Will Packer I
F YOU WANT TO GET A PRODUCING CAREER GOING, THEY SAY, YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO LOS ANGELES. MAYBE NEW YORK, IF YOU SUNBURN EASILY. BUT THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM SAYS THAT IF YOU’RE NOT ON ONE OF THE COASTS, YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE SPINNING YOUR WHEELS.
In a revelation that will shock precisely no one, conventional wisdom is clueless. While LA and New York remain key centers of production, the road to a producing career no longer runs exclusively through Hollywood and the Big Apple. Case in point: PGA member Will Packer, who founded Rainforest Films in Atlanta, the headquarters from which he’s launched no fewer than seven films that have hit #1 at the box office, including Ride Along, Think Like a Man and Stomp the Yard. Packer is at this point no stranger to the major studios. (Producing a filmography that’s grossed nearly $800 million will open some doors.) But even as he taps into the deeper talent pool that Hollywood offers, Packer remains committed to his roots in the South and the regional production community his projects have done so much to foster. He’s part of a rising generation of producers with one foot in the institutional structure of Hollywood and the other firmly planted … somewhere else. Call it “the real world.” For Packer, that remove from Hollywood is a feature, not a bug—allowing him to listen as closely to his audience as he does to the agents at WME or the execs at Universal. Now it’s our chance to listen to Will Packer. In a recent conversation with editor Chris Green, Packer reflected not only on the skills and outlook on which he’s built his success but on the challenge faced by storytellers seeking to marry mainstream Hollywood formats to the vital perspectives unique to African-American and other minority audiences. And if that wasn’t enough responsibility, Packer has opted to hit the reset button and start again at the beginning, learning the ropes of television production even as he extends his enviable track record in feature film.
PRODUCED BY
25