In 1979, the three founders were executives with 20th Century Fox; Ladd was the president. They announced their intention to leave the company when their contracts expired in December 1980 and form a new production company to be financed by Warner Bros. (Ladd had reportedly been quarreling with other Fox senior executives). 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]
Police Academy proved very profitable. But the returns from the company's successes did not outweigh 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-production with Korty Films and Lucasfilm). 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."[4]
The Ladd Company's co-founder Gareth Wigan died at his home in Los Angeles on February 13, 2010, at the age of 78.[5][6] The Ladd Company's founder Alan Ladd Jr. died of kidney failure at his home in Los Angeles on March 2, 2022, at the age of 84.[7][8] The Ladd Company's co-founder Jay Kanter died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on August 6, 2024, at the age of 97.[9]
The company was known as The Ladd Company and its symbol was a tree. "You could say it has a tie in with the tree of life," said Ladd.[13] They signed a deal with Warner Bros who would finance and distribute their films, although the Ladd Company had creative control. Warners would finance at least $75 million a year.[13]
Ladd said he wanted to make "basically what I made at Fox. I don't think my attitude has changed. Those pictures went all over the place. There wasn't any specific theme to them." Even films like Alien and The Omen which he admits were "exploitation pictures, I think we tried to do it with more quality and style than just ripping off a theme."[14]
Early films
On November 2, 1979, Ladd announced the company's first films: a Bette Midler concert movie (Ladd greenlit Midler's The Rose while at Fox) and Madonna Red a $10 million Joseph L. Mankiewicz film starring Paul Newman as a Vietnam War veteran turned priest.[15] Then they announced Five Days in Summer from Fred Zinnemann who had made Julia, and Twice Upon a Time a $3 million film from Lucasfilm.[16][17]
The Midler film became Divine Madness (1980) but Madonna Red was never made. The first dramatic film the company ended making was Outland (1981), a science fiction film in the vein of Alien shot in England under Sandy Lieberson, the company's head of European operations. It was a commercial disappointment when released.[18]
The Ladd Company's second film was going to be a Bernardo Bertolucci film starring Ugo Tognazzi.[18] This was never made. However the company had a critical and commercial hit with Body Heat (1981) the directorial debut of Lawrence Kasdan, then with Chariots of Fire (1981), a British film the company helped finance.[19]
Looker (1981) from Michael Crichton was a flop. The company helped make Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, which was a cult classic years after its theatrical release, but under performed critically and commercially. Night Shift (1982), directed by Ron Howard, was a minor success.
The Ladd Company hoped for a big hit with the $28 million The Right Stuff (1983) but it only returned $10 million to the company.[20]Larry Gross later wrote,
The Ladd Company, a director-friendly bunch, went down with The Right Stuff. Execs look very closely at what causes other companies to retire from the field. The levels of caution multiply.[21]
Ladd developed Country but sold the film to another company.[23] They also had Splash from Ron Howard but put it in turnaround, as they did The Big Chill (1983).[24]
The company had a huge hit with Police Academy (1984), made for $4.2 million which grossed $81 million and led to several sequels.[25] Less successful were Purple Hearts (1984) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984) which the company extensively edited without the cooperation of Sergio Leone.
End of company
The success of Police Academy came too late to save the company. On April 19, 1984, Warners announced its association with the Ladd Company was over and Ladd became a nonexclusive production organization.[26]
By July 16, 1984, the New York Times wrote that,
In essence, the Ladd Company no longer exists; although the label still exists, most of its executives have left. The company failed partly as a result of the dismal box-office record of many of its interesting, intelligent movies, including The Right Stuff, and partly because new management at Warner Brothers, which financed and distributed Ladd Company films, did not care to nurture the smaller movie company.[27]
On July 18, 1984, Kanter left the company to become head of production at MGM/UA.[28] Ladd followed, becoming head of MGM/UA in February 1985.[29]
Ladd was ousted from MGM/UA in the mid 1990's. He reformed The Ladd Company on February 17, 1995, and on May 24, 1995, produced the Oscar-winning film Braveheart, a film he was able to take with him from MGM/UA. Around that same time Ladd also produced The Phantom (1996) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). The Ladd Company's final films were An Unfinished Life (2005) and Gone Baby Gone (2007) before the revived company was liquidated on December 19, 2007.
List of films
The following films were produced by The Ladd Company:[30]
