The Business
Producer Gigi Pritzker on 'Genius,' her first foray into TV
Gigi Pritzker didn't plunge headlong into the movie business -- her original life plan was to run an NGO in Nepal. An accidental journey to film school set her on a path to producing lots of films, including the Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water. But she'd never done television until Genius, on the life of Albert Einstein, demanded to be made as a series. The first season of the National Geographic anthology series is now up for 10 Emmys.
By Kim Masters • • 28m ListenProducer Gigi Pritzker is a member of the wealthy Chicago Pritzker family, but she never wanted to go into the family business. And she didn't think she'd end up in Hollywood either, until an anthropology professor offered some unlikely career advice. As the CEO of Madison Wells Media, she's produced and helped finance lots of films but she'd never done TV. That is, until she started to develop a film based on the life of Albert Einstein, and found that it demanded to be a series. Pritzker talks about executive producing Nat Geo's first scripted program, Genius, which is in the Emmy race with 10 nominations.
Photo: Gigi Pritzker, CEO of Madison Wells Media
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Read the story7 minProducer Gigi Pritzker on Nat Geo's 'Genius'
The production company OddLot Entertainment has made or invested in quite a range of projects in recent years, including the coming-of-age dramedy The Way, Way Back, the film adaption of the sci-fi novel Ender's Game, Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater, and last year's best picture nominee Hell or High Water.
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