Casey Silver

In his role at Universal, Silver was responsible for all divisions of Universal Pictures, including its production, marketing and distribution operations. He supervised all activities worldwide concerning Universal's partnerships with United International and domestic distribution activities through its partnership with October Films. Additionally, Silver oversaw Universal Studios Home Video, Universal Pictures Animation and Visual Effects and Universal Family & Home Entertainment Production, which include Universal Cartoon Studios. During his tenure at Universal, the studio developed, produced and released the critically acclaimed films "Schindler's List," "Shakespeare in Love," "Apollo 13," "Babe," "Jurassic Park," "Out of Sight," "Field of Dreams," "The Nutty Professor," "Twelve Monkeys," "In the Name of the Father," "Do the Right Thing," "Scent of a Woman," "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Cape Fear," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Parenthood," "Midnight Run," "The Mummy," "Notting Hill," "American Pie," "October Sky," "Erin Brockovich," and "Gladiator." Ironically, it was the box office bomb "Meet Joe Black" (1998), a film directed by Silver's friend "Beverly Hills Cop" collaborator Martin Brest, that began the undoings of his tenure at Universal, as well as the critically praised but commercially underperforming sequel "Babe: Pig in the City" (1998). Upon his departure from the studio the executive started his own production shingle, Casey Silver Productions (originally known as Gone Fishin' Productions) in October 1999. Unlike many former studio heads with sweetheart first-look deals with ex-employers who typically quash projects to validate their initial decision to part company, Silver managed to branch out and forge pacts outside of Universal and put several films into production and development elsewhere. The first project out of the gate, however, was the ill-fated, critically reviled bocx office bomb"Gigli" (2003) starring the then-overhyped coupling of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and yet again helmed by Martin Brest. Teaming with the Walt Disney Studios, Silver fared much better with his company's second film, the near-epic "Hidalgo" (2004), about an American cowboy (Viggo Mortensen) competing in a legendary Middle Eastern horse race, which earned many favorable reviews and performed adequately at the box office. Next Silver produced his second film for Disney, the firefighter action-drama "Ladder 49" (2004) starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta.