Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff became known in part for being willing to take chances on projects and filmmakers that did not fit the conventional studio formula. A modern equivalent is not simply a producer with prestigious credits, but someone who repeatedly backs material that other producers might consider too unconventional, inexpensive, difficult to market, or dependent on unproven talent.
The strongest contemporary examples include the following:
Jason Blum is probably one of the clearest modern examples of a producer who has institutionalized risk-taking. Rather than eliminating risk by spending more money, Blumhouse frequently controls risk by keeping production budgets relatively low. This allows filmmakers greater creative freedom while limiting the financial downside if a film fails.
The model has produced films such as Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Get Out, and Insidious. Several began with budgets dramatically below normal studio levels and went on to become substantial commercial successes.
Blum's distinctive quality is that he is not merely willing to gamble. He attempts to structure the gamble so that an unconventional idea does not need blockbuster revenue to justify its existence.
Mark and Jay Duplass have built much of their careers around the idea that movies can be made successfully without traditional Hollywood-scale budgets or production structures.
Their early work emerged from the microbudget independent-film world, and they have continued to support relatively inexpensive films, emerging filmmakers, unusual stories, and production methods that place greater emphasis on performances and filmmaking ingenuity than on expensive infrastructure.
Their importance as risk-takers comes partly from their willingness to work at a financial scale where a filmmaker does not necessarily need stars, elaborate sets, or major studio financing before a project can exist.
Christine Vachon has spent decades producing films that conventional Hollywood companies might consider difficult, provocative, controversial, or commercially uncertain.
Through Killer Films, she has been involved with films including Kids, Happiness, Far from Heaven, Carol, First Reformed, and May December.
Her form of risk-taking is particularly associated with filmmakers who have a strong individual voice. She has repeatedly supported unconventional subject matter and directors whose work does not necessarily resemble mainstream studio filmmaking.
Nina Yang Bongiovi has developed a particularly strong reputation for identifying filmmakers before they become major Hollywood names.
She helped produce Ryan Coogler's first feature, Fruitvale Station, and later backed filmmakers including Boots Riley and Chloé Zhao. Her credits include Dope, Sorry to Bother You, and other films built around directors with distinctive approaches and relatively unconventional material.
Her career is especially relevant to the traditional idea of a risk-taking producer because she has repeatedly been willing to support talent before the marketplace has already validated it.
Plan B operates at a higher level of the industry than many traditional independent companies, but Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner have nevertheless demonstrated a substantial appetite for unusual and filmmaker-driven projects.
The company's films have included The Tree of Life, Moonlight, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Women Talking, and Nickel Boys, alongside much larger commercial productions.
Their risk-taking tends to involve backing ambitious directors, unconventional narratives, or material without an obvious mass-market formula while still operating within a highly professional production environment.
Steven Soderbergh occupies a somewhat different category because he is simultaneously a director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and production experimenter.
Throughout his career he has repeatedly experimented with inexpensive digital filmmaking, unconventional financing, small crews, unusual distribution strategies, compressed shooting schedules, and new camera technology.
Films such as Bubble, Unsane, High Flying Bird, Magic Mike, and Presence illustrate his willingness to challenge assumptions about how much a professional feature film must cost and how it must be produced.
Unlike a traditional producer whose primary role is finding filmmakers to support, Soderbergh frequently takes the production risk on projects in which he is also one of the principal creative participants.
These producers do not all take the same kind of risk. Jason Blum specializes in limiting financial exposure while pursuing highly commercial concepts. The Duplass brothers specialize in extremely lean independent production. Christine Vachon tends toward provocative auteur-driven material. Nina Yang Bongiovi has frequently taken chances on emerging filmmakers. Plan B backs ambitious prestige-oriented projects, while Steven Soderbergh repeatedly experiments with the filmmaking process itself.
What they share with earlier producers such as Winkler and Chartoff is a willingness to consider a project before every conventional indicator of safety is already in place. In different ways, each has demonstrated that controlled risk can be a deliberate production strategy rather than simply a gamble.