John Heyman
Encyclopedia
John Heyman is a British
film and TV producer
, who since the mid 1980s has mainly been involved in film financing. Married to his wife Nizza since 1982, this is his second marriage. He has five children, David
(1961), Lil (1965), Gabrielle (1971), Dahlia (1983) and Daniel (1987). His first wife was producer Norma Heyman.
His father, an economist and broadcaster who opposed Hitler, left Germany in January 1933, and seven months old, John and his mother arrived in England where his father had secured work as a journalist on the now defunct News Chronicle
. During World War II, his father worked for the Ministry of Information, and after the war he became financial correspondent for The Economist
, The Financial Times
and Neue Zürcher Zeitung
. John's mother, an avid suffragette
, was both a teacher of Russian studies and a permanent student, collecting her seventh degree (in Economics) from the London School of Economics
at the age of 70.
in Gloucestershire, and finally at St. Edmund Hall
, Oxford.
After two years in the National Service, Heyman returned to Oxford to read law. During a summer vacation, he obtained free tickets to a Radio Luxembourg
show. Having been chosen as a contestant he won £93, more money that he thought existed in the world, and he returned to Oxford as a question writer for the show Double Your Money
which would run for thirteen years on the new Independent Television Network
in England, to whom he also sold a number of television concepts he had written. In 1955, Heyman started full time work in the entertainment industry and, by the age of 22 had become Head of Public Relations at Associated Television
, one of the two founder companies of the ITV. By then he was already working on five television programs, three of which were rated among ITV's top ten.
In 1959, Heyman formed The International Artists Agency, which handled, among others, Elizabeth Taylor
, Richard Burton
, Richard Harris
, Laurence Harvey
, Trevor Howard
, Shirley Bassey
and Burt Bacharach
. In 1961 the agency formed the subsidiary World Film Sales, the first company to pre-sell and license pictures on a territory-by-territory basis. In 1973, World Film Sales was sold to ITC
.
and The Hireling
, which both won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1965, he also co-produced the longest running Hamlet
in Broadway history, starring Richard Burton
and directed by John Gielgud
.
In 1973, he founded The Genesis Project, a project to create an audio-visual encyclopedia, atlas and dictionary. In 1976, it commenced translating the Bible onto film accompanied by a variety of educational materials. After completing the filming of Genesis and the Gospel of Luke (which, under the title Jesus
, became the most viewed film in history), The New Media Bible was sold to an evangelical organization, having failed commercially in the age before VHS
or DVD
.
In 1974, Heyman began to render financial services to major film studios, and is widely credited with creating "structured financing" in the film industry. As a result of his efforts, more than $3 billion has been provided to co-finance over 150 films and television programs see list including Awakenings
(Columbia), Black Rain (Paramount), Chinatown (Paramount), Edward Scissorhands
(Fox), Grease
(Paramount), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan (Warner), Heaven Can Wait
(Paramount), Home Alone (Fox), Looking For Mr Goodbar
(Paramount), The Man Who Would Be King
(Allied Artists), Marathon Man
(Paramount), The Odessa File
(Columbia), The Rocky Horror Picture Show
(Fox), Saturday Night Fever
(Paramount), Star Trek: The Motion Picture
(Paramount), Trail of the Pink Panther
(MGM), Victor Victoria (MGM).
In 1990, Heyman co-founded Island World, which produced and licensed film and television programs including The Cure
(Universal), Eddie
(Disney), Juice
(Paramount), The Sandlot
(Fox), Toy Soldiers (Tri-Star) and The War
(Universal). Island World was sold to Polygram
at the end of 1994, but Heyman retained control of the London TV production company World Productions which is still an active provider of British TV productions.
in China, and in the Middle East an Arabic language version of The Odd Couple. Production of a 12 part miniseries entitled The Forbidden City is scheduled for an October start date for RAI
and a group of broadcasters around the world.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film and TV producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, who since the mid 1980s has mainly been involved in film financing. Married to his wife Nizza since 1982, this is his second marriage. He has five children, David
David Heyman
David Jonathan Heyman is a British film producer and the founder of Heyday Films. He obtained the film rights to the Harry Potter series in 1999 and has produced all eight installments in the series of films.-Life and career:...
