Month: June 2015

On the 18th July David Puttnam will present an evening of live music from his films at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

With 10 Oscars, 25 BAFTAs, the Palme d’Or at Cannes and a BAFTA Fellowship (amongst other awards), David Puttnam is certainly a film-producing legend. In this exceptional concert, David reflects on his career as he presents an evening of music taken from some of his most successful films.

The Hallé, under the direction of Stephen Bell, will perform live on stage and stills from the films will be shown on the big screen. The concert also features Sacha Puttnam, David’s son, who is an accomplished film composer and pianist in his own right.

The evening will include music from: 
-Midnight Express; 
Chariots of Fire; 
The Duellists;
Memphis Belle;
Local Hero; 
The Mission; 
Lisztomania and many more…

David Puttnam presenter • Sacha Puttnam piano • Stephen Bell conductor

Buy tickets… 

David Puttnam will appear on BBC Three Essential Classics with Rob Cowan as part of his five-part series. 

'Rob's guest this week is David Puttnam. A renowned producer famed for films including Chariots of Fire, Bugsy Malone, The Mission and The Killing Fields, Lord Puttnam has worked in public policy since he retired from the film industry, and has a particular interest in improvements in education. He will be discussing his career and sharing a selection of his favourite classical music with Rob every day at 10am.'

Listen here…

In an exclusive interview with ASEAN Forum, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma explains how the world of international trade has parallels with making movies.

David Puttnam is a self-confessed optimist; a quality he believes stood him in good stead in his successful career as a film producer. “People have got to believe in something,” he says. “It’s like movies. Midnight Express would not have been the success it was if he hadn’t got out of prison. Chariots of Fire, no one would have gone to see it if he had come second. Human beings need hope.”

However, in adopting the same positive attitude to his current role as the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy, now Lord Puttnam of Queensgate, he has received some scathing reviews.

“A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing,” led a piece by veteran correspondent James Pringle published in the Cambodia Daily, advising Lord Puttnam to “go back to the House of Lords and maintain silence on matters such as the present political situation in Cambodia, and the foreign journalists here, of which you have, at this date, so little knowledge.”

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Chariots of Fire producer reveals how Greenpeace activists brought him back to filmmaking.

When David Puttnam stepped back from filmmaking in his mid-50s, he cited the examples of some of the legendary filmmakers he had met while boss of Columbia Pictures – directors like Stanley Kramer, John Huston, Fred Zinnemann and George Stevens who felt embittered at their loss of influence late in their careers.

“What I realised…is what angry men they were. When I made the decision to be out [of the film business] at 55, it was because I realised that the last 15 years of their lives, they were not happy guys,” the Chariots Of Fire producer said in a 2008 interview.

Now, aged 74, Lord Puttnam is taking the plunge back into production.

Two weeks ago, at Cannes,he announced his plans to make a feature film version of Don’t Trust Don’t Fear Don’t Beg The Extraordinary Story of the Arctic 30, the book by Ben Stewart (head of media at Greenpeace) about the experiences of Greenpeace activists protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic.

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