.... in the last paragraph. There's also mention of Richard
Lewis, another HOD producer.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/skoll.html
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The Indie Movie Mogul
eBay ex-president Jeff Skoll likes to bankroll worthy causes.
So he went to Hollywood to make small movies with big messages.
By Michael S. Malone
Like any rich geek with a conscience, Jeff Skoll wanted to
give back. So the first president of eBay launched the Skoll
Foundation to bankroll worthy causes. He established Oxford's
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneur****p, endowed three chairs
at the University of Toronto, and even underwrote a PBS
series on nonprofit entrepreneurs that I helped produce.
And, after ca****ng out of eBay with $2 billion in his pocket,
he started Participant Productions, a movie company that had
a remarkable burst of critically acclaimed films last year:
Syriana, an antipetroleum political thriller starring George
Clooney; Good Night, and Good Luck, which revisits Joe
McCarthy's Red Scare; and North Country, about a landmark
***ual harassment lawsuit. If you notice a lack of boneheaded
action, smarmy romance, and brain-dead comedy, it's
because Participant's mission was to make not blockbusters
but messages -- movies that promote social and economic
justice. So Skoll is still giving back. This time, though,
he may get an Oscar in return.
Q: Why pick Hollywood as a vehicle for social change?
JS: When I was a kid, I realized the power of stories to make
a difference. Even then, it seemed that the world was going
the wrong way: environmental degradation, new diseases,
terrible weapons. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to
write stories that got people involved before these problems
could get even bigger?
Q: So, you've always wanted to be a professional writer?
JS: No, my goal was to become financially independent enough to
write these stories. EBay provided more financial independence
than I could have dreamed of, but I didn't have time to write.
Then I realized it wasn't the act of writing stories that
mattered, but the message they conveyed. Instead of writing,
why not fund movies that could reach people in a big way?
Q: What have you learned so far?
JS: To do this right, I have to do it myself. A few years
before I formed Participant, I met a producer named Richard
Lewis who had been very successful with a number of big
movies. I asked him why there weren't more movies like Erin
Brockovich and Schindler's List coming out of Hollywood.
And he said, "People just don't finance those movies. Though,
by the way, those are the kinds of movies I'd like to do."
I invested in his company, Ovation. But he ended up focusing
on commercial films. We made a few that were eminently
forgettable. But I learned.
Q: George Clooney's paycheck for Ocean's Eleven was
re****tedly $20 million. You got him to star in, cowrite,
and direct Good Night, and Good Luck -- a movie with a
$7 million budget. How?
JS: The actors have to believe in the material so much that
they are willing to take a break on their rates. And the
production needs to be scaled to the money it's likely to make.
Q: How does Hollywood differ from Silicon Valley?
JS: There is this weird irony that change happens faster in
Silicon Valley, but the thinking is more long-term. In Hollywood,
change happens slowly but people go from project to project
every three to six months, so there's a very short-term mindset.
Q: Do you find the slower pace frustrating?
JS: The pace at eBay was frantic and urgent. We knew that if we
didn't move fast, somebody would come into the market and quash
us. Participant doesn't make a lot of sense from a financial
investment perspective, so it's unlikely that other people
will be approaching the business in the same way. So you see
less urgency; you see a thoroughness and willingness to spend
extra time to get things right. Which I think is really im****tant.
Q: Hollywood has fleeced innumerable starry-eyed billionaires.
What makes you different?
JS: I think of this as philanthropy. I have to think of it that
way because the film business is not really financially attractive.
Participant is the only production company in town that has
a double bottom line: social good plus financial returns. It's
too early to tell how our returns are going to look -- though all
signs are promising -- but social good is what we're really after.
Q: How do you measure social good?
JS: Last weekend I was reading Yahoo! News and saw an article
that explained how groups like the National Resources Defense
Council are using Syriana to galvanize people to save energy
and lobby for alternatives to fossil fuels. At the same time,
ultra right-wing groups are using the movie to argue for
getting off oil because it compromises national security.
That was an aha moment for me because I could actually
see one of our movies begin to influence policy.
Q: Coming from a guy who helped invent social networks,
your Web site seems awfully thin.
JS: Right now Participate.net is basic, practical -- OK,
dull. But, frankly, given everything else that's going on,
it's a miracle we got anything online at all. This year,
we'll have a big push to build the site. Picture the
Skoll Foundation's SocialEdge.org mixed with Friendster
or MySpace, but with a little more of an edge.
Q: Ten years ago, you wanted to stay under the radar. Today,
you're being profiled on 20/20. Do you enjoy the attention?
JS: When I was on the set of House of D with David Duchovny,
these screaming fans would hand me a camera and say,
"Would you take a picture of us with David?" A few days
later, Robin Williams arrived on the set. Then they ran up
to David Duchovny and said, "Would you take a picture of us
with Robin?" So there are different hierarchies of celebrity.
My profile has risen over the last year, but I can still go
out on the street and nobody knows who I am. Thank God.
Michael S. Malone (msmalone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
) wrote about
Yahoo! in issue 13.03.
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