Colin Callender

Colin Callender, CBE, (born 1952) is an English television, film and theater producer working primarily in the United States, currently Chairman of Playground Entertainment, and former president of HBO Films.^[1]

Biography

COLIN CALLENDER

Colin Callender is Chairman of Playground Entertainment, a film, television and theater production company founded in 2010.

A pioneering film and television executive who played a central role in HBO’s unprecedented commercial and critical success and before that as an award winning producer in the UK, Callender has helped transform the entertainment landscape, setting new benchmarks for quality film and television production.

One of the founders of HBO’s Programming Group, Callender helped turn HBO into an innovative and groundbreaking programming powerhouse. As president of HBO FILMS from its inception in 1999 through 2009, he was responsible for overseeing the development and production of all films – both theatrical and for the service - and miniseries under the HBO Films banner.

Over the course of his tenure this included an unprecedented range of prestigious award-winning dramas:

• from independent theatrical releases such as the box office sensation MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, the Sundance winner MARIA FULL OF GRACE and Gus van Sant’s ELEPHANT which won the Palme D’Or and Best Director prize at Cannes;

• to landmark award winning mini-series such as Mike Nichols’ six-hour adaptation of Tony Kushner’s ANGELS IN AMERICA starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, the record breaking award winning seven part adaptation of David McCullough’s JOHN ADAMS produced by Tom Hanks and starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, and the Hanks / Spielberg 10 hour mini-series THE PACIFIC;

• to original movies like Fred Schepisi’s Golden Globe winner EMPIRE FALLS starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jay Roach’s acclaimed RECOUNT about the 2000 election starring Kevin Spacey, GREY GARDENS starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange and the award winning TEMPLE GRANDIN starring Clare Danes.

Callender was also the driving force behind the creation of PICTUREHOUSE, the distribution company that released Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning PAN’S LABYRINTH, Best Foreign Language nominee YESTERDAY, and LA VIE EN ROSE, whose star Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Oscar.

Under Callender’s leadership, HBO Films garnered numerous awards including 104 Emmy® Awards (including best movie 14 out of the last 16 years), 29 Golden Globes (including best movie 10 out of the last 12 years), 9 Peabody Awards, 12 Humanitas Awards, 3 Oscars, and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival four years in a row (ROCKET SCIENCE, MARIA FULL OF GRACE, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES) as well as the Palme D’Or in Cannes.

Born and raised in England, Colin Callender started in the entertainment industry as a member of Britain’s NATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE and began his production career as a stage manager at the ROYAL COURT THEATRE in London, working with directors such as David Hare, Sam Shepard and Mike Leigh. He later joined GRANADA TELEVISION as a graduate trainee.

In 1979 as managing director of PRIMETIME TELEVISION Ltd – the leading UK independent production company – he was the first independent producer to have a production green-lighted by the newly formed UK network CHANNEL 4 – the nine-hour television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s landmark stage production THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, for which he won an Emmy in 1983.

Later in 1983, Callender launched THE CALLENDER COMPANY LTD., which quickly established itself as one of the UK's leading television and film producers. Its productions included Peter Greenaway’s THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT, the official British entry to the 1987 Cannes Film Festival; John Schlesinger’s MADAME SOUSATZKA starring Shirley MacLaine; THE BRETTS a 13-hour mini-series for MASTERPIECE THEATRE, MR HALPERN AND MR. JOHNSON with Jackie Gleeson and Sir Laurence Olivier. Callender also created and produced the long running talk show THE LAST RESORT which launched the career of British TV personality JONATHAN ROSS and the hit quiz game SCRABBLE for Channel Four.

In 1988, Callender moved to New York to head up HBO SHOWCASE, HBO’s newly formed East coast film production unit. The division launched the directing career of Forest Whitaker and featured the emerging talents of Rosie Perez and Cuba Gooding, Jr., among others, while garnering HBO’s first Emmy® Award for drama.

In January 1996, Callender became the driving force behind the creation of HBO NYC, the movie division launched by then HBO chairman Jeff Bewkes. HBO NYC quickly made its mark with a distinguished award winning slate of films including MISS EVERS’ BOYS, starring Alfre Woodard and Laurence Fishburne (1997 Golden Globe Award and the coveted President’s Award); A LESSON BEFORE DYING, with Don Cheadle, (1999 Best Movie Emmy® as well as the first honor ever bestowed on a TV movie by the National Board of Review); IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK, executive produced by Demi Moore, who starred with Cher and Sissy Spacek; IN THE GLOAMING, starring Glenn Close; and SUBWAY STORIES, executive produced by Jonathan Demme. Callender relocated to Los Angeles in 1999, when he became president of HBO Films.

Callender currently serves on the boards of The Public Theater in NY, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Labyrinth Theater Company, The Creative Coalition and the American Friends of The National Film School. He is also a Trustee of NYU Tisch School of The Arts, the American Cinematheque, and the New York branch of the British Academy Film and Television Arts.

Callender was the recipient of the Evelyn F. Burkey Award at the 54th Annual Writers Guild Awards for services to writers; the Anti-Defamation League’s Humanitarian Award; the first ever Sundance Creative Coalition Award for independent production; the prestigious Geffen Distinction in Theater Award for services to the theater; the Jacob Burns Film Center Vision Award; and the Humanitas Award for his continued work in the arts.

