David Linde
Encyclopedia
David Linde is the CEO of Lava Bear Films
as a film production and financing company developing projects specifically designed for the global marketplace. Lava Bear has ties to major studios and distributors as well as companies that are shaping the future of film, including Lava Bear's primary equity participant, Reliance Entertainment
.
Over the course of 2010, Linde also served as Executive Producer of Alejandro González Iñárritu
's Oscar® nominated Biutiful
, Producer of Fernando Meirelles
’ 360
, and Executive Producer of Zhang Yimou
’s upcoming The Flowers of War
starring Christian Bale
.
As an Executive, he most recently served as Chairman of Universal Pictures
. During his tenure, Universal significantly grew its’ international distribution platform across all media and launched Universal's family/animation banner, Illumination Entertainment
.
Prior to Universal, Linde simultaneously served as Co-President of Focus Features
and President of its genre production unit, Rogue Pictures
. Linde oversaw a slate that featured Roman Polanski
’s The Pianist (2002 film)
; Sofia Coppola
’s Lost in Translation (film)
; Fernando Meirelles
’ The Constant Gardener (film)
; as well as Ang Lee
’s Brokeback Mountain
. During Linde’s tenure at Focus, the company was honored with 53 Oscar nominations resulting in 11 Academy Awards®. In 2008, Linde oversaw the sale of Rogue Pictures to Relativity Media
.
Linde served as both Co-President and Partner of the production company Good Machine
and President and founder of Good Machine International (GMI), beginning in January 1997. GMI handled the international distribution of films including Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
(of which Linde was Executive Producer); Alfonso Cuaron
's Y Tu Mamá También
(of which Linde was Executive Producer); Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s The Man Who Wasn't There
; and Todd Field
’s In the Bedroom
. Films distributed by GMI earned six Academy Awards from 22 nominations, including two for Best Picture; and five Golden Globe® Awards from 18 nominations. While at Good Machine, Linde also executive produced Todd Solondz
's Happiness (1998 film). In 2002, Linde and his partners sold the Good Machine companies to Universal Pictures and created Focus Features.
Linde joined Miramax Films
in 1991 as Vice President of Acquisitions before being promoted to Executive Vice President and Head of Sales as the founding executive of Miramax Films International. While at Miramax, he oversaw the international distribution of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction
; Woody Allen
’s Mighty Aphrodite
; Wes Craven
’s Scream (film)
; and Anthony Minghella
’s multi-Academy Award-winning The English Patient (film)
.
Early in his career, Linde directed the sales of more than 300 independently produced film, documentary and television titles as Vice President at Fox/Lorber. He also supervised sales of select international theatrical rights at Paramount Pictures
.
Lava Bear Films
Founded in 2011, Lava Bear Films is a production and film financing company developing projects specifically designed for the global marketplace. Overseen by CEO David Linde, the company plans to produce two to four movies a year....
as a film production and financing company developing projects specifically designed for the global marketplace. Lava Bear has ties to major studios and distributors as well as companies that are shaping the future of film, including Lava Bear's primary equity participant, Reliance Entertainment
Reliance Entertainment
Reliance Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group handling its media and entertainment business, across content and distribution platforms....
.
Over the course of 2010, Linde also served as Executive Producer of Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican film director.González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the DGA of America for Best Director. He is also the first and only Mexican born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene...
's Oscar® nominated Biutiful
Biutiful
Biutiful is a drama film directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Javier Bardem. It is González Iñárritu's first feature since Babel and fourth overall, and his first film in his native Spanish language since his debut feature Amores perros...
, Producer of Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
’ 360
360
Year 360 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Iulianus...
, and Executive Producer of Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum....
’s upcoming The Flowers of War
The Flowers of War
The Flowers of War , previously called Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing, is an upcoming historical drama war film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Christian Bale and Shigeo Kobayashi...
starring Christian Bale
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....
.
