Then came Triumph of the Spirit with Willem Dafoe, Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman, Se7en with Brad Pitt, Eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Murder at 1600 with Wesley Snipes, The Devil’s Advocate with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, and A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow. As the box-office reports came in, the studios loosened their purse strings and the Kopelsons’ secured their legacy as movie moguls.
While Arnold takes care of the creative aspects, Anne is the business mastermind. Together they pool their talents to produce films that are both creatively and commercially potent. “Collaboration at every level of film production is essential. After Platoon, we both realized the impact that a film can have. Whether we are making a film to entertain or educate, we feel an enormous responsibility to do the very best we are capable of achieving,” says Anne.
“We really can’t believe we made some of the movies we’ve made,” says Arnold. “Then we make another one and look at each other and say, ‘Wow, we did it again.’ The challenge of finding great material and having it be critically received and commercially successful is daunting…but when we read the reviews and see lines at the box office spanning many city blocks, it produces a feeling that cannot be duplicated. We love this business.”
Arnold has been named “Producer of the Year” by the National Association of Theatre Owners, was honored with a “Lifetime Achievement in Filmmaking Award” from Cinema Expo International, and received the “Motion Picture Showmanship Award” from the Publicists Guild of America. Arnold and Anne were inducted into the Variety Showbiz Expo Hall of Fame. Arnold also serves as a member of the board of directors at CBS Corporation. With a handful of movies currently in development, one thing is certain: audiences across the world will again soon be thoroughly entertained.
