The Ladd Company was an American film production company founded by Alan Ladd, Jr., Jay Kanter, and Gareth Wigan in 1979. 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. Fox subsequently cut their contracts short, ending on October 1, 1979. The day after the contracts expired, the trio placed ads for the newly named "Ladd Company" in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Under Warner Bros., The Ladd Company distributed Chariots of Fire, which won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture. Among the films it produced were the Space Race epic The Right Stuff, the space westernOutland, Ridley Scott's science-fiction cult film Blade Runner, neo-noir filmBody Heat, and the first two Police Academy movies. 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. 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 become a non-exclusive production organization." During a brief partnership with Paramount Pictures in the mid-1990s, the company produced The Brady Bunch Movie and the Best Picture Oscar winnerBraveheart. Ladd's later releases are the 2005 Lasse Hallström drama, An Unfinished Life, and the 2007 Ben Affleck drama Gone Baby Gone, both distributed by Miramax Films.
History
Beginnings
Alan Ladd had been a successful studio head of 20th Century Fox, helping make films such as Star Wars, Julia, Alien, The Turning Point, Young Frankenstein, An Unmarried Woman and Silver Streak. He ran into conflict with the company's president, Dennis Stanfill and wanted to leave. He left the company in June 1979 to set up his own company along with fellow executives Jay Kanter and Gareth Wigan. Under the terms of their severance with Fox, they were not allowed to start working until 1 October 1979. 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. 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. 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."
Early films
In November 1979 Ladd announced the company's first films: a Bette Midler concert movie and Madonna Red a $10 million Joseph L. Mankiewicz film starring Paul Newman as a Vietnam War veteran turned priest. 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. The Midler film became Divine Madness but Madonna Red was never made. The first dramatic film the company ended making was Outland, 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. The Ladd Company's second film was going to be a Bernardo Bertolucci film starring Ugo Tognazzi. This was never made. However the company had a critical and commercial hit with Body Heat the directorial debut of Lawrence Kasdan, then with Chariots of Fire, a British film the company helped finance. Looker from Michael Crichton was a flop. The company helped make Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, which was a cult classic years after its theatrical release, but under performed critically and commercially. Night Shift, directed by Ron Howard, was a minor success.
Series of flops
However the company made a series of flops: Love Child, Five Days One Summer, Lovesick and Twice Upon a Time. The Ladd Company hoped for a big hit with the $28 million The Right Stuff but it only returned $10 million to the company. 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." Also unsuccessful were Star 80 and Mike's Murder. Ladd developed Country but sold the film to another company. They also had Splash! from Ron Howard but put it in turnaround, as they did The Big Chill. The company had a huge hit with Police Academy, made for $4.2 million which grossed $81 million and led to several sequels. Less successful were Purple Hearts and Once Upon a Time in America 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. In April 1984 Warners announced its association with the Ladd Company was over and Ladd became a nonexclusive production organization. By July 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." In July 1984 Kanter left the company to become head of MGM-UA. In February 1985 Ladd became head of United Artists. The last two films officially made by the company were and Doin' Time.
Revival
The company returned to production with Braveheart. It also made The Phantom and A Very Brady Sequel.
