Oscar-Winning Producer Ed Saxon Comes to Las Vegas

By Patty Fantasia

Oscar-Winning Producer Ed Saxon

When it comes to Hollywood producers often times the movie going public may not be familiar with their names, but they are definitely aware of which films they bring to the big screen. Such is often the case for Ed Saxon, who has produced mega hits including the Oscar-winning “Silence of the Lambs”, which to date is the third and last film to sweep the five main categories at the Academy Awards receiving the gold statuette for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Asked whether he had any inkling that the film would receive such an honor, Saxon responded, “NO IDEA!  Jodie Foster was the only winner at the Golden Globes.  It was a very surprising night!” He also shared an interesting anecdote regarding his lead actor’s portrayal, “Anthony Hopkins had two guideposts in crafting his Hannibal Lecter performance: sound like HAL the computer from 2001 and never blink!”

Now looking back at all of the success he’s had , Ed has decided to share his industry knowledge and business savvy in a 1-Day seminar entitled “How It Works – Practical Lessons from 25 Years in the Movie Business” that he is debuting in Las Vegas on December 3^rd at the Red Rock Casino/Hotel. He believes that passing along his experiences will benefit emerging filmmakers or anyone interested in becoming a producer and he’s looking forward to expanding the mentoring skills that he has developed by sharing his wisdom.

Oscar Winning Producer Ed Saxon

“My hope is that people will leave knowing as much about the film business as many of the people who work in it and that they get real tools for moving their careers forward.  This is hard information to get and I am going to share my 25 years of experience working at the heart of the feature, independent feature, and documentary business,” he stated.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Saxon attended McGill University before entering The Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC School of Cinema-Television. While at McGill, he founded the Tuesday Night Café Theatre with Veronica Brady and Peter Grossman. Starting out as an actor Ed appeared in many plays there and he’s proud to say that the Theatre is still running today. He admits to being attracted to the movie industry long before then, however, adding, “I've loved films since I was a kid and went to a double feature every Saturday”.

Before striking out on his own and producing such films as “Charlie Kaufman”, Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” and Richard Linklater’s documentary “Fast Food Nation” Saxon partnered with Jonathan Demme on such memorable films as “Beloved”, “Married to the Mob”, “Philadelphia” and of course “Silence of the Lambs”. It was a relationship he still holds in high regard. “I'd love another partner like Jonathan.  It was amazing.  We are still partnering on new projects!  It’s hard to find brilliant storytellers who also want to run a company so I'm happy to be working with great talents on a per project basis,” he said. One of the most important lessons he learned from their association he added is that, “Integrity is your biggest asset.  Your work is your message so make things you can be proud of.

Oscar Winning Producer Ed Saxon

After bringing his 1-Day Seminar to filmmakers to Las Vegas Saxon plans to continue offering it at various locations around the world starting with London this spring. In addition, he’s also involved producing a new film. “I'm working on a project set in the Amazon with Doug Liman (Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) that's a contemporary eco-western.  I think it will be amazing,” he related.  After a quarter century in the film industry it’s apparent that Ed Saxon has a lot to offer anyone who is interested in trying to follow in his career footsteps and that he’s still quite enamored of his chosen profession. For more details about the event on December 3^rd visit http://saxonlasvegas.com/.

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