The story
Founded by Alan Ladd Jr. in 1979.1
Beginnings
Alan Ladd Jr. had been a successful studio head of 20th Century Fox, helping make films such as Star Wars, Julia, Alien, The Turning Point, Young Frankenstein, An Unmarried Woman and Silver Streak. He ran into conflict with the company's chairman, Dennis Stanfill and wanted to leave. He left the company in June 1979 to set up his own company along with fellow executives Jay Kanter and Gareth Wigan. Under the terms of their severance with Fox, they were not allowed to start working until October 1, 1979.
The company was known as The Ladd Company and its symbol was a tree. "You could say it has a tie in with the tree of life," said Ladd. They signed a deal with Warner Bros who would finance and distribute their films, although the Ladd Company had creative control. Warner Bros would finance at least $75 million a year.
Ladd said he wanted to make "basically what I made at Fox. I don't think my attitude has changed. Those pictures went all over the place. There wasn't any specific theme to them," even films like Alien and The Omen, which he admits were "exploitation pictures." He believed he "tried to do it with more quality and style than just ripping off a theme."
Early films
On November 2, 1979, Ladd announced the company's first films: a Bette Midler concert movie (Ladd greenlit Midler's The Rose while at Fox) and Madonna Red, a $10 million Joseph L. Mankiewicz film starring Paul Newman as a Vietnam War veteran turned priest. Then they announced Five Days in Summer from Fred Zinnemann, who had made Julia, and Twice Upon a Time, a $3 million film from Lucasfilm.
The Midler film became Divine Madness (1980), but Madonna Red was never made. The first dramatic film the company ended making was Outland (1981), a science fiction film in the vein of Alien shot in England under Sandy Lieberson, the company's head of European operations. It was a commercial disappointment when released.
The Ladd Company's second film was going to be a Bernardo Bertolucci film starring Ugo Tognazzi. This was never made. However, the company had a critical and commercial hit with Body Heat (1981), the directorial debut of Lawrence Kasdan, then with Chariots of Fire (1981), a British film the company helped finance.
Looker (1981), from Michael Crichton, was a flop. The company helped make Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, which was a cult classic years after its theatrical release, but underperformed critically and commercially. Night Shift (1982), directed by Ron Howard, was a minor success.
Series of flops
However the company made a series of flops: Love Child (1982), Five Days One Summer (1982), Lovesick (1983) and Twice Upon a Time (1983).
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The Ladd Company hoped for a big hit with the $28 million The Right Stuff (1983) but it only returned $10 million to the company. Larry Gross later wrote, The Ladd Company, a director-friendly bunch, went down with The Right Stuff. Execs look very closely at what causes other companies to retire from the field. The levels of caution multiply.
Also unsuccessful were Star 80 (1983) and Mike's Murder (1983).
Ladd developed Country but sold the film to another company. They also had Splash from Ron Howard but put it in turnaround, as they did The Big Chill (1983).
The company had a huge hit with Police Academy (1984), made for $4.2 million which grossed $81 million and led to several sequels. Less successful were Purple Hearts (1984) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984) which the company extensively edited without the cooperation of Sergio Leone.
End of company
The success of Police Academy came too late to save the company. On April 19, 1984, Warners announced its association with the Ladd Company was over and Ladd became a nonexclusive production organization.
By July 16, 1984, the New York Times wrote that,
In essence, the Ladd Company no longer exists; although the label still exists, most of its executives have left. The company failed partly as a result of the dismal box-office record of many of its interesting, intelligent movies, including The Right Stuff, and partly because new management at Warner Brothers, which financed and distributed Ladd Company films, did not care to nurture the smaller movie company.
On July 18, 1984, Kanter left the company to become head of production at MGM/UA. Ladd followed, becoming head of MGM/UA in February 1985.
The last two films made by the company during its first incarnation were Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) and Doin' Time (1985).
Revival
Ladd was ousted from MGM/UA in the mid-1990s. He reformed The Ladd Company on February 17, 1995, and on May 24, 1995, produced the Oscar-winning film Braveheart, a film he was able to take with him from MGM/UA. Around that same time Ladd also produced The Phantom (1996) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). The Ladd Company's final films were An Unfinished Life (2005) and Gone Baby Gone (2007), though Ladd continuing developing projects with the likes of Robert Altman, Emma Thompson, and more in subsequent years.
From Wikipedia’s article on The Ladd Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4