the wolper organization...

...under the leadership of David Wolper and his son Mark Wolper, has been responsible for over 500 films, have won more than 150 awards, including two Oscars, 50 Emmys, seven Golden Globes, five Peabodys, and recognition and retrospectives from Cannes and other respected international film festivals.

OUR DOCUMENTARIES
The Wolpers’ first and continuing love is with the documentary. Beginning in 1958, David created The Wolper Organization to produce The Race for Space, narrated by Mike Wallace and nominated for an Oscar. Such prestigious theatrical and television documentaries as The Making of the President (1960), winner of five Emmys; The Making of the President 1964 and 1968; A Nation of Immigrants (1967), based on John F. Kennedy’s book; The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971), winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Film and an award at the Cannes Film Festival; This Is Elvis (1980); and Imagine: John Lennon (1988). The Wolpers also produced the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The Wolper Organization originated such documentary series as National Geographic, Biography, Jacques Cousteau Specials, David Wolper Presents…Plimpton!, American Heritage and Primal Man. Most recently, the Wolpers have produced Legends, Icons and Superstars of the 20th Century for DISCOVERY ON PEOPLE, and Celebrate the Century for CNN.

The Wolper Organization looks at 'reality' as just a new name for 'documentary,' a category of programming that virtually launched The Wolper Organization. The network demands for original, dramatic, compelling programming continues to grow at an exponential rate with stories based on true life events particularly in demand.

Eight new projects are in the works for A&E, TNT, Showtime, NBC, CBS, Lifetime and E! Entertainment. The slate is diverse with many projects based on real life stories that make for compelling television viewing.

For A&E, The Wolper Organization produced God or the Girl, a series following five potential seminarians and their journey to the decision to join the priesthood, or not. Penn & Teller: Off the Deep End, is a two hour primetime special for NBC shot in the Caribbean with the two performing a magic show underwater. Earth Angel, a sort of "positive Punk'd" special that sought out worthy people who have made an unusual and selfless contribution to their fellow man, was produced and broadcast on Lifetime. Also for Showtime, we produced a documentary on medical marijuana titled In Pot We Trust.

Mark Wolper is also executive producer of the multiple-Emmy-nominated Penn & Teller: BULLSH*T! which has become Showtime's signature show and has just begun it’s sixth season. Instant Beauty Pageant is a series entering its third season of production for E! Style Television.

Currently in active development is Gullible Planet an expose show for The Learning Channel, a hilarious TBS project called Unmarried to the Mob, about a family of career criminals who are committed to going straight, The Greatest Show on Earth, about Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and the police documentary Yonkers, PD for TNT, and lastly a high profile series for CBS.

OUR FEATURE FILMS
The Wolper Organization, through an ongoing relationship with WARNER BROS., has produced many landmark films and television projects. Our most recent feature release was 1997’s critically acclaimed L.A. Confidential, a film about corruption in the early years of the LAPD, based on James Ellroy’s novel, starring Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, and Kim Basinger. L.A. Confidential was chosen Best Picture by the NY Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, garnered five Golden Globe nominations, including best picture, and won two Oscars; one for Best Supporting Actress and one for Best Screenplay. The Wolper Organization has also produced, among others, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1972), Murder in the First (1994) starring Kevin Bacon, Christian Slater and Gary Oldman, and Surviving Picasso (1996), in association with Merchant/Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins.

OUR LONGFORM LEGACY
The Wolper Organization’s greatest achievements are in the arena of television longform. After creating the miniseries, The Wolper Organization mastered the form, creating some of the most acclaimed and highest rated programming of all time. Roots (1977, ABC), a 12-hour miniseries tracing Alex Haley’s ancestry, and Roots: The Next Generation (1978, ABC) a 14-hour miniseries that concludes Alex Haley’s story, are the two highest rated programs in television and won a total of 11 Emmys. The Thorn Birds (1983), a 10-hour miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain won six Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes and is still among the top ten most watched programs in Television history. In 1985 and 1986, The Wolper Organization produced North and South for ABC, a 24-hour miniseries based on John Jakes’ best-selling novels about the friendship between a Northern industrial family and a Southern plantation family prior to and throughout the Civil War. In 1994, the saga continued in the six-hour miniseries for ABC, Heaven and Hell. Alex Haley’s saga was revisited in Roots Christmas: Kunta Kinte’s Gift (1988, ABC), and in the four-hour miniseries Queen (1993) for CBS. Staring Halle Berry, Danny Glover, Martin Sheen, Anne-Margret and Ossie Davis, Queen chronicles the story of Alex Haley’s paternal grandmother.

In addition to such event programming, The Wolper Organization has produced numerous movies for television including The Court-Martial of Lt. William Calley (1974); Collision Course: Truman Vs. MacArthur (1975); Victory at Entebbe! (1976), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas; Agatha Christie’s Murder Is Easy (1982, CBS); The Betty Ford Story (1987, ABC) which won an Emmy for star Gena Rowlands; Murder in Mississippi (1989, NBC) starring Tom Hulce; When You Remember Me (1990, ABC), starring Ellen Burstyn; Dillinger (1990, ABC), starring Mark Harmon; A Bed of Lies, starring Susan Dey; and Marina’s Story, starring Helena Bonham Carter, which chronicled the life of Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife.

In the late 1990s, the Wolpers produced A Will of Their Own, the sweeping story of women’s progress in 20th century America, and To Serve and Protect, a contemporary look at three generations of Texas Rangers, both for NBC. Most recently, The Wolper Organization transformed the fantasy bestseller The Mists of Avalon into an epic TNT miniseries starring Julianna Margulies, Anjelica Huston, and Joan Allen. In the hands of director Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn), this $20 million production handsomely conjures up the mystical Isle of Avalon as it retells the Arthurian Legend from a female perspective. The project garnered 9 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries as well as Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie nods for both Huston and Allen.

Two distinctive Wolper projects aired in 2004. In May, Wolper produced writer/director John Gray's compelling re-interpretation of Vincent Bugliosi's harrowing book, Helter Skelter, based on Bugliosi's account of prosecuting the Charles Manson murders. In June, TNT aired the four-hour adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, adapted by Peter Filardi (Flatliners) and starring Rob Lowe - the highest rated longform on cable this year, in a debut that beat the major networks in the ratings. In 2005, Wolper produced Snow Wonder, a magical and romantic Christmas movie, written by Rodney Vaccaro, and produced for CBS with Created By and Ragna Nervik. For NBC, we produced a remake of the Rankin-Bass Christmas classic The Year without a Santa Claus into a live-action holiday event for December 2006. Most recently, a remake of the 1976 film Sybil was produced for CBS.

 

©2009 The Wolper Org.
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