(1961), Lil (1965), Gabrielle (1971), Dahlia (1983) and Daniel (1987). His first wife was producer Norma Heyman.
His father, an economist and broadcaster who opposed Hitler, left Germany in January 1933, and seven months old, John and his mother arrived in England where his father had secured work as a journalist on the now defunct News Chronicle
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
. During World War II, his father worked for the Ministry of Information, and after the war he became financial correspondent for The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, The Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
and Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a major German language Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich.One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as Zürcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 12, 1780, and was renamed to Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821...
. John's mother, an avid suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
, was both a teacher of Russian studies and a permanent student, collecting her seventh degree (in Economics) from the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
at the age of 70.
Education and early career
Heyman was educated at Norfolk House in London, Wycliffe CollegeWycliffe College (Gloucestershire)
Wycliffe College is a co-educational independent school located in the town of Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, in the West of England. The school was founded in 1882 by GW Sibly, and comprises a Nursery School for ages 2 – 4, a Preparatory School for ages 4 – 13, and a Senior School catering for...
in Gloucestershire, and finally at St. Edmund Hall
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Better known within the University by its nickname, "Teddy Hall", the college has a claim to being "the oldest academical society for the education of undergraduates in any university"...
, Oxford.
After two years in the National Service, Heyman returned to Oxford to read law. During a summer vacation, he obtained free tickets to a Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
show. Having been chosen as a contestant he won £93, more money that he thought existed in the world, and he returned to Oxford as a question writer for the show Double Your Money
Double Your Money
Double Your Money was a British quiz show hosted by Hughie Green. Originally broadcast on Radio Luxembourg, it transferred to ITV in 1955, a few days after the commercial channel began broadcasting. It was produced by Associated-Rediffusion until 1964 and then by Rediffusion London, and it finished...
which would run for thirteen years on the new Independent Television Network
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in England, to whom he also sold a number of television concepts he had written. In 1955, Heyman started full time work in the entertainment industry and, by the age of 22 had become Head of Public Relations at Associated Television
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
, one of the two founder companies of the ITV. By then he was already working on five television programs, three of which were rated among ITV's top ten.
In 1959, Heyman formed The International Artists Agency, which handled, among others, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
, Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
, Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
, Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
, Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
and Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
. In 1961 the agency formed the subsidiary World Film Sales, the first company to pre-sell and license pictures on a territory-by-territory basis. In 1973, World Film Sales was sold to ITC
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade.-History:...
.
Career to date
In 1963, Heyman started to work as a film producer and has to date produced some 15 films, among them The Go-BetweenThe Go-Between (film)
The Go-Between is Harold Pinter's 1970 film adaptation of the novel by L. P. Hartley. A British production directed by Joseph Losey, it stars Dominic Guard , Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Michael Gough and Edward Fox.Pinter's screenplay—his final collaboration...
and The Hireling
The Hireling
The Hireling is a 1973 British drama film directed by Alan Bridges, based on a 1957 novel by LP Hartley, which starred Robert Shaw and Sarah Miles...
, which both won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1965, he also co-produced the longest running Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in Broadway history, starring Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and directed by John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
.
In 1973, he founded The Genesis Project, a project to create an audio-visual encyclopedia, atlas and dictionary. In 1976, it commenced translating the Bible onto film accompanied by a variety of educational materials. After completing the filming of Genesis and the Gospel of Luke (which, under the title Jesus
Jesus (1979 film)
Jesus , is a 1979 motion picture which depicts the life of Jesus Christ according primarily to the Gospel of Luke in the Bible...
, became the most viewed film in history), The New Media Bible was sold to an evangelical organization, having failed commercially in the age before VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
In 1974, Heyman began to render financial services to major film studios, and is widely credited with creating "structured financing" in the film industry. As a result of his efforts, more than $3 billion has been provided to co-finance over 150 films and television programs see list including Awakenings
Awakenings
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir Awakenings. It tells the true story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer and portrayed by Robin Williams who, in 1969, discovers beneficial effects of the then-new drug L-Dopa...
(Columbia), Black Rain (Paramount), Chinatown (Paramount), Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
(Fox), Grease
Grease (film)
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
(Paramount), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan (Warner), Heaven Can Wait
Heaven Can Wait (1978 film)
Heaven Can Wait is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. It is the second film adaptation of Harry Segall's stageplay of the same name, preceded by Here Comes Mr. Jordan and followed by Down to Earth...
(Paramount), Home Alone (Fox), Looking For Mr Goodbar
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (film)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a 1977 film written for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks and starring Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, Richard Gere, and also features Tom Berenger...
(Paramount), The Man Who Would Be King
The Man Who Would Be King (film)
The Man Who Would Be King is a 1975 film adapted from the Rudyard Kipling short story of the same title. It was adapted and directed by John Huston and starred Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Saeed Jaffrey, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling .The film follows two rogue ex-non-commissioned officers of...
(Allied Artists), Marathon Man
Marathon Man
Marathon Man is a 1974 conspiracy thriller novel by William Goldman. In 1976 it was made into a film of the same name starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, and Roy Scheider and directed by John Schlesinger.-Plot synopsis:...
(Paramount), The Odessa File
The ODESSA File (film)
The Odessa File is a 1974 film adaptation of the thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, about a struggle between a young German reporter and the ODESSA, an organization for ex-Nazis. The film stars Jon Voight and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.- Plot :The plot opens...
(Columbia), The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
(Fox), Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 drama film directed by John Badham and starring: John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance...
(Paramount), Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
(Paramount), Trail of the Pink Panther
Trail of the Pink Panther
Trail of the Pink Panther is a 1982 comedy film starring Peter Sellers. It was the seventh film in the Pink Panther series, and the last in which Peter Sellers starred as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, although Sellers died before production began and the film thus contains no original material...
(MGM), Victor Victoria (MGM).
In 1990, Heyman co-founded Island World, which produced and licensed film and television programs including The Cure
The Cure (1995 film)
The Cure is a 1995 comedy-drama film starring Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello about two boys searching for the cure of AIDS, from which one of them is suffering...
(Universal), Eddie
Eddie (film)
Eddie is a 1996 comedy film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Frank Langella. It was a moderate success, grossing $31,387,164 in the US.The film was directed by Steve Rash.- Plot summary :...
(Disney), Juice
Juice (film)
Juice is a 1992 American crime drama film that stars rapper Tupac Shakur and Omar Epps. Additional cast members include Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L. Jackson, and features cameo appearances by Queen Latifah, EPMD, Special Ed, Ed Lover, Doctor Dré, Flex Alexander, Fab Five...
(Paramount), The Sandlot
The Sandlot
The Sandlot is a 1993 American comedy-drama sports film about a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962. The film was filmed in Utah and directed by David M. Evans...
(Fox), Toy Soldiers (Tri-Star) and The War
The War (film)
The War is a 1994 drama film directed by Jon Avnet. Starring Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner and Mare Winningham. It is a coming of age tale set in Mississippi in the 1970s...
(Universal). Island World was sold to Polygram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
at the end of 1994, but Heyman retained control of the London TV production company World Productions which is still an active provider of British TV productions.
Current activities
Heyman continues his financing activities and recently launched WtvP, which reformats hit shows in countries other than their country of origin. During 2011 production will commence of a Mandarin version of The OfficeThe Office
The Office is a popular mockumentary/situation comedy TV show that was first made in the UK and has now been re-made in many other countries, with overall viewership in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The original version of The Office was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It...
in China, and in the Middle East an Arabic language version of The Odd Couple. Production of a 12 part miniseries entitled The Forbidden City is scheduled for an October start date for RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
and a group of broadcasters around the world.