New production company already has Oscar buzz
GOING FOR ‘GOLD’ WITH HER OWN PRODUCTION COMPANY
Cinematic passion is in Daniela Taplin Lundberg’s blood. The 43yearold Westport resident remembers hearing stories about how her father, producer Jonathan Taplin, was so taken with the script for “Mean Streets” that he spent all the money in his trust fund to help get the film made.
The movie is widely regarded as a masterpiece and helped launch the careers of director Martin Scorsese and star Robert DeNiro, but, at the time, both were fairly unknown and backing the movie was a big risk.
Her father’s belief in and devotion to the project made a huge impact on Lundberg.
“I loved the idea that you could see something in a filmmaker and take a big bet on them and on that film, and that you could change people’s hearts and minds as a result,” says Lundberg during a recent film interview.
It’s that kind of daring and excitement about new, challenging projects that Lundberg tries to bring to her own work as a producer. In 2016, she launched Stay Gold Features, a New Yorkbased film finance and production company.
This year alone, two of her films — the Harriet Tubman biopic “Harriet,” and the domestic drama “Honey Boy” — have garnered a lot of awards season talk.
However, Lundberg says her work is less about amassing accolades, and more about allowing for voices to be heard and stories to be told. When she launched Stay Gold, she says, there was a certain kind of movie she wanted to be involved with.
“I started looking for things that had a real underdog feel,” she says. “I start looking for things that might not get made in mainstream Hollywood — stories that matter.”
Lundberg has a long history in independent films. Even prior to starting Stay Gold, she was a cofounding partner of Red Crown Productions, the company behind such films as “Beasts of No Nation,” with Idris Elba, and “Hello, My Name is Doris,” with Sally Field.
Before that, Lundberg was a partner at Plum Pictures, where she produced more than 20 films, including “The Kids Are All Right,” which won a Golden Globe for Best Picture.
Lundberg says it had pretty much always been her dream to work in films. Not only is her father a producer, but her mother is actress Rosanna DeSoto. “I grew up on sets,” Lundberg says.
After college (she graduated from Princeton University), she went right into being a production assistant on films and, by her early 20s, had produced her first film.
While learning the tricks of her trade, Lundberg says she also learned the kinds of films she wanted to help create. She has long wanted to be involved with projects that say something, and she’s continued that mission with Stay Gold.
“Harriet” is a good example, she says, as that was a project that had been kicking around since the 1990s, but couldn’t get made. Lundberg says she got a hold of the original script, which was originally supposed to be a Disney production.
“I couldn’t believe there wasn’t already a film about Harriet Tubman,” she says. “I felt this was a film could really inspire people.”
Kasi Lemmons was hired to rework the script and direct the film. “Harriet” was distributed by Focus Features and released in theaters Nov. 1. The movie’s star, Cynthia Erivo, is already getting Oscar buzz for her performance as Tubman.
Stay Gold’s other big release this year is “Honey Boy,” written by actor Shia LaBeouf, and based largely on his life, including his experience in rehab and his volatile upbringing. LaBeouf also costars in the movie, as a character based on his own father.
Lundberg says signing onto the film was a real risk. “No one wanted to finance it, because (LaBeouf ) had recently come out of rehab and that was a real red flag for a lot of people,” she says. “It could have broken my company if the project went south.”
But, she says, she was taken with how “authentic” the writing was, and a meeting with LaBeouf sealed the deal. Lundberg says he movingly told of how he had written the movie while in rehab and how cathartic getting the project made would be.
“He said ‘I promise you, if you make this movie, it will save my life,” Lundberg recalls.
“Honey Boy,” directed by Alma Har’el, was released Nov. 8 by Amazon Studios and, like “Harriet,” it is in the awards season conversation.
Lundberg has a few more films in the hopper, including a biopic of Teddy Roosevelt and “Good Joe Bell,” which will star Mark Wahlberg and Connie Britton. She says, though the films she works on are different in lots of ways, there’s one thing that unites many of them.
“They’re about the triumph of the human spirit,” Lundberg says.