Pitt’s New Plan
First Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston broke up their marriage. Now, their business is on the outs.
Pitt is assuming sole control of the ex-couple’s production company, Plan B, and has signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. The studio is run, not so coincidentally, by Brad Grey, who was an original partner in Plan B with Pitt and Aniston but had to give up his stake when he took over Paramount earlier this year.
While Aniston will no longer be a principal in the production company, she will still be involved in a number of projects that Plan B had previously set up with Warner Bros., publicist Stephen Huvane confirmed.
The new three-year deal gives Paramount dibs on future Plan B projects.
“It’s been no secret that I’ve wanted Plan B to have a home at Paramount, and it’s especially gratifying to be bringing Brad and my old friends and colleagues from Plan B over as one of our first major production deals for the studio,” says Grey.
For his part, Pitt says, “Having great respect for Brad’s vision, we’re excited for this opportunity to continue building our company in partnership with him and his team at Paramount.”
Formed by Pitt, Aniston and Grey in 2002, Plan B had a hand in last year’s Pitt epic, Troy, and produced the highly anticipated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, which is due out July 15. It is also shepherding the Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio-Matt Damon-Jack Nicholson crime drama The Departed and the dramedy Running with Scissors with Annette Bening, both due out next year.
Even before the new deal was done, Plan B had several projects in the pipeline at Paramount, most notably the thriller True Story and the drama Glass Castle. The former is based on former New York Times reporter Michael Finkel’s book about what transpired after a murder suspect stole his identity. Glass Castle is adapated from the memoir by gossip columnist Jeanette Walls and focuses on her dysfunctional childhood as the daughter of an absentee alcoholic father and mentally unbalanced mother.
Pitt is also set to star in two other Paramount films, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel and David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Aniston will still have a hand in some of the Plan B projects at Warners, but it’s not immediately clear whether that would include The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which stars Pitt. (He also just signed on for another, non-Plan B, Warners flick, Peace Like a River, about a family whose confrontations with neighborhood thugs turn deadly.)
Aside from her producing slate, Aniston will also be plenty busy in front of the camera in the coming months. She has at least a half-dozen films in various stages of development, according to IMDb.com, including the aptly titled Derailed, Rumor Has It and The Break Up.
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