Robert Latham Brown

Robert Latham Brown (born June 20, 1947) is a film producer, line producer, production manager, author, and teacher. In his 30-year film career, he has worked with Mel Brooks, George Lucas, Paul Verhoeven, Steven Spielberg and many others. His expertise in budgeting and line producing inspired Mel Brooks to nickname Brown "Mr. On-Budget".[1]

Robert Latham Brown
Robert Brown in 2000.
Born	Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation	Film producer, line producer, author, teacher
Years active	1979–present

Biographical Information and Education

Brown was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and moved to Florida with his family during his junior high school years. He attended Tulane University in New Orleans where he studied biology and was a pre-med student. At the beginning of his senior year, Brown switched his major to acting and directing in the theater. Upon receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969, Brown taught in the Brevard County public school system in Florida for three years. In 1972, he applied to the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television as a master's degree candidate. When he was not accepted, Brown drove across the country and made an appointment with the Dean of the Film School. Upon learning that Brown had driven all that way to see him, the Dean promptly admitted Brown to the program based on his perseverance. Brown became the graduate teaching assistant in the beginning camera class, and counted amongst his students actor and singer Ed Ames.

While at UCLA, Brown considered a career as a screenwriter and was accepted as a client at the William Morris Agency. In 1974, Brown put aside his writing career and left UCLA when he was accepted into the Directors Guild of America's Assistant Directors Training Program. Once in the DGA, Brown rose rapidly through the ranks becoming one of the youngest production managers at Universal Studios in 1978.

Career

As producer and production manager, Brown has worked on more than 40 feature films, including the very small (Local Color, The Anarchist Cookbook) and the very large (Return of the Jedi, Starship Troopers, and Hollow Man), giving him a wide range of production experience.

Brown spent most of his early career at Universal Studios until The Thing, after which he left for Lucasfilm to work on Return of the Jedi at the invitation of Howard Kazanjian. From that point on, Brown's career has taken on a freelance aspect that has allowed him to work on an eclectic list of films and with some of the top actors in the business including Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Bacon. During the filming of a scene with Barbra Streisand on All Night Long in which Streisand was playing a character who could not sing, Brown remembered, "...when we started to film that scene, she opened her mouth and this incredible voice came out. And everybody on the set just stood there with their mouths open listening to this. Then she stopped because she was supposed to be singing badly....It was astounding being in the room with her."[2]

Author and teacher

Brown is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, Planning the Low-Budget Film, and has been an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1996.[3] Additionally, Brown is a contributing writer to Indie Slate Magazine, writing a series of reviews on film production software.[4]

Writing Awards

Brown's book, Planning the Low-Budget Film was a finalist for the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards,[5] and that same year was a first-place winner in the Hollywood Book Festival.[6] In 2002, his screenplay Keats was named a semi-finalist in the 9th Annual Writer's Network Screenplay and Fiction Competition.[7] In 2020, his screenplay Xena & Jonny was named a finalist in the ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition.[8]

Partial filmography

Year	Film	Credit	Notes
1979	The Concorde ... Airport '79	Unit Production Manager	Credited as "Bob Brown."
1980	The Nude Bomb	Unit Production Manager
	The Blues Brothers	Unit Production Manager
1981	All Night Long	Unit Production Manager
	Bustin' Loose	Unit Production Manager
	Ghost Story	Production Manager
1982	The Thing	Production Manager	Shot in the U.S. and Canada.
1983	Return of the Jedi	Production Executive	U.S. filming.
	Iceman	Production Manager	Shot in the U.S. and Canada.
	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	Production Manager	U.S. filming.
	Best Defense	Unit Production Manager	Shot in the U.S. and Israel.
1984	The Goonies	Unit Production Manager	Second unit, uncredited.
1985	Warning Sign	Associate Producer Unit Production Manager
1986	Blue City	Unit Production Manager
	One Crazy Summer	Unit Production Manager
	Howard the Duck	Co-Producer Production Manager
1987	Spaceballs	Production Manager
1988	Clean and Sober	Unit Production Manager
	Elvira, Mistress of the Dark	Production Manager	Additional scenes.
	Child's Play	Unit Production Manager
1989	The War of the Roses	Unit Production Manager
1990	Child's Play 2	Executive Producer
1991	Child's Play 3	Producer
1993	Babylon 5: The Gathering	Producer	Pilot telefilm
	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	Executive in Charge of Production Production Manager
1995	Dracula: Dead and Loving It	Associate Producer Production Manager
	Showgirls	Unit Production Manager
1997	Starship Troopers	Production Manager
1998	The Parent Trap	Unit Production Manager
2000	Hollow Man	Production Manager
2001	Ali	Production Manager	Uncredited. Prep period only.
2002	Spider-Man	Unit Production Manager	Additional scenes and post production. Uncredited.
	Vampires: Los Muertos	Line Producer Unit Production Manager	U.S. filming.
	The Anarchist Cookbook	Producer
2003	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	Unit Production Manager	Additional scenes. Uncredited.
	S.W.A.T.	Unit Production Manager
2005	A Lot Like Love	Unit Production Manager
	Lords of Dogtown	Unit Production Manager	Additional scenes. Uncredited.
2006	Local Color	Co-producer Unit Production Manager
	The Holiday	Unit Production Manager	Additional scenes. Uncredited.
2009	Hard Breakers	Producer Production Manager

References

1. Planning the Low-Budget Film, cover blurb.
2. Spada, James, Streisand: Her Life (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1995), 396-397.
3. "USC Cinema – Faculty/Staff » Robert Latham Brown". Cinema.usc.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
4. Indie Slate magazine, vol. 12, Issue 55, p19.
5. "IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association". IBPA. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
6. "Hollywood Book Festival". Hollywood Book Festival. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
7. "FADE IN Awards". Fadeinonline.com. Retrieved 2012-05-13.
8. "ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Finalists". ScreenCraft. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

External links

• Robert Latham Brown at IMDb