Escape Artists
Escape Artists Productions, LLC, commonly known as Escape Artists and distinct from Escape Artists, Inc. (pod caster), is an independently financed motion picture and television production company with a first look non-exclusive deal at Sony Pictures Entertainment, headed by partners Steve Tisch, Todd Black, and Jason Blumenthal. In 2001, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal’s Black & Blu merged with the Steve Tisch Company to form Escape Artists.
The first produced movie under the Escape Artists banner was A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger in 2001. In the fall of 2005, Escape Artists released The Weather Man, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine. Their next film, The Pursuit of Happyness, directed by Gabriele Muccino and starring Will Smith, was released in December 2006 and earned over $300 million in worldwide ticket sales, as well as best actor Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Will Smith. Seven Pounds, another Gabriele Muccino-directed film starring Will Smith, was released in December 2008. In 2009, Escape Artists released the Alex Proyas thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Their latest project entitled, The Back-Up Plan, directed by Alan Poul and starring Jennifer Lopez, was released through CBS Films in April 2010.
The company's production office is located in the Astaire Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California.
List of films
Columbia Pictures
- A Knight's Tale
- The Pursuit of Happyness
- Seven Pounds
- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (also with MGM and Scott Free)
- Hope Springs
- Sex Tape (film)
- The Magnificent Seven
- The Equalizer (film) (2014)
- Tombstone (TBA)
- Masters of the Universe (TBA)
- Love's Labour's Lost (TBA)
- Jimmy (TBA)
Others
- Alex & Emma (with Warner Bros. Pictures)
- The Weather Man (with Paramount Pictures)
- Knowing (with Summit Entertainment)
- The Back-Up Plan (with CBS Films)
- Unfinished Business (with 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises)
- Southpaw (film) (with The Weinstein Company}