| John Bard Manulis | |
| Birth Date: | 8 September 1956 |
| Birth Place: | Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation: | Producer, director, social/political activist, entrepreneur |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard University |
| Boards: | The Liberty Hill Foundation The Getty House Foundation |
| Organization: | Writers Guild of America East Producers Guild of America Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
| Spouse: | Liz Heller |
John Bard Manulis (born September 8, 1956) is an American film, television and theater producer, director, entrepreneur and activist.[1] He has produced or executive produced more than 20 films, television programs, and theater productions, including Charlotte Sometimes, The Basketball Diaries, Swing Kids, Arctic Tale, Foxfire, HBO's Blindside, and The Umbilical Brothers: THWAK.
Manulis's projects integrate social and political themes such as drug addiction (The Basketball Diaries); repression and rebellion (Swing Kids); AIDS, individual freedom, and biracial relationships (Daybreak); the Vietnam War (Intimate Strangers); female empowerment (Foxfire, V.I. Warshawski); poverty (American Idol Gives Back) and climate change/environmental consciousness (Arctic Tale).
Manulis was born in Los Angeles to actress Katharine Bard[2] and Martin Manulis; his father is a film, television, and theater producer best known as the creator of the television program, Playhouse 90.[3]
He attended Harvard College[4] after his preparatory school education at Harvard School, in North Hollywood, California.[5]
Manulis graduated from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature and Language. He was president of the Harvard Dramatic Club, and directed numerous productions, including the musical Two Gentleman of Verona, by John Guare and Galt MacDermot, which he independently produced and presented outdoors in Harvard Yard,[6] and a multimedia adaptation of U.S.A. by John Dos Passos on the Loeb Mainstage.
During summer breaks, Manulis worked on films, most notably as a production assistant on All The President's Men[7] and as assistant art director on Lee Grant's Academy Award nominee The Stranger.
After graduating from Harvard, Manulis moved to New York, where he began his professional career as Marshall W. Mason's assistant at the renowned[8] Circle Repertory Company.[9] Promoted to casting director in 1980, he continued to work with Mason, co-directing John Bishop's The Great Grandson of Jedediah Kohler[10] and assistant directing[11] Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy, Talley's Folly, Fifth of July and A Tale Told; Hamlet, starring William Hurt, and Murder at the Howard Johnson's, which was produced on Broadway.[12] He directed workshop productions at Circle Rep, Playwrights Horizons, and Manhattan Theatre Club. In addition, Manulis directed Marjorie Appleman's Seduction Duet, which starred Jeff Daniels and won the 1981 Samuel French One-Act Festival.[13] [14]
Manulis has also produced several plays, including 1988's Three Ways Home at the Astor Place Theater in New York, and The Umbilical Brothers: THWAK, which was produced in 1999/2000 at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre and at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles
In 1979, Manulis was chosen by Arthur Penn, Elia Kazan and Joseph Mankiewicz to become a Founding Member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Unit.
In 1983, Manulis joined the Nederlander Organization, where he brought projects through development and production as an executive producer in their newly formed television and film division. While at Nederlander, Manulis was involved with producing properties ranging from the ACE Award-winning A Case of Libel, starring Daniel J. Travanti and Ed Asner, to Intimate Strangers, a television movie starring Teri Garr and Stacy Keach.[15] [16] He created the Comedy Zone, a weekly one-hour series on CBS, which brought together writers and actors such as Neil Simon, Kathleen Turner, Wendy Wasserstein, Joe Mantegna, Jules Feiffer and Christopher Durang.[17]
Manulis went on to serve as Vice President of Film for Edgar Scherick Associates, Senior VP of Production for Jeffrey Lurie's Chestnut Hill Productions, and Head of Worldwide Production and Acquisition for Samuel Goldwyn Films,[18] where he supervised the production or acquisition of films such as The Madness of King George, Lolita, American Buffalo, I Shot Andy Warhol, Welcome to Woop Woop, Bent and Tortilla Soup.
In 2008, Manulis produced the campaign events involving local, regional and national surrogates for Barack Obama's Campaign for Change in Colorado. He produced the short filmmaking competitions for Microsoft's Imagine Cup in both Brazil (2004) and Japan (2005), and the Liberty Hill Foundation's annual Upton Sinclair Award dinner (2003, 2004, 2005). With Gary Sinise, he directed the Directors Guild of America's memorial tribute to the life of director John Frankenheimer.