As an Executive, he most recently served as Chairman of Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
. During his tenure, Universal significantly grew its’ international distribution platform across all media and launched Universal's family/animation banner, Illumination Entertainment
Illumination Entertainment
Illumination Entertainment is an American film production company, founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007. It is owned by Universal Studios and based in Santa Monica, California. It is best known for its 2010 animated feature Despicable Me.- History :...
.
Prior to Universal, Linde simultaneously served as Co-President of Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
and President of its genre production unit, Rogue Pictures
Rogue Pictures
Rogue is a subsidiary of Relativity Media. The company has about 25 titles in its library.- Background :In 1997, Rogue Pictures was formed as a division of PolyGram Pictures but the name was dropped in 2000 after Universal Pictures bought PolyGram...
. Linde oversaw a slate that featured Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
’s The Pianist (2002 film)
The Pianist (2002 film)
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
; Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
’s Lost in Translation (film)
Lost in Translation (film)
Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
; Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Meirelles
Fernando Ferreira Meirelles is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter.He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director in 2004 for his work in the Brazilian film City of God, released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films...
’ The Constant Gardener (film)
The Constant Gardener (film)
The Constant Gardener is a 2005 drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles. The screenplay by Jeffrey Caine is based on the John le Carré novel of the same name. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a man who seeks to find the motivating forces behind his wife's murder.The film stars Ralph Fiennes,...
; as well as Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
’s Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
. During Linde’s tenure at Focus, the company was honored with 53 Oscar nominations resulting in 11 Academy Awards®. In 2008, Linde oversaw the sale of Rogue Pictures to Relativity Media
Relativity Media
Relativity Media is an American independent motion picture production and investment company based in West Hollywood, California.- Company :...
.
Linde served as both Co-President and Partner of the production company Good Machine
Good Machine
Good Machine was an independent film production, film distribution, and foreign sales company started in the early 1990s by its co-founders and producers, Ted Hope and James Schamus. David Linde joined in the late 90s to start the international sales company...
and President and founder of Good Machine International (GMI), beginning in January 1997. GMI handled the international distribution of films including Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film. An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen...
(of which Linde was Executive Producer); Alfonso Cuaron
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and film producer, best known for his films Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y tu mamá también, and A Little Princess.- Early life :...
's Y Tu Mamá También
Y tu mamá también
Y tu mamá también is a 2001 Mexican comedy-drama film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and co-written by Cuarón and his brother Carlos. The film is a coming-of-age story about two teenage boys taking a road trip with a woman in her late twenties; it stars Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael García...
(of which Linde was Executive Producer); Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s The Man Who Wasn't There
The Man Who Wasn't There
The Man Who Wasn't There is a 2001 neo-noir film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Billy Bob Thornton stars in the title role. Also featured are James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Alexi-Malle and Coen regulars Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, and Jon...
; and Todd Field
Todd Field
William Todd Field, known professionally as Todd Field is an American actor and writer/director. He has received three Academy Award nominations.-Background and personal life:...
’s In the Bedroom
In the Bedroom
In the Bedroom is a 2001 American crime drama film directed by Todd Field, and dedicated to Andre Dubus, whose short story Killings is the source material on which the screenplay, by Field and Robert Festinger, is based...
. Films distributed by GMI earned six Academy Awards from 22 nominations, including two for Best Picture; and five Golden Globe® Awards from 18 nominations. While at Good Machine, Linde also executive produced Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz is an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia", a reflection of his own background...
's Happiness (1998 film). In 2002, Linde and his partners sold the Good Machine companies to Universal Pictures and created Focus Features.
Linde joined Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
in 1991 as Vice President of Acquisitions before being promoted to Executive Vice President and Head of Sales as the founding executive of Miramax Films International. While at Miramax, he oversaw the international distribution of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...
; Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
’s Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite is a 1995 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay was inspired by the mythological tale of Pygmalion....
; Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
’s Scream (film)
Scream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
; and Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
’s multi-Academy Award-winning The English Patient (film)
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
.
Early in his career, Linde directed the sales of more than 300 independently produced film, documentary and television titles as Vice President at Fox/Lorber. He also supervised sales of select international theatrical rights at Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
.