Tiny Wiki :
Fast loading, text only version of Wikipedia.
Jon Peters
:''For other uses, see: John Peters.''
Jon Pagano Peters (born on 2 June 1945 in Van Nuys, California to Jack Peters and Helen Pagano) is a former hairdresser turned movie producer. He used to be Barbra Streisand's hairdresser, dated her, and eventually entered the movie industry with her help.
Career
Peters went into the family hair styling business. Successful on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, he made many industry connections. Beginning in 1974 he managed Barbara Streisand's career. He produced several of her albums and the 1976 remake of ''A Star Is Born''. With Peter Gruber he had a series of hits, including ''Color Purple'' and ''Flashdance''. With partner Peter Guber, he was head of Sony Pictures for several years. The pair were the subject of the book ''Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood'' by Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters. The book suggests that despite Jon Peters' success as a producer, he is prone to violence and is barely able to read.
Criticism
= Peters and Superman
=
In his Q&A/comedy DVD, ''An Evening With Kevin Smith'', writer/director Kevin Smith relates an anecdote about working with Peters when he was hired to write a script for a new Superman movie, then called ''Superman Reborn'', and would later be renamed ''Superman Lives''. According to Smith, before being hired to draft a screenplay, he had to meet with Peters, the project's producer. During this meeting, Peters expressed disdain for most of Superman's iconic characteristics by demanding that Superman was never to fly or appear in his trademark costume, as it was "too faggy". Peters also suggested Sean Penn as ideal for the role, based on his performance as a violent death row inmate in ''Dead Man Walking''. Peters then demanded that if Smith were to write a script, the third act of the film would have to include a scene of Superman fighting a giant spider, which would be unveiled in a scene reminiscent of King Kong's reveal.
After Smith completed an 80 page outline, Smith met with Peters again, who forced him to read the entire outline aloud to him. Peters then instructed Smith to include a gay robot sidekick to Brainiac, a fight scene between Brainiac and a pair of polar bears, and a marketable "space dog" pet for Lex Luthor similar to ''Star Wars'' character Chewbacca. While Smith, against his own judgment, acquiesced to Peters' demands and inserted them into his script, the project eventually fell through and the script was discarded. Later in the DVD, Smith recalls that he later went to see the much maligned ''Wild Wild West'', which featured the heroes battling a massive giant mechanical spider, and happened to be produced by Peters.
Many fans blamed Peters for the almost two decade long absence of Superman on film, as well as the nearly $50 million loss that Warner Brothers took as a result of several failed attempts to reignite the franchise. In ''Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman'', Jon Peters admits "the elements that I was focusing on were away from the heart, it was more leaning towards ''Star Wars'' in a sense, you know. I didn't realize the human part of it, I didn't have that." He subsequently served as Executive Producer for ''Superman Returns'', the 2006 movie directed by Bryan Singer.
= Peters and ''The Sandman''
=
Jon Peters involvement in adapting the critically acclaimed and highly popular Sandman comics has also met with controversy. One draft, reviewed on the Internet at Ain't It Cool News[[http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=2571 Moriarty takes a look at what Jon Peters has done with Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN property!!! - Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news]], was met with scorn from fans. Sandman creator Neil Gaiman called the last screenplay that Warner Brothers would send him "...not only the worst ''Sandman'' script I've ever seen, but quite easily the worst script I've ever read."[[http://www.comics2film.com/Sandman.shtml Comics2Film: Sandman]] Gaiman also has said that his dissatisfaction with how his characters were being treated had dissuaded him from writing any more stories involving the Sandman characters, although he has since written ''Endless Nights''. By 2001, the project had become stranded in development hell.
In a 2005 interview, Gaiman summarized the Peters approach as follows: "But Sandman movies, they just got increasingly appalling. It was really strange. They started out hiring some really good people and you got Elliott and Rossio and Roger Avary came in and did a draft. They were all solid scripts. And then Jon Peters fired all of them and got in some people who take orders, and who wanted fistfights and all this stuff. It had no sensibility and it was just...they were horrible."
As with other films, Jon Peters insisted on the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider.
Personal
Peters has been married to (and divorced from) Marie Zampirella, Lesley Ann Warren, Christine Forsyth, and Mindy Peters. He has a son, Christopher Peters, with Lesley Ann Warren, and two daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters.
In November, 2008, Peters was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit by his ''Superman: Man of Steel'' co-producer Brian Quintana.[http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/peters%20hit%20with%20new%20sexual%20harassment%20claims_1088060]
In December 2008, Peters sued his former lawyer, Ronald Griggs. Peters claimed that while he was incapacitated after a serious illness, Griggs went on a campaign of deceit that included appointing himself president of Peters' production company, hiring an assistant with the company's money, stealing his computers, and drugging and raping two women in Peters' property.
Selected filmography as producer and executive producer
* ''Superman Returns'' (2006)
* ''Ali'' (2001)
* ''Wild Wild West'' (1999)
* ''Batman & Robin'' (1997)
* ''Batman Forever'' (1995)
* ''Money Train'' (1995)
* ''Batman Returns'' (1992)
* ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' (1990)
* ''Tango & Cash'' (1989)
* ''Batman'' (1989)
* ''Rain Man'' (1988)
* ''Caddyshack II'' (1988)
* ''The Color Purple'' (1985)*
* ''Clue'' (1985)
* ''Flashdance'' (1983)
* ''An American Werewolf in London'' (1981)
* ''Caddyshack'' (1980)
* ''A Star Is Born'' (1976)
*Director Steven Spielberg specifically had it written into his contract that Jon Peters not be allowed onto the set.
Source: Wikipedia