Producer Michelle Pfeiffer

The history of Via Rosa Productions.

Via Rosa Productions was a company which Michelle Pfeiffer formed in 1990 with her best friend Kate Guinzburg, whom she had met back in 1985 on the film “Sweet Liberty“. Kate was the Production Coordinator and the two quickly grew close. In 1990, Michelle asked Kate to be her producing partner for her boutique company financed by Disney Studios which was at the time called Pfeiffer-Guinzburg Productions.

The third and final female to join the company was Mary Kohnert who was working in Development at the then, TriStar Pictures at the time. Mary was friends with Michelle’s sister DeDee, so she knew Michelle casually and was asked to run development for the company. The company name was chosen by Michelle and Kate’s first children. Michelle’s daughter’s name is Claudia Rose and Kate’s eldest daughter Olivia. They cleverly ran the names together to make Via Rosa.

It takes a long time to get movies going, but the three women managed to get one going out the gate. The movie was called, “Love Field” which garnered Michelle an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress as well. Although the movie was made in 1990, it wasn’t released until December of 1992 just in time for the Academy to take notice of the small art house film.

The trio spent the next few years churning out and seeking projects to put into the development ring, some that Michelle could star in and others that she could just produce and make. One project that was at the forefront, in particular, had a bit of trouble, but proved to be one of Michelle’s big box office successes in the end, a script adaptation of the book, “My Posse Don’t Do Homework“, later titled against Michelle’s wishes, “Dangerous Minds“, which sounds so boring, but the studio got wind of the project in the development phase to the point where Michelle and Kate had to fight to get a Via Rosa affiliation credit. While shopping the project around to team up with other producers to get the film made, they sent the script to producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer who later agreed to make the movie with them. Michelle starred in the movie and by the time the film wrapped she was already seven month pregnant. The movie was released in August of 1995 and was a huge box office success propelling Michelle more into the limelight than she already was or had cared to be, but it gave her the opportunity to fuel more projects she believe in into the development ring and get things green-lit with the snap of a finger.

Most of the projects in development at Via Rosa dealt with strong women, relationships and families, many of the projects included a biopic of singer, Marianne Faithful, the artist, Georgia O’Keefe as well as a sci-fi/drama, a female basketball coach, a project where she’d play a tabloid journalist called “Privacy“, also included in the mix are one about the Rosewood Education Center in South Central, L.A. where gang members help and work with handicap kids. Another script they carried in development was where she would play an undercover drug agent in a project called, “The Ice Queen“, based on the true story of DEA agent Heidi Landgraf who posed as a drug queen and ended up sending 200 dealers to jail. Many of the other projects in development would actually get to see the light of day including some book adaptations. In April of 1996, the women would see a new element in the office on occasion, this time in the form of a diligent, sharp young man, Kevin Bissada, brought in by Mary Kohnert to development assist when needed.

The company was in top form, and busier than it had ever been, with projects ready to go back to back. The next one would be a romantic comedy, “One Fine Day“, that immediately went into production and Michelle and Kate produced wholeheartedly hiring everyone from make up to male lead, George Clooney. The film was released in December 1996 for big Christmas opening, and the public globbed to it garnering Michelle with Favorite and Best Actress blockbuster and kids awards.

When principal photography was finished on “One Fine Day“, the company immediately packed up to go to Illinois to begin shooting their next film in line and ready to go, “A Thousand Acres” which they produced as a team with Jessica Lange and her producing partner, Lynn Arost. The movie had began to materialize as a film in 1991, prior to the publication of Jane Smiley’s novel. Smiley’s agent sent the manuscript to both Kate Guinzburg and Lynn Arost, who, serendipitously, had offices next to one another at the time. “We were given the book in galleys,” Guinzburg recalls. “Our offices of Via Rosa Productions were right next door to Lynn Arost and Jessica Lange’s. Lynn and I became friends, and were actively looking for material for Michelle and Jessica to play sisters. When we read A Thousand Acres we knew that was it. We decided to join forces to make the movie.” The movie was released in September of 1997.

Simultaneously on a roll as “A Thousand Acres” was hitting the theaters, the group began production on their next project, another novel adaptation, “The Deep End of the Ocean“. The tone on the set was dark and saturated in silent emotion on several stages at Universal Studios during Southern California’s non-stop El Nino rains, it seemed almost fitting. The movie was originally supposed to be released in the fall of 1998, but Michelle was unhappy with the movies ending and asked Sony Pictures for a go ahead to have a re-shoot. So instead of the release in the fall of 1998 which would be just in time for Oscar watchers, Michelle insisted she didn’t care about that, but rather wanted a more realistic ending. The company went to prep for a 3 month re-shoot of the proposed alternate ending, as well as adding some filler scenes throughout the movie to assist in blending. Unfortunately, she didn’t win that battle, the movie was screened to audiences with both endings and Michelle’s ending, although realistic, didn’t leave the audience much hope in a film that was already heavy enough. The movie with it’s original ending was release in March of 1999.

By this time Michelle was already talking about quitting the producing business, dissolving her company and focusing only on acting, and even in that department was already eluding to move that more into semi-retirement altogether. She was done. She was over it. She wanted to spend time with her family, her kids who were still young and at that age of wanting their mom around more. Although some would find that to be a less than wise decision, as Michelle has a good head for business and could’ve taken the company far her choice was final, and the group began to dissolve the company and all it’s assets.

But just before it was completely closed, Michelle handed Kate the script adaptation for the book, “Waltz Into Darkness” to make as the final Via Rosa Production. Finding a Director friend, Michael Cristoffer who directed Angelina Jolie in “Gia“, gave her the script, she loved it, then Antonio Banderas, and then he was in, and that was that, they set out to Mexico to shoot the script that would later be changed to “Original Sin“. It had a healthy summer opening in August of 2001.