Amy Pascal started off today with news of a Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical Golden Globes nomination for producing Challengers, which got four nominations overall, a nice feat since it came out nine months ago and is still being celebrated as a smart, adult movie in a time when this genre of originality is a rare bird for major studios.
Of course, Pascal should know that better than anybody, having been Sony Pictures chairperson from 2006-2015. Now as a producer and head of Pascal Pictures she has produced the live-action Spider-Man Homecoming, and Far From Home sequels, and won Best Picture Oscar nominations for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and Steven Spielberg’s The Post, and a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.
This year, in addition to Luca Guadagnino’s the awards-buzzed sexy tennis triangle Challengers, she has her second Venom film, The Last Dance, in theaters. The 2017 Ghostbusters and Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game are other projects she led since leaving Sony (in our interview she freely says she was “fired”) and is on various locations for upcoming films like Hail Mary for directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and starring Ryan Gosling; Noah Baumbach’s next film with Adam Sandler and George Clooney; plus the next Spider-Man live-action and animated sequels among many others percolating at her company.
She certainly has had a sterling career; when running Sony she had such celebrated Best Picture nominees as American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball and The Social Network in addition to numerous box office hits.
From running a studio to being on the ground making pictures, Pascal has done it all. This is a person who knows how to get movies — quality movies — onto the screen. She talks about all of it, and the state of the business, as she joins me in conversation for this week’s episode of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens.
To watch and go “behind the lens” with Amy Pascal, watch the video above.
Join me every Monday during Oscar season for a new edition of Behind the Lens.