BIOGS
Edward R. Pressman
(Producer)
With over 70 diverse motion pictures and over 30 years of experience to his credit, native New Yorker and film producer Edward R. Pressman has forged a career of international renown, marked by originality and eclecticism. Throughout his maverick career, he has brought numerous emerging filmmakers together with projects that have put them firmly on the map. Pressman’s reputation as a daring filmmaker was cemented with the international recognition of the French Cinematheque, which presented a 1989 retrospective of his films and awarded him the esteemed Chevalier Des Arts et Letters medal. He’s also received tributes from The National Film Theatre in London, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Pacific Film Archives and Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Cinematék. In 2003, Pressman was honored with the IFP Gotham Award for lifetime achievement.
Pressman’s specialty is discovering new talent and bringing new experiences to motion picture audiences. He is known for fostering the careers of young and inspired filmmakers. Director Brian De Palma showed off his early mastery of suspense in the Pressman productions “Sisters” and “Phantom of the Paradise,” and Terrence Malick’s visual genius was first brought to the screen in Pressman’s “Badlands.” Pressman gave Jason Reitman his directorial debut with “Thank You for Smoking,” and Oliver Stone his major directorial debut with “The Hand,” then produced his Academy Award-winning “Wall Street” and “Talk Radio.” With Stone, Pressman produced Kathryn Bigelow’s early film, the thriller, “Blue Steel” starring Jamie Lee Curtis. He is responsible for giving Alex Proyas his directorial debut with “The Crow” and Sylvester Stallone his with “Paradise Alley.” In John Milius’ “Conan the Barbarian,” Pressman gave Arnold Schwarzenegger his first starring role. Pressman showcased David Gordon Green’s talents in one of his early films “Undertow.” His international productions include Wolfgang Peterson’s “Das Boot,” the Taviani brothers’ “Good Morning, Babylon,” and Fred Schepsi’s “Plenty.”
Over the years, Pressman has produced a number of director-driven, high profile projects, including Mary Harron’s “American Psycho,” Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant,” Wayne Cramer’s acclaimed Vegas romance “The Cooler” starring Alec Baldwin in his Oscar nominated role, David Mamet’s “Homicide” and Barbet Schroeder’s “Reversal of Fortune” starring Jeremy Irons in his Academy Award winning performance.
Recent Pressman productions include Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call: New Orleans”—a reinvention of “Bad Lieutenant” starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendez and Val Kilmer; Steven Shainberg’s “Fur: An imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus” starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr.; and “Mutant Chronicles,” a sci-fi adventure directed by Simon Hunter and starring Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, and John Malkovich, now available on DVD.
Upcoming Pressman productions include “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” the sequel to the Oscar winning “Wall Street” starring Michael Douglas, Shia LeBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Frank Langella. Pressman also recently announced that he will produce a reinvention of “The Crow” with Relativity Media to be written and directed by Stephen Norrington and is reteaming with Mary Harron for the screen adaptation of “The Moth Diaries.” He is also collaborating with Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker on a Louis Armstrong biopic in which Whitaker will direct and star as the jazz great.
Pressman enjoys a unique collaboration in Sunflower Productions with long-time friend Terrence Malick. Previous Sunflower productions include, “Amazing Grace” directed by Michael Apted and starring Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Gambon, and Albert Finny; “Happy Times” by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and “The Beautiful Country” directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, and Bai Ling.
Pressman attended New York’s Fieldston School and then went on to graduate with honors from Stanford University with a B.A. in Philosophy. He pursued graduate studies at the London School of Economics.
