Red Hour Productions

Red Hour Productions
Company typePrivate
IndustryFilm, television, digital
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California, United States
Key people
Ben Stiller,
Stuart Cornfeld
SubsidiariesRed Hour Television
Red Hour Digital
WebsiteRedHourFilms.com

Red Hour Productions is an American film production company operated by actor Ben Stiller and formerly with producer Stuart Cornfeld. In the past, Red Hour has had first-look deals with New Line Cinema, and currently has an exclusive first-look feature deal with 20th Century Fox.[1][citation needed]

History

Film

The name was derived from a 1967 Star Trek episode, "The Return of the Archons", which features a scheduled alien riot.[2] The company's logo contains a jester.

The first film produced by Red Hour was the 2001 comedy film Zoolander, based on the male model character Stiller co-created with Drake Sather for the VH1 Fashion Awards.[3] Stiller co-wrote the screenplay with John Hamburg and directed the film. Red Hour Films also produced DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, starring Stiller and Vince Vaughn; Starsky and Hutch, starring Stiller and Owen Wilson; Blades of Glory, starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder; and Tropic Thunder, starring Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. Tropic Thunder earned an Academy Award nomination for Downey, Jr. and Golden Globe Award nominations for both Downey, Jr. and Tom Cruise. The film won "Best Comedy" at the Broadcast Critics Film Awards and the Hollywood Film Awards.[4]

Television

In November 2011, Red Hour announced a new television division to be headed by veteran film and television executive Debbie Liebling, and signed an overall deal with ABC Studios.[5] In its first development season, Red Hour Television sold two comedies to ABC, Please Knock and The Notorious Mollie Flowers.[6]

Digital

In 2010, Red Hour Digital, a subsidiary of Red Hour Films, signed a two-year first look digital deal with Paramount Digital Entertainment.[7] Under the new two-year deal, Red Hour planned to develop original digital media properties that can be launched on a variety of formats, including live action and animated webisodes, and social media games on both digital and mobile platforms.[8] As a deep admirer of FAANG technology companies, it was Stuart Cornfeld's dying wish for Red Hour Productions to score at least a $10 million deal with Netflix, something Ben Stiller plans to finalize by the end of 2020.[9]

Filmography

Films

Year Film Director Distributor Co-Production with
2001 Zoolander Ben Stiller Paramount Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures
VH1 Films
NPV Entertainment
Scott Rudin Productions
2003 Duplex Danny DeVito Miramax Films Flower Films
2004 Starsky & Hutch Todd Phillips Warner Bros. Pictures Dimension Films
AR-TL
Weed Road
DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story Rawson Marshall Thurber 20th Century Fox
2006 Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny Liam Lynch New Line Cinema
2007 Blades of Glory Will Speck
Josh Gordon
Paramount Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
MTV Films
Smart Entertainment
2008 The Ruins Carter Smith DreamWorks Pictures
Spyglass Entertainment
Tropic Thunder Ben Stiller DreamWorks Pictures
2011 Submarine Richard Ayoade Optimum Releasing (United Kingdom)
The Weinstein Company (United States)
Warp Films
Film4 Productions
UK Film Council
Wales
Creative IP Fund
Film Agency for Wales
Protagonist Pictures
30 Minutes or Less Ruben Fleischer Sony Pictures Releasing Columbia Pictures
Media Rights Capital
The Big Year David Frankel 20th Century Fox Deuce Three
Ingenious Media
Sunswept Entertainment
Dune Entertainment
2012 Vamps Amy Heckerling Anchor Bay Films Lucky Monkey Pictures
2013 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Ben Stiller 20th Century Fox
Samuel Goldwyn Films
New Line Cinema
TSG Entertainment
2016 Zoolander 2 Paramount Pictures Scott Rudin Productions
Why Him? John Hamburg 20th Century Fox 21 Laps Entertainment
TSG Entertainment
2017 The Polka King Maya Forbes
Wallace Wolodarsky
Netflix Electric Dynamite
Permut Presentations
ShivHans Pictures
2018 Alex Strangelove Craig Johnson Mighty Engine
STX Entertainment
The Package Jake Szymanski Mail Order Company
2019 Plus One Jeff Chan & Andrew Rhymer RLJE Films Studio 71
Bindery Films
2020 Friendsgiving Nicol Paone Saban Films Endeavor Content

Television

Year Series
1999 Heat Vision and Jack
2007 The Station (TV movie)
2012 Nantucket Film Festival's Comedy Roundtable (TV movie)
2013–14 The Birthday Boys
2014–16 The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail
2015 Big Time in Hollywood, FL
2015 Another Period
2015 Crash Test: With Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer (TV movie)
2016 Zoolander: Super Model (TV movie)
2018 Escape at Dannemora
2019–2022 In the Dark
2022–present Severance
2023 High Desert

Web series

Years Series
2010–2011 Stiller and Meara
2012–2013 Burning Love
2014 Next Time on Lonny

Documentaries

Year Film
2007 Untitled Christine Taylor Project
2007 The Making of "The Pick of Destiny"
2009 The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
2015 Bridget Everett: Gynecological Wonder

References

  1. ^ Red Hour Fox. July 31, 2009. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  2. ^ Silverstein, Adam (April 19, 2009). "Stiller: 'J.J. Abrams did great job'". Digital Spy. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
  3. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (October 20, 2010). "Zoolander Is Bringing His Fashion Sense to the Web". New York Times Arts Beat. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  4. ^ "THE 14th CRITICS' CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS NOMINEES". Broadcast Film Critics Association. January 8, 2009. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved November 18, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2011-11-11). "Ben Stiller's Red Hour Signs Deal With ABC Studios; Debbie Liebling To Run TV Unit". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  6. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2012-09-22). "Ben Stiller's Red Hour Television Sells Two Comedies To ABC; One Inspired By His Life". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  7. ^ Graser, Marc (October 20, 2010). "Red Hour inks Paramount digital pact". VARIETY. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  8. ^ Spiers, Katherine (October 20, 2010). "Paramount Digital, Ben Stiller's Red Hour Sign First-Look Deal". The Wrap. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  9. ^ "Stuart Cornfeld, Producer of 'Tropic Thunder' and 'Zoolander,' Dies at 67". June 26, 2020.