Manulis co-founded Visionbox Media Group, a production, post-production and distribution consulting company using digital technology to produce and distribute films and television content in 2000.[19] [20] [21] In a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times he said: "Definitions are changing on everything, even what the word 'digital' means. There are so many technologies that are encompassed in that one word....The one thing everyone agrees on is that 'digital' equals change."[22]
Manulis founded Screenspaces, a social technology company he founded with his wife, Liz Heller, in 2011.[23]
Manulis was recognized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as one of their 2012 Leaders To Watch. He serves on the board of directors for The Getty House Foundation, and on the board of the Liberty Hill Foundation. Manulis and Heller received the Liberty Hill Founder's Award in 2010.[24]
| Year | Title | Credit | Medium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Arctic Tale | Executive producer | Film (documentary) | |
| 2007 | American Idol Gives Back | Executive producer, documentary segments | TV series (2 episodes) | |
| 2006 | Believe in Me | Producer | Film | |
| 2006 | The Woods | Production Executive | Film | |
| 2006 | The Painted Veil | CEO, Visionbox Media Group | Film | |
| 2006 | First Snow | CEO, Visionbox Media Group | Film | |
| 2006 | The Illusionist | CEO, Visionbox Media Group | Film | |
| 2005 | The L.A. Riot Spectacular | Producer | Film | |
| 2004 | Malibu Eyes | Executive producer | Video | |
| 2003 | Master and Commander | As Production Executive (MGM) | Film | |
| 2002 | Teddy Bear's Picnic | Executive producer | Film | |
| 2002 | Charlotte Sometimes | Executive producer | Film | |
| 2001 | Falling Like This | Executive producer | Film | |
| 2001 | Tortilla Soup | Producer | Film | |
| 2001 | Comics on Campus | Co-executive Producer | TV series pilot | |
| 1999 | The Invisibles | Executive producer | Film | |
| 1999 | The Umbilical Brothers: THWAK | Producer | Theater (Minetta Lane Theater) | |
| 1997 | Welcome to Woop Woop | Executive producer | Film | |
| 1997 | The Chambermaid on the Titanic | As Production Executive (MGM) | Film | |
| 1997 | Bent | As Production Executive (MGM) | Film | |
| 1996 | Foxfire | Producer | Film | |
| 1996 | The Preacher's Wife | Executive in Charge of Production | Film | |
| 1995 | The Basketball Diaries | Producer | Film | |
| 1995 | Napoleon | Executive in Charge of Production | Film | |
| 1994 | The Madness of King George | Executive in Charge of Production | Film | |
| 1993 | Swing Kids | Producer | Film | |
| 1993 | Daybreak | Producer | Television Movie | |
| 1993 | Blindside | Executive producer | Television Movie | |
| 1991 | V.I. Warshawski | Co-executive Producer | Film | |
| 1988 | Three Ways Home | Producer | Theater (Astor Place Theater) | |
| 1986 | Intimate Strangers | Executive producer | Television Movie | |
| 1984 | Comedy Zone | Executive producer/Creator | TV series (5 episodes) | |
| 1982 | The Great Grandson of Jedediah Kohler | Director (with Marshall W. Mason) | Theater (Circle Repertory)[25] | |
| 1981 | Foxtrot by the Bay | Director | Theater (Circle Repertory at the White Barn Theater) | |
| 1981 | The Suicide | Assistant director | Theater (Broadway) | |
| 1981 | Fifth of July | Assistant director | Theater (Mark Taper Forum) | |
| 1981 | Talley's Folly | Assistant director | Theater (Mark Taper Forum) | |
| 1981 | A Tale Told | Assistant director | Theater (Circle Repertory) | |
| 1981 | Seduction Duet | Director | Theater (Circle Repertory) | |
| 1980 | Talley's Folly | Assistant director | Theater (Broadway) | |
| 1979 | The Deserter | Director | Theater (Circle Repertory) | |
| 1978 | Twelfth Night | Assistant Stage Manaager | Theater (Academy Festival Theater) | |
| 1976 | All The President's Men | Art Department liaison | Film |