In June 2003, Callender was honored by Her Majesty the Queen of England when he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list for his services to the UK film and television industries in the US.

Born in London in 1952, Callender holds a BA with Honors in Philosophy and Politics from the University of East Anglia. He is married to attorney Elizabeth Gaine with whom he has two daughters. He has a teenage son from a prior marriage.

HBO NYC Productions

Under Callender's direction, HBO Showcase produced 27 films from 1988 to 1995, winning critical acclaim and some of HBO's highest ratings for its bold dramas. The division launched the directing career of Forest Whitaker and featured the emerging talents of Rosie Perez and Cuba Gooding, Jr., among others, while garnering HBO’s first Emmy Award for drama.

As the head of HBO Showcase, Callender was the driving force behind the creation of HBO NYC Productions, the movie division launched by HBO chairman Jeff Bewkes in January 1996. Under Callender’s direction, HBO NYC produced 13 distinguished films. It quickly made its mark in the industry with films like 1997’s Miss Evers' Boys, starring Alfre Woodard and Laurence Fishburne, winner of a Golden Globe Award and 5 Emmy Awards including Lead Actress, Made for Television Movie and the coveted President’s Award; and 1999’s A Lesson Before Dying, with Don Cheadle and Cicely Tyson, winner of a Made for Television Movie Emmy and the first honor ever bestowed to a TV movie by the National Board of Review.

HBO NYC produced other innovative films including: Emmy and Golden Globe nominee If These Walls Could Talk, executive produced by Demi Moore, who starred with Cher and Sissy Spacek; In the Gloaming, the Emmy-nominated film featuring the directorial debut of Christopher Reeve and starring Glenn Close; Subway Stories, executive produced by Jonathan Demme and Rosie Perez; Emmy-winner Always Outnumbered, based on the Walter Mosley book starring Laurence Fishburne; and When Trumpets Fade directed by John Irvin.

HBO Films

As the head of HBO Films, Callender was responsible for overseeing the development and production of all films, theatrical and for the network, as well as miniseries under the HBO Films banner.

Callender was also responsible for HBO’s joint venture with New Line Cinema – the distribution company Picturehouse, which in 2006 released Robert Altman’s highly acclaimed A Prairie Home Companion and the award winning Pan's Labyrinth from acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro which won two Oscars at the 2006 Academy Awards, and Oscar favorite Ma vie en rose in 2007.

Under Callender, HBO Films earned a reputation for tackling sophisticated, prestigious projects that range from provocative independents such as the Oscar-nominated Maria Full of Grace; to epic film events like Mike Nichols' multiple award-winning Angels in America, based on Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play and starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson, to Fred Schepisi’s Emmy-winning and star-studded adaptation of Empire Falls, based on Richard Russo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright Penn, Aidan Quinn and Theresa Russell.

Under Callender, the HBO Films slate also includes such acclaimed projects as Life Support starring Queen Latifah, Longford starring Jim Broadbent, Lackawanna Blues from director George Wolfe, Wit starring Emma Thompson and directed by Mike Nichols, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name; 61*, produced and directed by Billy Crystal; Frank Pierson’s Conspiracy, starring Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci; Boycott, starring Jeffrey Wright; Disappearing Acts, starring and produced by Wesley Snipes; Path to War, the last film directed by John Frankenheimer; Richard Loncraine’s The Gathering Storm, with Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave as Winston and Clementine Churchill; Mira Nair’s Hysterical Blindness, starring Uma Thurman (for which she won the Golden Globe) and Juliette Lewis; Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project, a dramatization of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project’s visit to Laramie, Wyoming, in the wake of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard; Mick Jackson’s Live From Baghdad, starring Michael Keaton and Helena Bonham Carter; Jane Anderson’ Normal, starring Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson, and Bruce Beresford’s And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, written by Larry Gelbart and starring Antonio Banderas.

Honours and awards

Personal Honors

In 2002, Callender was the recipient of the Evelyn F. Burkey Award at the 54th Annual Writers Guild Awards, East for services to writers. In 2003, he was awarded the Anti-Defamation League’s Humanitarian Award, for his role in creating HBO films that have addressed various forms of discrimination, and the first ever Creative Coalition Visionary Award. Most recently, Callender was honored with the prestigious Geffen Distinction in Theater Award and the 2006 Kaiser Humanitas Prize for his continued work in the arts.

Callender serves on the boards of The Public Theater in NY, the LAByrinth Theater Company, the Creative Coalition and the American Friends of the National Film School; he is a Trustee of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the American Cinematheque, and an adviser to the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Film and Television.

In June 2003, Callender was honored by HRH Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom when he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list for his services to the UK film and television industries in the US.

References

1. ^ "HBO Films President Colin Callender Leaves HBO to Start New Company". TimeWarner Newsroom. October 14, 2008. http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1854315,00.html. Retrieved 18 November 2010. 

External links

• [1]
  

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/25/movies/a-lean-unit-explores-fat-subjects-for-hbo.htm
http://www.emmys.tv/news/2006/kieser-award-colin-callender
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2198022.ece
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queens-birthday-honours-5-745334.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1435099/The-most-influential-Britons-in-America-30-21.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/movies/red-carpet-days-for-hbo-films-modest-budgets-but-big-rewards.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109441,00.html
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article3558487.ece
http://www.designing-media.com/interviews/ColinCallender

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Name	Callender, Colin
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Date of birth	1952
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