The Ladd Company

The Ladd Company

Type	Film Production
Founded	1979
Founder	Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter, and Gareth Wigan
Headquarters	Hollywood, California

The Ladd Company is an American film production company founded by Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter, and Gareth Wigan in 1979.

Prior to the company's formation, Ladd was President of 20th Century Fox, and Kanter & Wigan also served as Fox executives. As the alleged results of quarreling between Ladd and the studio higher-ups, the trio announced their intents to leave Fox when their contracts expired in December 1980 and form a production company to be financed by Warner Bros. Fox subsequently cut their contracts short, ending on October 1, 1979.^[1] The day after the contracts expired, the trio placed ads for the newly named "Ladd Company" in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.^[2]

Under Warner Bros., it distributed Chariots of Fire, which won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture, and produced the space epic The Right Stuff, the space western Outland, Ridley Scott's sci-fi film Blade Runner, neo-noir film Body Heat and the first two Police Academy movies, amongst others.

Even with the phenomenal success of Police Academy, the good business couldn't outweigh the bad, as the box-office failures of The Right Stuff, the edited version of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America and the animated Twice Upon a Time (co-produced with Lucasfilm) sent the company towards oblivion. On April 18, 1984, Alan Ladd, Jr. and Warner Bros. parted ways, even though the former still had three years left on the studio's contract. From that point on, "the Ladd Company [would] become a non-exclusive production organization."^[3]

During a brief partnership with Paramount Pictures in the mid-1990s, it produced the Best Picture Oscar winner Braveheart, and A Very Brady Sequel.

Ladd's most recent releases are the 2005 Lasse Hallström drama, An Unfinished Life and the 2007 Ben Affleck drama Gone Baby Gone, both distributed by Miramax Films.

List of Ladd Company Films

Film	Year	Studio	Notes
Divine Madness!	1980	Warner Bros
Outland	1981	Warner Bros
Body Heat	1981	Warner Bros
Chariots of Fire	1981	Warner Bros	Distribution in association with Warner Bros. only
Looker	1981	Warner Bros
Blade Runner	1982	Warner Bros	Was released in three different versions, in 1982, 1992, and 2007 co-production with Jerry Perenchio, Sir Run Run Shaw, and Bud Yorkin
Night Shift	1982	Warner Bros
Love Child	1982	Warner Bros
Five Days One Summer	1982	Warner Bros
Lovesick	1983	Warner Bros
Twice Upon a Time	1983	Warner Bros
The Right Stuff	1983	Warner Bros	Limited release in October 1983, wide release in 1984; Unexpected box office failure, considered one of the causes of the company's demise at Warner Bros.
Star 80	1983	Warner Bros
Mike's Murder	1984	Warner Bros
Police Academy	1984	Warner Bros
Purple Hearts	1984	Warner Bros
Once Upon a Time in America	1984	Warner Bros
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment	1985	Warner Bros	First Ladd Company film not to have the company's logo screen at the beginning of the film, has caption that reads "The Ladd Company Presents" at the beginning of the opening credits instead.
Doin' Time	1985	Warner Bros	Final Ladd Company picture released by Warner Bros.
Braveheart	1995	Paramount Pictures (Domestic) / Twentieth Century Fox (International)	co-production with Icon Productions
The Phantom	1996	Paramount Pictures	co-production with Village Roadshow Pictures
A Very Brady Sequel	1996	Paramount Pictures
An Unfinished Life	2005	Miramax Films	co-production with Revolution Studios
Gone Baby Gone	2007	Miramax Films

References

1. Thomas, Bob. "Studio 'revolution' treat for gossips". Edmonton Journal (August 18, 1979).
2. Schreger, Charles. "New Film Company Born of Frustration". Sarasota Herald-Tribune (October 19, 1979)
3. Associated Press. "Ladd, Warner Bros. dissolve agreement". St. Joseph News-Press (April 20, 1984).

External links

• The Ladd Company at the Internet Movie Database