Jeremy Thomas, Oscar-Winning Producer for Bertolucci, Cronenberg, and Herzog’s ‘Bucking Fastard,’ Dead at 77

Jeremy Thomas put his weight behind some of the riskiest — and most fondly remembered — pictures in Hollywood across a nearly 60-year-long career. The UK-based Thomas died on September 11 at age 77, as confirmed by his family in a statement. (Via Deadline.) “Jeremy Thomas, the celebrated British producer of ‘The Last Emperor’ and of over 40 other films, has died, at the age of 77,” the statement reads. “Thomas passed away peacefully at his country home in Oxfordshire late on Friday 11th, surrounded by his family and loved ones.” Thomas is best known for his collaborations with David Cronenberg (the kinky 1996 “Crash” that stoked jury president Francis Ford Coppola’s ire at the Cannes Film Festival), Bernardo Bertolucci (“The Last Emperor,” which won the Best Picture Oscar), Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”), Phillip Noyce (“Rabbit-Proof Fence”), and Jim Jarmusch (“Only Lovers Left Alive”), among other auteurs. Thomas also produced Nicolas Roeg’s trippy psychodrama “Bad Timing,” which continued the British director’s streak of brilliant offbeat arthouse movies after “Walkabout” and “Don’t Look Now.” Thomas also produced Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” and “Naked Lunch.” He worked with Terry Gilliam on the auteur’s hugely controversial 2005 film “Tideland,” which starred Jeff Bridges and depicted a small child navigating a nightmarish adult world. Another of Thomas’ credits includes Nagisa Oshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” from 1983, starring David Bowie, and now synonymous with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s piano score. While not in attendance at the Venice Film Festival, Thomas’ presence was felt in the selection in a couple of ways. One of his final producing credits was on Werner Herzog’s Venice competition title “Bucking Fastard,” starring Rooney and Kate Mara. He also produced Takashi Miike’s stab at the “Bad Lieutenant” universe (realized previously by Herzog and Abel Ferrara over the years) with “Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo,” premiering this week at TIFF. Thomas is also one of the key talking heads in Luca Guadagnino’s seven-hour documentary about Bernardo Bertolucci, “Joie de Vivre,” as Thomas also produced “Stealing Beauty,” “The Sheltering Sky,” “Little Buddha,” and “The Dreamers.” Thomas was born on July 26, 1949, moving into a life of making films at a young age. He founded the Recorded Picture Company in the 1970s, launching with Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes winner “The Shout.” The excellent cult psychological thriller stars Alan Bates, Susannah York, and John Hurt, and is coming to the Criterion Collection this fall. He is most remembered for “Crash,” Cronenberg’s J. G. Ballard adaptation about sexual deviants with a car-crash fetish and especially around reliving the deaths of Jayne Mansfield and James Dean. The film weathered censorship concerns to become a cult classic. It was “The Last Emperor” that won him the Oscar for Best Picture. Bertolucci’s 1987 Chinese epic was independently financed and took three years to make.