News for
Kathleen Kennedy (I)

photos

board

add

contact

details

IMDbPro offers the latest entertainment industry news from the Hollywood Reporter. Sign-up for a two-week free trial today. Click here for a free trial!

Zellweger Honored at Women in Film Event
20 June 2007 (WENN)
Actress Renee Zellweger was honored with the Crystal Award at the Women In Film Crystal + Lucy Awards last Thursday. The Oscar-winning Cold Mountain star was presented with the prize at the Beverly Hills, California event by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. An emotional Zellweger told the Beverly Hilton Hotel audience, "I didn't expect this to be such an emotional experience. Now my fake eyelashes are going to fall off." Something's Gotta Give director Nancy Meyers picked up the Dorothy Arzner Award, and Steven Spielberg presented his longtime producer Kathleen Kennedy with the Paltrow Mentorship Award, in honor of Gwyneth Paltrow's late producer father Bruce Paltrow.

Zellweger To Lead Women in Film Awards Honors
17 April 2007 (WENN)
Renee Zellweger and Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes are to be honored at the 2007 Women In Film Awards in Beverly Hills. Bridget Jones's Diary star Zellweger will receive the Crystal Award for excellence in film, while Rhimes will pick up the Lucy Award for excellence in TV at the star-studded gala in June. British actress Emily Blunt, recently in The Devil Wears Prada, will also be honored, with the Face of The Future prize, while producer Kathleen Kennedy will be the first recipient of the Paltrow Mentorship Award - a prize honoring Shakespeare in Love star Gwyneth Paltrow's late father Bruce Paltrow.

Coming Soon: Milli Vanilli, the Movie
15 February 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Pop music's second-biggest scandal -- the payola scandal of the late 1950s topped them all -- in which it was revealed that the members of Milli Vanilli, Fabrice Morvan and the late Rob Pilatus, did not sing on their records and merely lip-synced to the recordings of studio performers is about to become a movie, Daily Variety reported today (Thursday). The trade publication said that the film about the duo will be written and directed by Jeff Nathanson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy. "I've always been fascinated by the notion of fakes and frauds, and in this case, you had guys who pulled off the ultimate con, selling 30 million singles and 11 million albums and then becoming the biggest laughingstocks of pop entertainment," Nathanson told Variety.

It's Official: Indy To Return on May 22, 2008
7 February 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Paramount on Tuesday confirmed that it will release the next Indiana Jones installment on Thursday, May 22, 2008. The studio also said that it plans a simultaneous worldwide release of the as-yet-untitled film, which will be produced by Lucasfilm Ltd., directed by Steven Spielberg, and star Harrison Ford. Frank Marshall will receive the top producer's credit, while George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy will serve as executive producers. The screenplay was written by David Koepp. The studio had previously announced that production will begin in June.

Spielberg "Stunned" by Paramount's Cruise Decision
25 August 2006 (WENN)
Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg insists he had no prior knowledge of Paramount's decision to end their partnership with Tom Cruise, declaring he was stunned by the news. Spielberg's Dreamworks company is owned by Paramount Pictures and has directed Cruise in Minority Report and War of the Worlds. Spielberg also owns the talent firm Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which represents Cruise. When Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom - Paramount's parent company - announced the studios would not be renewing Cruise's 14-year production deal due to his "recent conduct," internet gossips claimed Spielberg was aware of the decision. However, his spokesman Marvin Levy tells the New York Daily News, "Steven had no advance knowledge of Sumner Redstone's position. The story broke when Steven was on an airplane. He found out when the plane landed." Spielberg's producing partner Kathleen Kennedy has lashed out at reports the director was unhappy with Cruise's behaviour during the War Of The Worlds publicity campaign last year, when he indulged in public displays of affection with fiancee Katie Holmes on red carpets all over the world. Kennedy says, "It's not true. Tom was a consummate professional. He's done nothing wrong."

Spielberg Acts To Counter Israeli Criticism of 'Munich'
20 December 2005 (StudioBriefing)
After Ehud Danoch, the Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, slammed Steven Spielberg's upcoming Munich as "superficial" and "pretentious," Spielberg is reportedly attempting to "mollify" current and former agents of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and court other Israeli officials, Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday). (In an earlier review, the trade paper also condemned the film.) According to Variety, Spielberg has offered to screen the movie to Meir Dagan, the current chief of Mossad, and to agents who worked for it at the time of the events depicted in the film. The publication further reported that producer Kathleen Kennedy and screenwriter Tony Kushner arranged a screening for two widows of Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. One of the women, Ilana Romano, was quoted as saying, "Munich handles the terrorist attack and the plight of the Israeli victims with great accuracy."

PGA To Fight Proliferation of "Producer" Credit
7 October 2004 (StudioBriefing)
The Producers Guild of America, which lacks the clout of a full-fledged labor union (it has no collective bargaining agreement with any studio) is launching an informational campaign to persuade the studios to halt handing out producer credits willy-nilly. On Wednesday, it noted, for example, that this summer's Laws of Attraction listed 16 producers, many of whom were merely persons who helped finance the movie but had nothing to do with the production. George Hedges, a lawyer for the guild, told today's (Thursday) Wall Street Journal. "Can you imagine saying you were the CEO of a company and never showed up for a day's work? That's effectively what this is." Kathleen Kennedy, the PGA's president, said that if the guild is unsuccessful persuading the studios to limit the credit to persons responsible for development and production, then it plans to file a false-advertising lawsuit.

