Donald Kushner | |
---|---|
Born | Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. | March 2, 1945
Occupation(s) | Film, television and theater producer |
Years active | 1978–present |
Known for | Tron and The Adventures of Pinocchio |
Children | 2 |
Donald Kushner (born March 2, 1945) is an American producer who has worked with animation, live-action, and theater productions.
Kushner was born March 2, 1945, to Ann Gardner. He has two sisters.
Kushner attended high school in Providence, Rhode Island, received an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University in 1971 and a Boston University J.D. degree in 1973. He then studied art for one year in Florence, Italy.
Upon returning to Boston, Kushner set up a law practice which included a number of show business clients which in turn led him to the opportunity to produce plays for the Boston stage, among them P.S. Your Cat Is Dead and the first theatrical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano .
In 1977, Kushner formed a partnership with filmmaker Steven Lisberger, and in 1978, the pair moved to the West Coast where they produced the 90-minute animated film Animalympics for NBC, but which was ultimately aborted. He later conceived and produced his first live-action film Tron for Walt Disney Pictures.
After Tron, Kushner teamed with Glen A. Larson and Peter Locke and produced the 1980s television series Automan , which was about a holographic crime fighter. The series began in December 1983 and ended in August 1984 and used similar effects to those seen in Tron.
Kuishner and his partner, Peter Locke, founded The Kushner-Locke Company in the 1980s where they continued to produce both film and television series'.
Kushner was credited as executive producer for the 2010 sequel to Tron, Tron: Legacy .
In May 2011, Kushner partnered with Elie Somaha in the purchase of Grauman's Chinese Theater, and planned to restore the landmark building, although rumors at the time were that it might be turned into a nightclub. [1] [2] The Chinese Theater reopened in September 2013 as an IMAX theater, complete with stadium-seating, while the new owners worked with several historical groups to maintain the heritage of the building. [3]
Donald has two daughters and one son: Alwyn, Jasper, and Spencer, respectively. Alwyn Hight Kushner is also a producer and has worked with Donald on several films. She works as president and Chief Operating Officer of TCL Chinese Theater. [4]
A movie theater, cinema, or cinema hall, also known as the big screen, the silver screen, movie house, the movies, picture house, the pictures, picture theater, or simply theater is a business that contains auditoria for viewing films for public entertainment. Most are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing tickets.
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio and steep stadium seating, with the 1.43:1 ratio format being available only in few selected locations.
Tron is a 1982 American science fiction action adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and video game developer who is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape; it also stars Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes. Tron, along with The Last Starfighter, has the distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive computer-generated imagery (CGI).
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre is a historic movie theater located on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace and is noted as having been the site of the first-ever Hollywood film premiere. From 1998 until 2020, it was owned and operated by the American Cinematheque, a member-based cultural organization.
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. It is the largest movie theater chain in the world. Founded in 1920, AMC has the largest share of the U.S. theater market ahead of Regal and Cinemark Theatres.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.
Walter E. Grauman was an American director of stage shows, films and television shows.
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created two of Hollywood's most recognizable and visited landmarks, the Chinese Theatre and the Egyptian Theatre.
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple is owned by The Walt Disney Company and serves as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres.
Steven M. Lisberger is an American filmmaker and animator. He is best known for writing and directing the 1982 film Tron.
The Hollywood Theatre is a historic movie theater in northeast Portland, Oregon, owned by a non-profit organization. It is a central historical landmark of the Hollywood District. The Theatre is located at 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, across the street from the first suburban Fred Meyer store, which is currently occupied by Rite Aid. The Hollywood Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and is considered to be a gem of Northeast Portland's historic culture and tradition.
Peery's Egyptian Theater is a movie palace located in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
IMAX Corporation is a Canadian theatre company which designs and manufactures IMAX cameras and projection systems as well as performing film development, production, post-production and distribution to IMAX-affiliated theatres worldwide. Founded in Montreal in 1967, it has headquarters in the Toronto area, and operations in New York City and Los Angeles.
The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
ArcLight Cinemas was an American movie theater chain that operated from 2002 to 2021. It was owned by The Decurion Corporation, which was also the parent company of Pacific Theatres. The ArcLight chain opened in 2002 as a single theater, the ArcLight Hollywood in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and later expanded to eleven locations in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois.
The Kushner-Locke Company was an American independent motion picture/television production founded on March 12, 1983 by Donald Kushner and Peter Locke.
Peter A. Locke is an American film producer, and co-founder of The Kushner-Locke Company along with his partner, Donald Kushner.
The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms.
Hollywood Masonic Temple, now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre and also formerly known as Masonic Convention Hall, is a building on Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building, built in 1921, was designed by architect John C. Austin, also noted as the lead architect of the Griffith Observatory. The Masons operated the temple until 1982, when they sold the building after several years of declining membership. The 34,000-square-foot building was then converted into a theater and nightclub, and ownership subsequently changed several times, until it was bought by the Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Pictures Distribution in 1998 for Buena Vista Theatres, Inc.
The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States. The same six-block stretch of Broadway, and an adjacent section of Seventh Street, was also the city's retail hub for the first half of the twentieth century, lined with large and small department stores and specialty stores.