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Jason Blum

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Jason Blum
Blum at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born
Jason Ferus Blum

(1969-02-20) February 20, 1969 (age 55)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materVassar College
Occupations
  • Film producer
  • television producer
Years active1995–present
Spouse
Lauren A.E. Schuker
​
(m. 2012)​

Jason Ferus Blum (/bluːm/; born February 20, 1969)[1][2] is an American film producer, and both the founder and CEO of eponymous company Blumhouse Productions. He won the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie for producing The Normal Heart, and has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Whiplash, Get Out and BlacKkKlansman.[3]

Early life

Blum was born in Los Angeles, California,[4] the son of Shirley (née Neilsen) and Irving Blum. His mother was an art professor and his father was an independent art dealer and director of the Ferus Gallery.[5][6] His father was Jewish.[7][8] His mother was previously married to museum director Walter Hopps.[9][10]

Career

Blum worked for Bob and Harvey Weinstein as an executive producer and later as an independent producer for Warner Bros.[1] He also was working as a producing director at Ethan Hawke's Malaparte theater company.[11] Blum is a 1991 graduate of Vassar College.[12][13]

He obtained financing for his first film as producer, Kicking and Screaming (1995), after receiving a letter from family acquaintance, entertainer Steve Martin, who endorsed the script. Blum attached the letter to copies of the script he sent around to Hollywood executives.[14]

Blumhouse Productions

In 2000, he founded Blumhouse Productions, which specializes in producing micro-budget movies that give directors full creative control over the projects.[11] Some of the films produced by Blum have been highly profitable, including horror film Paranormal Activity which was made for $15,000 and earned nearly $200 million.[15] NPR's Planet Money did a special podcast about how Blum's production house gets its success.[16]

Blum also produced Insidious (2010), Sinister (2012), The Purge (2013), and Creep (2014), all of which had successful sequels.[17] In 2014, he served as an executive producer on the television film The Normal Heart, which went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie, and produced the feature films Whiplash and Get Out, both of which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture.[3]

In 2018, Blum said in an interview that the reason no woman had ever directed one of his horror films was that "there are not a lot of female directors (...) and even less who are inclined to do horror".[18] After much criticism on social media, in which lists of such directors were circulated,[19] he apologized for what he called his "dumb comments".[20]

Personal life

On July 14, 2012, Blum married journalist Lauren A.E. Schuker in Los Angeles in a Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness ceremony.[5]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

  1. ^ a b "Interview Jason Blum". Dorkshelf. February 20, 2013.
  2. ^ "Jason Ferus Blum". MyLife.com Inc.
  3. ^ a b "Oscar Nominations: 'Grand Budapest Hotel' & 'Birdman' Lead Way With 9 Noms; 'Imitation Game' Scores 8". Deadline. January 15, 2015.
  4. ^ Bhattacharji, Alex (July 16, 2018). "How Producer Jason Blum is Disrupting Hollywood". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 20, 2018. Closed access icon
  5. ^ a b "Weddings/Celebrations - Lauren Schuker and Jason Blum". The New York Times. July 15, 2012.
  6. ^ "Blums". Dictionary of Art Historians.
  7. ^ Stromberg, David (March 28, 2008). "The Forgotten Warhol". Haaretz. In fact, the first person to present Andy Warhol as a visual, as opposed to commercial, artist was a Jew named Irving Blum, who in 1962 exhibited - and then bought for himself - the entire original series of Warhol's Campbell's Soup can paintings.
  8. ^ Klug, Lisa (June 23, 2016). "Who said Jews run Hollywood? Inaugural list of 100 prominent players in Tinseltown shows a lack of diversity -- and a whole lot of MOT". Times of Israel.
  9. ^ "White Men Can't Paint! by Charlie Finch". Artnet Magazine.
  10. ^ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (November 4, 2013). "Art Dealer Irving Blum on Andy Warhol and the 1960s L.A. Art Scene (Q&A)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  11. ^ a b "About Blumhouse Productions". Blumhouse.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Lynn Hirschberg. "Producer Jason Blum Is Taking Hollywood By Storm With Horror Movies". W. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  13. ^ "How I Made It: Jason Blum, film producer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
  14. ^ "I am Jason Blum, producer of Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious: Chapter2". Reddit. June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  15. ^ "Paranormal Activity (2007)". Box Office Mojo.
  16. ^ Henn, Steve; Vanek Smith, Stacey (March 29, 2017). "Episode 650: The Business Genius Behind Get Out". NPR. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  17. ^ "Q&A: Producer Jason Blum talks "OUIJA", "PURGE 3", "CURVE" & More…". Fangoria. February 4, 2015.
  18. ^ Patches, Matt (October 18, 2018). "Blumhouse has never produced a theatrically released horror movie directed by a woman — but hopes to". Polygon. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  19. ^ Nyren, Erin (October 18, 2018). "Jason Blum Says He's Meeting With Women Directors After Claiming 'There Aren't a Lot'". Variety. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  20. ^ Lussier, Germain (October 19, 2018). "Halloween Producer Jason Blum Has Apologized for His Ridiculous Comments About Women Directors". io9. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
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