{"id":846589,"date":"2026-09-13T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846589\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T17:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T17:30:10","slug":"jeremy-thomas-tributes-pour-in-from-across-film-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846589\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Thomas Tributes Pour in From Across Film World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTributes have begun flowing from across the film world for Jeremy Thomas<\/a>, the legendary British producer who passed away on Friday at the age of 77<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tTerry Gilliam<\/a>, who worked with Thomas on \u201cTideland\u201d and \u201cThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote,\u201d told Variety, \u201cJeremy Thomas loved making movies. He loved every aspect of the business, but most of all he loved directors. The list of those he worked with is almost endless and I was one of the lucky ones. His taste in filmmaking spanned the globe. He was fearless in getting some very unlikely films financed and released, often to worldwide success. The list is remarkable in range and absolutely unforgettable in quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Gilliam: \u201cMost of all, he was a joy to work with. As your producer you always felt protected and encouraged, rare qualities to experience, especially when lack of time and money are swirling around you, raging at your head. Filmmaking is not cheap and the pressures are intense but Jeremy always remained calm and supportive. He was a rare and very unique gem in the world of producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLuca Guadagnino<\/a>, who recently put Thomas on camera for his Venice-bowing documentary \u201cJoie De Vivre\u201d to talk about Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (with whom he made five films), offered Variety a heartfelt statement about the producer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJeremy Thomas\u2019 death leaves a gigantic void. The space he was fulfilling was a space of pure cinema. Someone who knew how to collaborate with filmmakers and make them better, and how to be himself \u2014 a great filmmaker,\u201d he said. \u201cThe canon of his work is unmatched, and some of the greatest movies of the past 50 years have been produced by him. And the level of the partnerships that he established in his career is incredible, from Nagisa Oshima to Bernardo Bertolucci. He was a generous man. He was a kind man. He was a man full of stories to tell, but at the same time, very curious to hear others people\u2019s stories. I regret not having been able, in my life, to be produced by the great Jeremy Thomas, and I say a very moved goodbye to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTakashi Miike, the Japanese filmmaker who collaborated with Thomas across numerous features, including \u201cBad Lieutenant: Tokyo,\u201d premiering in Toronto on Monday, sent Variety a message to his dear friend.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe promised to celebrate the world premiere here in Toronto and have a good drink together,\u201d he said. \u201cThis sudden news came out of nowhere, leaving me completely in shock and deeply saddened. Jeremy gave me my wings \u2014 he was a great mentor and an irreplaceable friend. Rest in peace for now. Until we meet again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMark Cousins, who directed the 2021 documentary \u201cThe Storms of Jeremy Thomas,\u201d in which the director travelled by car with Thomas to Cannes, said: \u201cJeremy conducted an evening, a trip, a holiday like it was an orchestra. Everything flowed. The hotel had the best balcony views. The producer of \u2018The Last Emperor\u2019 ordered at a Chinese restaurant and exquisite food arrived. He played music in the car for five days as we drove to Cannes. I felt safe and exalted in Jeremy\u2019s world. Life will never be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThomas was greatly admired and loved by fellow British producers, such as Danny Boyle\u2019s producing partner Andrew Macdonald. Macdonald told Variety that \u201cJeremy and I bonded over his father [director Ralph Thomas] and my grandfather both producing films for Rank in the 1950s. He was a hero for me. A rebel with taste.\u201d\u00a0Macdonald\u2019s grandfather was Emeric Pressburger, the co-writer, co-director and producer of \u201cThe Red Shoes\u201d and \u201cBlack Narcissus,\u201d among other classics.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Stephen Woolley, whose credits include Oscar-nominated films like \u201cThe Crying Game\u201d and \u201cCarol,\u201d told Variety that Thomas was a \u201ccolossus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI first met the maverick and international producer in Tokyo at a buyers\u2019 screening of his movie \u2018Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.\u2019 Jeremy Thomas was the person in 1981 in Japan who didn\u2019t suggest but insisted that I be a film producer!,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a huge inspiration and a massively undervalued genius and necessary rebel in our industry\u2026 he sided with the subversives and movie anarchists and we loved him dearly\u2026 and I have to thank him for my career following in similar footsteps avoiding nationalistic stereotypes and embracing the world of cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWoolley added that \u201cwithout Jeremy (and a little help from John Boorman)\u201d he would \u201cnever had had the nerve at 27\u201d to make \u201cThe Company of Wolves\u201d with Neil Jordan. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJeremy showed with his first movie success \u2018The Shout\u2019 (with Polish friend and collaborator Skolimowski) that boundaries were there to be ignored or broken. And that movies are an international and all-embracing experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMyself and my producing partner Elizabeth Karlsen look up to his guiding star still moving across the galaxy and inspiring filmmakers from all nations and genders with his extraordinary body of stellar work. Hoping to take guidance from a groundbreaking guru whose love of world cinema defied any easy categorization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSony Pictures Classics\u2019 Tom Bernard described Thomas as a \u201cvery good friend\u201d and also one of the \u201cfirst people\u201d he met when he started in film distribution.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe released \u2018The Shout\u2019 together, which was the beginning of a very long friendship and professional relationship. Over the years, we saw each other every year in Cannes and whenever I was in New York, sharing lunches, dinners and, of course, plenty of stories about the movies we loved,\u201d he said. \u201cHis accomplishments in cinema were extraordinary, and one of my great regrets is that he was never properly honored by one of the major festivals for his extraordinary contribution to our industry. I\u2019ll always remember being with him at the Oscars when he won Best Picture \u2014 he was absolutely thrilled. He was a great friend to Sony Pictures Classics, but, above all, he was a great friend to me. I will miss him tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer and publisher Charles Finch said, \u201cHe made great movies and was a loyal, dear friend. His father, Ralph, made a film with my father, Peter, called \u2018No Love for Johnnie.\u2019 We spent plenty of time talking movies, cars and praising the devilled kidneys as Wilton\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn social media, Edinburgh Film Festival CEO and director Paul Ridd said that the \u201closs of Jeremy Thomas is enormous, to film culture and to the world,\u201d adding that he was \u201csuch a beautiful man and a extraordinarily generous supporter\u201d of the festival. <\/p>\n

\n\tAdrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said that Thomas\u2019 passing was, \u201cSuch terribly sad news for Jeremy\u2019s loved ones, family, friends, colleagues, the filmmakers and for the British Film Industry he did so much for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross a career spanning more than half a century, Thomas produced 80 features, championing the work of both international cinema and daring auteur filmmakers in the process. In 1988 he won the best picture Oscar for Bertolucci\u2019s \u201cThe Last Emperor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have begun flowing from across the film world for Jeremy Thomas, the legendary British producer who passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,358161,28465,47959],"class_list":["post-846589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-jeremy-thomas","tag-luca-guadagnino","tag-terry-gilliam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}