Jon Avnet

Jonathan Michael Avnet (born November 17, 1949) is an American director, writer, and producer whose career in film, television, and theater spans more than four decades. He has directed, written, or produced over 100 motion pictures, television films, series, and Broadway productions, and his work has received Academy Award, Emmy, Tony, Peabody, DGA, Golden Globe, and Humanitas recognition, among other honors. founded by his paternal grandfather, Charles Avnet. He has two siblings, Carole Avnet Rocherolle and Rosalind Avnet Lazarus. Avnet attended the University of Pennsylvania and later earned a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College.

Career

Early producing career Avnet began his career as a producer. He formed Tisch/Avnet Productions in 1977 in partnership with Steve Tisch. This producing partnership that lasted until 1985. Avnet later partnered with Jordan Kerner in 1986. His first major success was as a producer on Paul Brickman's Risky Business (1983) for Warner Bros., a commercial and critical hit credited with launching Tom Cruise's career. It remains the highest rated movie of the week ever to air on NBC.

In 1984, he met television producer Leonard Hill and it was interested in building a movie alliance the following year with the top television movie producers. Until 1989, most of the product from The Movie Alliance was distributed by King Features Entertainment, after that, capital of its movie producers was raised enough to form its own independent syndicator ACI. ACI was sold to Pearson Television in 1995.

Avnet addressed political issues with his fourth film Red Corner in 1997, a movie about the Chinese legal system. Due to political complications they could not film in China, and instead filmed in Southern California. Avnet, however, did film a few scenes in Beijing and included some footage of actual Chinese executions.

Transition to directing Avnet made his feature directorial debut with Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), which he also produced and co-wrote (uncredited). Based on Fannie Flagg's novel, the film starred Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson. It received Academy Award nominations for its screenplay and for Tandy's supporting performance, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture, and BAFTA nominations. The film won the GLADD award for best film. It was among Universal Pictures' top-grossing releases of the year.

Avnet went on to direct The War (1994), starring Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood, about a Vietnam veteran's struggle with PTSD, and Up Close & Personal (1996), written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne and loosely based on the life of newscaster Jessica Savitch, starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer and featuring Joe Mategna, Stockard Channing, Kate Nelligan, and Glenn Plummer. The film's theme song, "Because You Loved Me," reached number one on the U.S. charts and won a Grammy Award; Avnet served as an executive producer on the recording.

Later films Avnet spent several years developing a screenplay with frequent collaborator Paul Brickman based on Leon Uris's novel Mila 18. The resulting film, retitled Uprising (2001), is inspired by the historical record of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Because of the production timeline required by Uprising, Avnet withdrew from an earlier project he had been developing, Friday Night Lights. Uprising, starring Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, and Jon Voight, was shot on a recreation of the Warsaw Ghetto constructed in Bratislava, Slovakia. Avnet received a DGA Award nomination for his direction; the film received four Emmy nominations, winning for Outstanding Stunt Coordination, and Sobieski and Azaria received acting nominations from the Golden Globes and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, respectively. Avnet and Kerner broke their partnership, leading Avnet to eventually launch Brooklyn Films in 2001 as he wanted a desire to focus on eclectic and adult fare.

Avnet produced Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) for Paramount, an early large-scale example of a film shot entirely with blue screen backdrops. All the sets were put in after the shooting. Other producing credits, many alongside Jordan Kerner, include Less Than Zero (1987), When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), Miami Rhapsody (1995), George of the Jungle (1997), the Mighty Ducks film series, and Inspector Gadget (1999). It screened at the USA Film Festival in Dallas in April 2025, where Avnet received a career achievement award.

Avnet was an executive producer on Black Swan (2010), directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, which received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and numerous guild and critics' awards, including Portman's Academy Award for Best Actress.

Television Avnet was an executive producer of NBC's Boomtown (2002–2003), for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television, directing the pilot and several additional episodes. and in 2014, the WIGS creative team launched its production company Indigenous Media, with funding from ITV and WPP.

Earlier television producing credits, several with Cicely Tyson, include Alex Haley's Mama Flora's Family (1998) and Heat Wave (1990), the latter about the Watts riots and based on reporting by journalist Bob Richardson; both received Cable ACE Awards, and co-star James Earl Jones won a Cable ACE Award and an Emmy for Heat Wave.

Avnet was an early producer attached to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, which was shut down shortly before production at Paramount amid public controversy.

While researching Uprising, Avnet interviewed more than 200 Holocaust survivors, including Vladka Meed and Simcha Rotem, and consulted with historians including Michael Berenbaum, then of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Israel Gutman of Yad Vashem. He has since lectured on Holocaust resistance at universities internationally.

Avnet is vice chairman of the AFI Board of Trustees, on which he has served for more than 30 years, including eight as chairman, and has served on the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors for 17 years.

Awards and honors Avnet received an honorary doctorate in communications from the American Film Institute in 2013 and the University of Pennsylvania's Creative Spirit Award in 2016, along with the AFI's Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award. For Red Corner, he received the ACLU's Bill of Rights Award and the National Board of Review's Freedom of Expression Award. He received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film for Fried Green Tomatoes. They have three children, Alexandra Avnet Costantino, Jacob Avnet, and Lily Avnet; and six grandchildren.

Filmography

Television As director Call to Glory (1984–1985 TV series) The Burning Bed (1984) Between Two Women (1986) Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge (1995) Mama Flora's Family (1998) Uprising (2001) Boomtown (2002–2003 TV series) The Starter Wife (miniseries) (2007 miniseries) Justified (2010–2015 TV series) Have a Little Faith (2011) Sneaky Pete (2018-2019 TV series)

As producer only No Other Love (1979) Something So Right (1982) In Love and War (1987) My First Love (1988) Side by Side (1988) Do You Know the Muffin Man? (1989) Breaking Point (1989) Prime Suspect (1991) Backfield in Motion (1991) The Watchman (1992) The Switch (1993) Poodle Springs (1998) My Last Love (1999) A House Divided (2000) Conviction (2005) Sixty Minute Man (2006) Bunker Hill (2009) Pleading Guilty (2010) Manhunt (2020 TV series) Justified: City Primeval (2023)

Broadway Plays Spamalot (2004) The Pillowman (2005) The History Boys (2006) The Seafarer (2007) The Country Girl (2008)