Saul Zaentz - Film Career

Film Career

Zaentz has received the Best Picture Oscar for three films, two of them directed by Miloš Forman—One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984)—as well as for The English Patient (1996), directed by Anthony Minghella.

In the early 1970s he saw the stage adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at a theatre in the Jackson Square area of San Francisco. Zaentz co-produced the film adaptation with Michael Douglas. The film won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, which Zaentz and Douglas shared.

In 1980 Zaentz created The Saul Zaentz Film Center in Berkeley, California, an editing and sound-mixing studio for his own films, independent filmmakers and Hollywood productions.

In 1984 Zaentz and Forman collaborated again, on the adaptation of the Peter Schaffer's stage play Amadeus about composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It won eight Academy Awards, including Zaentz's second Best Picture, and spun off a best-selling soundtrack album (distributed by Fantasy Records).

Zaentz next produced The Mosquito Coast, directed by Peter Weir on location in Belize, Central America, starring Harrison Ford, from the book by Paul Theroux.

In 1988 Zaentz produced The Unbearable Lightness of Being, based on the Milan Kundera novel. The adaptation was directed by San Francisco's Philip Kaufman from a screenplay by Jean-Claude Carrière.

Zaentz's following film, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière from the book by Peter Matthiessen, shot by Hector Babenco on location in the Amazon rain forest, continued Mosquito Coast's theme of the clash of western values with the primitive.

In 1992 Zaentz purchased the rights to the unpublished novel The English Patient and worked up a scenario with author Michael Ondaatje. In developing the project Zaentz resisted attempts by his backers to make the story more acceptable to a mainstream audience by casting of Demi Moore in a leading part. The book was adapted for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. English Patient swept the 1997 Academy Awards, winning Best Director for Minghella and Best Picture for Zaentz. At the 69th Academy Awards Zaentz also accepted The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement.

In 2003, Zaentz was made a Fellow of BAFTA, in recognition of his film career.

In 2004-2005 Zaentz and partners sold Fantasy Records to independent jazz label Concord Records, and closed the Saul Zaentz Film Center.

In 2005-2006 Zaentz embarked on a new film project, Goya's Ghosts, centered on events in the life of Spanish painter Francisco Goya, starring Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård as Goya, and featuring Randy Quaid as the king of Spain. The film was made with long-time collaborators Miloš Forman (director) and Jean-Claude Carrière (screenplay). Shot on location in Spain and edited in New York, the film was released in late 2006.