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Jill Furman
It has always been Jill Furman’s dream to be a film and theatre producer. Raised in Manhattan, Jill was exposed to the theatre world through her father who was, and still is, an investment banker specializing in media and telecom. “I got to see the business side of the industry and found it fascinating. I was reading Daily Variety at a young age.”
She attended Brown University, where she studied art history, and after graduating worked at talent agency ICM in New York before deciding to move to Los Angeles. “I love New York, but I figured I really needed to be in L.A. for the business.” She started out as an assistant and worked her way up to director of development at Motion Picture Corporation of America, which made Dumb and Dumber. “It was a great company, but they were not making the type of movies that I love. So I decided to return to New York.”
Back in the city she attended Columbia Business School. Even though an MBA is not essential to being a producer, Jill found it beneficial. “I wanted to start my own company, and I thought it would be good to have that degree. Raising money, I can now walk the walk."
After graduating from Columbia, she worked for Stephen Haft, who produced Dead Poets Society and Emma. “Then I realized that I really wanted to produce myself, and I felt that I had paid my dues. So I went out on my own, and I just started telling people that I was looking for material.” In 2000 she produced her first film, Endsville, a low-budget mock-documentary about a religious cult that thinks the world is going to end by a giant flood. The film played at two film festivals, one of which was the Woodstock Film Festival.
Her company, Arthouse Pictures, develops and produces theatre and film projects. “I like smart character-driven movies.” The type of films that Jill prefers are the type she would like to produce, “My favorite movies over the last several years are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation, and Y Tu Mamá También.” She currently has several projects in development, one of which is The Perfect Life, about two women in their 30s who want to switch lives.
Since starting her company, her greatest success has been in the theatre. As one of the producers of The Drowsy Chaperone, which won five Tonys® in 2006, more than any other musical, she proved to herself that she could identify success. “The satisfaction came in the fact that the show is the little engine that could. No one had any idea what this show was or what it could be. I’m pleased, and I am glad that I trusted my instincts.” The musical has been so successful that it opened in June at the Novello Theatre in London, starring Elaine Paige, and begins a North American tour in the fall.
Another success was the discovery of Lin-Manuel Miranda and his musical, In the Heights, which opened off-Broadway on February 8. “I first saw it in the basement in the Drama Bookshop four years ago. The show is very different now, but the energy, the spirit, and the talent were all present that first night.” This year the play was honored with a Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle for Best Off-Broadway Musical. The show will close July 15 but will open on Broadway sometime during the 2007-2008 season at a theater yet to be announced.
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