Thom Mount

www.ThomMount.net 

Mr. Mount’s career in Hollywood began at Universal Pictures where he quickly rose through the studio’s ranks under entertainment mogul Lew Wasserman’s direction. After three years, at the age of 26, Mount was named President of Universal Pictures. Dubbed a "Baby Mogul" by Time Magazine, he was responsible for developing and overseeing over 180 feature films during his tenure, including: Coal Miner’s Daughter, Smokey and the Bandit, National Lampoon’s Animal House, Conan the Barbarian, The Deerhunter, Missing, On Golden Pond, Slapshot, The Blues Brothers, E.T. The Extraterrestrial and Scarface, among others.

During Mr. Mount’s eight years at Universal’s top post, the studio posted six number one revenue grossing years, through his reshaped motion picture and music soundtrack divisions. Mr. Mount also created and managed the “Youth Unit,” a division of MCA/Universal devoted to low cost pictures using new writers, directors and actors. The unit produced such films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Carwash, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, American Werewolf in London, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, Repo Man, and the like.

In 1985 Mr. Mount founded the Mount Company, and by 1991 it became one of the industry’s successful suppliers of independent feature films. Films produced include: Can’t Buy Me Love, Frantic, Tequila Sunrise, Natural Born Killers, The Indian Runner, Night Falls on Manhattan, Death and the Maiden, and the baseball classic Bull Durham, among others.

In recent years, Mr. Mount has served as Head of Production for RKO Pictures, served four years as President of the Producers Guild of America, and was co-founder of the Los Angeles Film School.  In 2006, Mr. Mount became Chairman of Reliant Pictures Corporation based at Paramount Studios.  Films in this period include Stephen Frear’s Cheri starring Michele Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates, Have Dreams, Will Travel starring Val Kilmer, Heather Graham and Anna-Sophia Robb, and In Her Skin starring Guy Pierce and Sam Neil.

In 2011, Mr. Mount founded Day for Night Productions to supply major studios with a slate of youth pictures utilizing fresh and emerging directors, stars, and writers.  Jungle La La will be produced in 2012, the first of ten pictures from DfN.

A North Carolina native, Thom Mount is a graduate of Bard College (BA) and California Institute of the Arts (MFA).  He started in the film industry working for legendary "B" filmmaker Roger Corman, star Jane Fonda, and producer Daniel Selnick.  In addition to filmmaking, Mr. Mount has an extensive history as an entrepreneur and public speaker.  He serves on a variety of charitable and educational boards.  He’s also a sucker for a slice of carrot cake from Greeblatt’s Delicatessen.