Social Redeemer
Word association time: Hollywood. Chances are you just thought of really bad sequels, or surgically enhanced starlets, or some combination thereof. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But Jeff Skoll is trying to change that image of Hollywood as the source of pretty but meaningless drivel. Skoll's Participant Productions is releasing a number of feature films in coming months, each with the modest goal of changing the world. "We have a double bottom line," says Skoll, a slight and energetic type who looks younger than his 40 years. "We want to do entertaining and compelling films that would reach an audience, but we also want to bring about social change."
Sound crazy? Maybe. But when you're worth around $5 billion, you're allowed to be pretty crazy. Skoll, after all, was the first employee and first president of eBay. In fact, he drew up the original business plan the firm still follows. While no longer directly involved with eBay--he serves on the board of its foundation and is now just a "happy customer and shareholder" --he does find himself sitting on more resources "than I ever dreamed of." Forbes pegs him as the 94th-richest person in the world, and Canadian Business magazine says that makes him the third-richest Canadian (he grew up in Toronto and Montreal).
He now has so much cash that he's uncomfortable with it and seems intent on giving much of it away. A lot goes to his Skoll Foundation, whose kitty is approaching $600 million, and funds projects around the world. But a $100 million bet has been placed on his Participant Productions experiment, to explore whether Hollywood and socially relevant content can peaceful-ly coexist. "If an executive is wrong on a superhero movie, they won't lose their job," says Skoll. "But if they're wrong on a socially redeeming film, they might."
An Oscar? Participant Productions tries to take some of that risk away, by putting up millions and then partnering with studios for promotional campaigns and a wide release. One of the first projects out of the gate and in the theaters now: Good Night, and Good Luck , the George Clooney-directed tale of famed journalist Edward R. Murrow's battle with Sen. Joe McCarthy. It's already gathering Oscar murmurs, both for Clooney's gentle direction and for David Strathairn's intense incarnation of Murrow. Also out is North Country , a tale starring Charlize Theron about the first class-action sexual harassment case. Then comes Syriana on November 23, a riff on Mideast geopolitics and America's crippling dependence on oil.
For Hollywood, an industry that churns out dreck like Gigli and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Skoll's barrage of redeeming fare is something of uncharted territory. This year's top-grossing movies: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Wedding Crashers, Batman Begins . According to Participant's president, Ricky Strauss, it's the unconventional approach that makes Skoll's venture so exciting. "When I met him, I thought he was wildly optimistic," says Strauss, a longtime movie exec with Columbia Pictures, who came on board in March. "And that was a turn-on, because there's not enough of that in Hollywood today."
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