Clinton Culpepper:
He’s Behind the Guffaws and the Gore
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: April 21, 2009 in The New York Times
LOS ANGELES — If the stalker thriller “Obsessed,” which opens on
Friday, tops the box office, Clinton R. Culpepper will cement his
reputation as Hollywood’s king of the schlockbuster.
Clinton R. Culpepper is president of Sony’s Screen Gems.
The president of Screen Gems, a unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment,
Mr. Culpepper, 53, has quietly helped build the film industry’s most
consistently successful manufacturer of genre films. Genre films are,
loosely speaking, low-cost movies that appeal to a specific audience —
whether for horror, science fiction, rude laughs or spiritual
inspiration — by fulfilling expectations more than challenging them.
Once the province of third-tier operators who often sent them
straight to video, genre movies have become increasingly important
financially, tapping niche audiences whose money would otherwise be left
on the table.
This year, Screen Gems is poised to release five films, a quarter of
Sony’s schedule.
Even studios like Fox Searchlight, Paramount Vantage, and Miramax,
which lean toward awards contenders like “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Babel,”
or “Doubt,” have been flirting with crowd-pleasers.
And companies as substantial as Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment
have claimed much of this year’s box office with niche pictures like
“Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” and “The Haunting in Connecticut.”
Sandy-haired, thin and nearly as relentless as the more famous
Weinstein brothers — who started their Dimension Films genre brand while
running Miramax Films for the Walt Disney Company — Mr. Culpepper has
worried less about taste than drawing power. Though he has backed more
sophisticated fare too, he fostered a long string of hits that includes
“Prom Night,” “Quarantine,” and the “Resident Evil” and “Underworld”
series.
Big studios envy the returns from such films, but have seldom
excelled at making them. That is largely because they are expected to
pay full price for talent, and generally avoid some of the tawdry excess
that made a minor hit of, say, Lionsgate’s “My Bloody Valentine 3-D.”
Enter Mr. Culpepper.
Little known to the public at large, he has a considerable fan club
in Hollywood — one that may grow larger with the release Friday of
“Obsessed,” a stalker thriller starring Beyoncé Knowles.
Sony does not disclose separate profit figures for Screen Gems. But
its modestly budgeted films reach break-even when, on average, they have
taken in roughly $20 million in revenue, and more than 80 percent turn a
profit, according to people who have been briefed on the figures but
spoke on condition of anonymity because the data is confidential.
Along the way, Mr. Culpepper has shown that genre films, if correctly
designed, can reliably score in theaters.
About a month ago, he supervised a table reading by a corps of black
actors led by Chris Rock. The script was their forthcoming movie, a
remake of the British farce “Death at a Funeral.” The film was conceived
by Mr. Rock, who fell in love with the 2007 original and figured the
same conceit, about a dotty family come to bury its patriarch, would
grab an audience if it were done with an African-American twist.
The project happened to match one of Mr. Culpepper’s favorite genres
of late: the white comedy, done black.
One of the things Mr. Culpepper has proved is that a major
corporation like Sony can prevail in such a niche game, long dominated
by smaller, nimbler players — but only if operators like himself are
shrewd enough to survive the internal politics of companies in which big
studio units like Sony’s Columbia Pictures have pride of place.
“One of the things the current management here emphasizes is
cooperation,” said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures.
It helped, said Mr. Lynton, that the unit was formed without oversize
ambitions. “It really didn’t come out of a business plan or a grandiose
scheme,” said Mr. Lynton. “It grew organically.”
Mr. Culpepper declined to be interviewed for this article. But at
least a dozen other past and present associates, some of whom spoke on
condition of anonymity to protect relationships with the studio,
described an operation that blossomed largely because it was confined to
movies that nobody else at Sony could figure out — or, sometimes, didn’t
want to touch.
Mr. Feingold, who left Sony in 2006, said he successfully argued that
a newly established Screen Gems, under his aegis, would help get a
handful of science fiction and action thrillers into theaters, vastly
enhancing their appeal on video.
Mr. Culpepper, who had been helping Mr. Feingold make and acquire
straight-to-video movies, took charge of production.
An early hit, “Resident Evil,” based on a video game and with the
relatively inexpensive Milla Jovovich in the lead, quickly turned into a
popular franchise around the world. “Underworld,” produced by Lakeshore
Entertainment, similarly used a female star, Kate Beckinsale, to attract
young male action viewers and became a multifilm series.
There were some disappointments. Early on, Mr. Culpepper backed “The
Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy,” a gay-themed feature that was
the first movie directed by Greg Berlanti, then writing for the
television series “Dawson’s Creek.”
It was handed to Sony Pictures Classics for distribution as an art
film, and had only a modest run in theaters, said Mr. Berlanti, who
nonetheless calls Mr. Culpepper his “guardian angel.”
But the urban market opened up with “You Got Served,” a hip-hop
themed dance comedy that took in $40 million at the box office in 2004.
Mr. Culpepper had by then struck an easy relationship with Will
Packer, an Atlanta-based filmmaker who brought him a low-budget picture,
“The Gospel,” that was originally intended for release directly on
video.
Mr. Culpepper helped turn it into a modest box-office hit, in part,
by taking some of the film’s players on a tour of black churches, where
they cultivated the audience by handing out promotional hand fans.
Mr. Packer later brought Screen Gems a major hit with “Stomp the
Yard,” another dance-themed film, which took in more than $60 million in
2007.
By Mr. Packer’s account, Mr. Culpepper also showed him a script for
another studio’s Christmas dramedy, and suggested that a similar film
about a black family would sell tickets. The result was “This
Christmas,” another box-office hit that took in $50 million.
More recently, Mr. Culpepper proposed that Mr. Packer undertake a
remake of “The Big Chill,” Columbia’s music- and angst-driven 1983 hit
about baby boomers turning 30. But this time, it would be done black.
“How cool would that be?” Mr. Packer recalls Mr. Culpepper asking
him. The notion is now being turned into a script.
“His eyes just lit up.”
Screen Gems Pair Polished
Culpepper and Schlessel Named Exec VPs
Variety
3 Feb 2000
As a vote of confidence from the top brass at Sony Pictures
Entertainment, Screen Gems’ Clint Culpepper and Peter Schlessel have
been elevated to executive veep positions within the Sony label.
Last week in Park City, Schlessel and Culpepper came out ahead in a
high-profile bidding war for the award-winning Sundance pic “Girlfight.”
They also recently brought in Destination Films’ “The Wedding
Planner,” which Columbia Pictures will distribute domestically; and
they have secured an output deal for U.S. homevideo and pay-per-view
rights for all Destination pics, including last week’s release, “Eye
of the Beholder.”
Culpepper and Schlessel will continue to report to Kenneth Lemberger,
prexy of Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (CTMPG), and will now
also report to Benjamin S. Feingold, prexy of Columbia TriStar Home
Video.
Lemberger said: “Their acquisition of films such as ‘The Opposite
of Sex,’ John Carpenter’s ‘Vampires’ and ‘Arlington Road’
— as well as their productions like ‘Jawbreaker’ and ‘The Myth
of Fingerprints’ — reflect their instinct for commercially solid
film properties.”
Schlessel and Culpepper also brought into the studio “The Broken
Hearts Club,” which played successfully at Sundance.
Culpepper will assume the title of executive veep of acquisitions and
co-productions of CTMPG, Screen Gems and Columbia TriStar Home Video (CTHV).
He had been senior veep of acquisitions for CTMPG.
Schlessel, also formerly senior veep of acquisitions for CTMPG, will
become executive veep of acquisitions, co-productions and business
affairs of Screen Gems, CTMP and CTHV.
Schlessel and Culpepper have negotiated worldwide acquisitions for
such pics as “The Usual Suspects,” “The Last Supper,” “Disturbing
Behavior” and “Big Night.”
Culpepper joined CTHV after serving as associate producer for “Pee-wee’s
Playhouse,” as well as several Aaron Spelling productions. He was
promoted to veep of production and acquisitions in 1994 and three years
later to senior veep.
Schlessel joined RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1989 as director
of legal affairs. He was named veep of business affairs for CTHV, senior
veep of acquisitions and business affairs, and finally senior veep of
acquisitions, production and business affairs in 1997 for CTMPG.
Note: In January 2003,
Clint's brother Andy informed us that Clint is now CEO of Screen Gems.
HOLLYWOOD. Following months of speculation, Sony Pictures Entertainment will create a
new distribution label for small-to-medium-budgeted pics, and the studio has summoned a
name from its past --- Screen Gems --- for the new unit.
The division will acquire or produce six pics per year that it will market and
distribute. It will look to solicit material at both the script stage and the final
feature stage. Screen Gems will also explore filmmaker-driven projects.
Sony execs are keen on the new division because it will allow them to seek out business
beyond SPE's traditional slate. Sony wants to make the division operational by June.
"Screen Gems will provide a haven for a type of film that falls between those
typically released by our highly valued Sony Pictures Classics and the wide-release movies
that are more traditionally developed and released by Columbia Pictures," SPE
chairman and CEO John Calley says.
Peter Schlessel and Clint Culpepper, senior VPs for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture
Group, will help acquire projects for the division.
Sony is also looking for a senior marketing exec to work with Schlessel and Culpepper
to solicit and market the films.
Sony execs made it clear that the division will in no way impinge upon Sony Pictures
Classics, which distributes low-budget arthouse fare.
Screen Gems was the title given to a Columbia Pictures TV subsidiary dating back to
1948. After branching out into broadcasting, recording, music publishing, audience testing
and large-scale merchandising, the division ultimately became Columbia Pictures
Television.
