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THE POWERFUL AND THE FAMOUS
The
Most Powerful Man in Hollywood
Over
the past two decades, Jerry Bruckheimer's name has become synonymous with
Hollywood blockbusters.
Photo:
Jerry
Bruckheimer is known for producing blockbuster hits
From Bad Boys to Beverly Hills Cop and from Top Gun to The Rock, the 58-year-old producer has made one hit after another. This year he struck box office gold with Pirates Of The Caribbean, while Bad Boys 2 was also a success. All of which has led US magazine Entertainment Weekly to vote him the most powerful man in Hollywood.
Detroit-born
Bruckheimer developed his love of films when he discovered Steve McQueen action
movies at an early age, while his organisational skills stood him in good stead
for his future career. "I had an ability to organize things and put them
together," he says. "For example, I was never a good athlete, but I
put together a baseball team so I could play. Then I got a hockey team together
so I could play that too". His first job as producer came in 1972 with The
Culpepper Cattle Company, a Western which follows the fortunes of a young
farmhand desperate to make it as a cattle rancher. Other early productions
included 1980's American Gigolo, which made a star of Richard Gere, Michael
Mann's 1981 thriller Thief and the horror remake Cat People, with Nastassja
Kinski.
In 1983 he made
Flashdance, his first collaboration with long-time producing partner Don
Simpson. It was a smash hit, making more than $100m in the US alone, and set the
tone for future Simpson/Bruckheimer productions with its adrenaline-powered
story and several set-pieces set to rock music. It was a formula that saw them
through a string of 80s and early 90s hits, notably Beverly Hills Cop (1984),
which turned Eddie Murphy into a worldwide star and 1986's Top Gun, which did
the same for Tom Cruise.
HAYWARD GALLERY. LONDON
Open Daily
11am-7pm. Late nights Tues and Wed until 8pm, Fridays until 9pm. Tickets:
£8,
£6
concs.
16s and under: Free (out of school hours)Please
note childrens tickets are not available on-line
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Jacques Henri Lartigue Photographs 1901 -1986 24 June - 5 September 2004 The first major British showing of the work of the French master photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986). |
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Face Photography and the Death of the Portrait 24 June - 5 September A lively and provocative exploration of photography of the face, by a new generation of artists/photographers who are extending the boundaries and questioning out accepted ideas of the portrait. |
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