Brian Grazer Movies and Career Information

Brian Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. While executive-producing TV pilots at Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s, Grazer met current long-time friend and business partner Ron Howard. He produced his first feature-film, Night Shift, in 1982, directed by Howard. Grazer and Howard teamed up again for Splash in 1984, which Grazer produced and co-wrote, the latter earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1984. In 1986, Grazer and Howard co-founded Imagine Entertainment, which continues to be one of Hollywood's most prolific and successful production companies. Over the years, Grazer’s films and TV shows have been nominated for a total of 43 Academy Awards and 131 Emmys. At the same time, his movies have generated more than $13.5 billion in worldwide theatrical, music and video grosses. Grazer’s early film successes include Parenthood (1989) and Backdraft (1991). He produced Apollo 13 (1995), for which he won the Producers' Guild’s Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 1995. Asteroid 12562 Briangrazer is named for him. In 2001, Grazer won an Academy Award for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind, which also took home Oscars for Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), Best Director (Ron Howard), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman). In 2002, Grazer’s 8 Mile was released. It proved not only to be a huge box office hit, but also the first film with a rap song to win a Best Original Song Oscar for Eminem’s "Lose Yourself". Grazer also produced the film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard. Frost/Nixon (2008) was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Disney's The Princess and the Frog who was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans"). Grazer’s productions span over a quarter-century and almost the full spectrum of movie genres. His comedies include Boomerang (1992), The Nutty Professor (1996), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Dilemma (2011). He has also produced many dramatic thrillers to include Inside Man (2006), The Da Vinci Code (2006), American Gangster (2007), Changeling (2008), Angels and Demons (2009), Robin Hood (2010), and Cowboys and Aliens (2011). Grazer produced J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood-directed biopic of J. Edgar Hoover, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and released in the fall of 2011. He also produced Tower Heist, starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, as well as Restless, directed by Gus Van Sant.