about the question of gender and racial diversity in the film industry Wagner said it was a global issue for the industry.
“This is a huge issue,” said Wagner. “When you look at how in 2014 of the 700 films made (in the US) only 28 were directed by women and when it comes to the racial divide the statistics divide even worse.
“When you look at the world we are not representing the diversity of the world and as you all know the Academy Awards were called out for not being diverse in any conceivable way.
“It is changing and changing for the better and there are organisations which are looking into this strongly.”
Nic Christensen