Spielberg and Cruise Rush to 'War'
12 August 2004 (StudioBriefing)
Paramount and DreamWorks are rushing into production a new, effects-heavy version of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay was written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man) and Josh Friedman. Longtime Spielberg collaborator Kathleen Kennedy and Cruise collaborator Paula Wagner will produce. Although the project was announced in April, it was widely believed that it would be put on hold until after Spielberg completed work on his film about the 1972 Munich Olympics attack and until Cruise completed Mission: Impossible 3. Now, according to reports, those productions will be placed on back burners, while War is moved to the front. Published reports said that plans call for the film to go into production in November and to be released next year.

Kennedy Named Head Of Producers Guild
21 May 2002 (StudioBriefing)
Kathleen Kennedy, whose credits include E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and The Sixth Sense, has been reelected president of the Producers Guild of America. She had served as co-president (with Tim Gibbons) since last year.

Indy May Be Spiffed Up, Too -- Like E.T.
21 February 2002 (StudioBriefing)
Following a screening of a restored and digitally "tweaked" 20th Anniversary Special Edition: E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial in Salt Lake City, Frank Marshall, who co-produced the film with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy Marshall, indicated that plans are afoot to similarly renew the Indiana Jones movies, which the Marshalls also co-produced, according to an article appearing on the DreamWorks' fan website (http://dreamworksfansite.com/editorials/E.T._20_Review.php). "We're thinking about doing this with Indy," Marshall was quoted as saying, "bringing it back and spiffing up the effects. Before seeing the new E.T., we would have had mixed feelings about seeing Raiders [of the Lost Ark] touched in any way. Now the prospect is mouth watering."

E.T. To Phone Home Again
3 July 2001 (StudioBriefing)
Steven Spielberg is planning to release a 20th anniversary "director's cut" of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial next year that will contain nearly 10 minutes of additional footage, according to producer Kathleen Kennedy. In an interview with the Calgary Sun, Kennedy described the footage as "bits and pieces ... little moments [that had been] cut from various scenes" in the original. She also said that now "E.T. says 'Phone Home' much better." Kennedy insisted that Spielberg's intention was not to push E.T. back to the top of the all-time box office list again. ( With a box-office take of $400 million, it currently ranks behind Titanic, the original Star Wars and The Phantom Menace.) "It's not about money. It's about introducing E.T. to a fourth generation of kids in a movie theatre where they should see it for maximum effect," she said.

Academy Reaffirms: No More Than Three Producers Per Movie
27 January 2000 (StudioBriefing)
The motion picture Academy's Producers Branch Executive Committee decided Wednesday that it will strictly enforce new rules that no more than three producers may qualify for Oscars in the Best Picture category, Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd reported today (Thursday). Archerd said that appeals by producers of three movies were rejected. "It forces everyone to truly evaluate who is the producer(s), " producer Kathleen Kennedy told Archerd. "We are really trying to bring respect for that credit."

Spielberg And Kennedy To Produce Stephen King Miniseries
20 August 1999 (StudioBriefing)
Steven Spielberg is reteaming with Kathleen Kennedy to exec produce a TV version of the Stephen King-Peter Straub novel The Talisman for ABC, Daily Variety reported today (Friday), citing no sources. The 4-hour miniseries is being developed as a coproduction between DreamWorks and Kennedy-Marshall Co., the trade paper said.

Lucas: Fox Won't Use New Star Wars Trailer To Hype New Movie
10 March 1999 (StudioBriefing)
LucasFilm denied Tuesday that its second trailer for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) will be used by 20th Century Fox to help push ticket sales for the studio's Wing Commander (1999), which opens this weekend. While confirming that the trailer will debut on Friday, the studio indicated on its official Star Wars Web site &lt;<http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/news>&gt; that the trailer "may not even play with Wing Commander." It suggested that those who want to see it, contact their local theater. The trailer is expected to air on Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood tonight and also to be screened tonight at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, today's Hollywood Reporter reported that George Lucas has no plans to do test screenings of the film but has shown a nearly completed rough cut to friends, including Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Kennedy And Marshall To Produce Series For Cbs
21 July 1998 (StudioBriefing)
CBS Entertainment chief Les Moonves has lured Amblin Entertainment cofounders Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall to the network to develop a one-hour series. Today's (Tuesday) Daily Variety quoted Moonves as saying, "We have to expand our horizons in terms of talent. ... The amount of product has grown by leaps and bounds, but the TV talent hasn't." Terms of the deal, which will bring Kennedy and Marshall to TV for the first time, were not disclosed.

Shakeup At Cnn
21 November 1997 (StudioBriefing)
CNN president Rick Kaplan has begun a long-expected "housecleaning" at the network, pink-slipping medical correspondent Jeff Levine, based in Washington, as well as Kitty Pilgrim, Kathleen Kennedy and Linden Soles all based at the news network's Atlanta headquarters, the Washington Post reported today (Friday).

Stopping "Producer" Overproduction
26 June 1997 (StudioBriefing)
Angered by the proliferation of producing credits on films (there are ten on the new John Travolta-Nicolas Cage movie Face/Off alone), some 50 top Hollywood producers have formed the Producers Credit Board to persuade studios to limit the number of producer billings. As reported by today's (Thursday) New York Times, the groups wants to set up arbitration panels that will mediate disputes over producers credits. Observing that in recent years, studios have willingly given such credits to friends and relatives of stars -- or even their hairdressers and chauffeurs -- the Times quoted Kathleen Kennedy long associated with Steven Spielberg as saying "The producing credit is for sale. Basically, there's an eroding respect for the title 'producer.'"