Jon Avnet Filmography

88 Minutes

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, William Forsythe

Synopsis: Jon Avnet directs Al Pacino in the thriller 88 Minutes. Pacino plays university professor Jack Gramm, who occasionally assists the FBI in matters of forensic psychiatry. His recent testimony against a freshly convicted criminal seems to be the reason he has gotten a scary phone call informing him Read More

On the Lot [TV Series]

Synopsis: Oscar-winning Hollywood visionary Steven Spielberg teams with reality television pioneer Mark Burnett for an unscripted series in which undiscovered filmmakers compete for the opportunity to win a development deal at DreamWorks -- the production company behind such major box-office hits as Read More

The Starter Wife

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Debra Messing, Joe Mantegna, Judy Davis, Miranda Otto, Anika Noni Rose, Peter Jacobson

Synopsis: Based on the 2005 bestselling novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer, the six-part miniseries The Starter Wife starred former Will & Grace leading lady Debra Messing as Molly Kagan, an archetypal "Hollywood wife" who for ten years had enjoyed the perks and privileges of being married to powerful studio Read More

Land of the Blind

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander, Mark Warren, Lara Flynn Boyle

Synopsis: The debut film by director Robert Edwards, Land of the Blind, is a political satire starring Ralph Fiennes as a military man who helps overthrow his government. He does so at the urging of a political prisoner, played by Donald Sutherland, who has been outspoken about the corruption of the current Read More

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon, Bai Ling, Omid Djalili

Synopsis: Directed by Kerry Conran, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow revolves around the mysterious disappearance of some of the world's most revered scientists. When an investigation is launched, Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), reporter for the prestigious Chronicle, and Sky Captain (Jude Law) Read More

Boomtown [TV Series]

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Donnie Wahlberg, Mykelti Williamson, Neal McDonough, Gary Basaraba, Nina Garbiras

Synopsis: The NBC "ensemble" drama series Boomtown was set in contemporary Los Angeles, where crime and punishment was practically a way of life. Each episode featured a different criminal case which, in Rashomon fashion, was related from virtually everybody's point-of-view: the city detectives, the beat Read More

Uprising

Crew: Director, Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight, Donald Sutherland

Synopsis: Uprising is based on the true story of the Jewish Fighting Organization, a courageous band of youthful Polish guerrillas and freedom fighters who refused to knuckle under to the Nazis during World War II. Led by schoolteacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), the organization comes into being as Read More

Steal This Movie

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Vincent D'Onofrio, Janeane Garofalo, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Pollak, Donal Logue

Synopsis: Steal This Movie! is a dramatic account of the tumultuous life and times of Abbie Hoffman, one of the most visible and influential figures of America's 1960s counter-culture. (Its title was inspired by Hoffman's irreverent "survival guide," Steal This Book.) Hoffman's founding of the Youth Read More

A House Divided

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Jennifer Beals, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Sam Waterston, Tim Daly, Shirley Douglas, Ron White

Synopsis: This historical drama, based on a true story, is set in Georgia in the mid-1800s. David Dickson (Sam Waterston) owns a large plantation, as well as a number of slaves who do the labor required to run it. Dickson finds himself attracted to one of his new slaves, a bright and willful teenager named Read More

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her

Crew: Producer

Actors: Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Valeria Golino, Holly Hunter

Synopsis: Although Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her does bear some similarities to Short Cuts and Magnolia in its setting (Southern California) and mood (modern malaise), and its multiple story format, its focus is exclusively on female characters, and it's possible to view each story on its own. Read More

Inspector Gadget

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick

Synopsis: Matthew Broderick stars in this live-action adaptation of the popular animated series. When a well-meaning but overly trusting security guard is wounded in an explosion created by the evil Dr. Claw, a beautiful scientist named Brenda (Joely Fisher) takes him under her wing and turns him into a Read More

Poodle Springs

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: James Caan, Dina Meyer, David Keith, Tom Bower, Brian Cox

Synopsis: For this TV movie, Bob Rafelson directed James Caan as famous shamus Philip Marlowe. The novel Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was writing during the year of his death remained unfinished until it was completed 30 years later by Spenser author Robert Parker. The British-based, Czech-born Read More

My Last Love

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Chicago attorney Susan Morton (Nancy Travis) returns to her home town of California to wait out her final months. She also brings along her 11-year-old daughter Carson (Jamie Renee Smith), in hopes of finding a good home for the girl when the time comes. Read More

George of the Jungle

Crew: Producer

Actors: Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Richard Roundtree, John Cleese

Synopsis: Jay Ward's fondly-remembered cartoon series about a klutzy king of the jungle gets the big-screen, live-action treatment in this comedy from Walt Disney Pictures. A young boy named George becomes lost in the jungles of the African nation of Bukuvu following a plane crash, where he's rescued and Read More

Red Corner

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Richard Gere, Bai Ling, Bradley Whitford, Byron Mann, Peter Donat

Synopsis: The strong anti-China beliefs of actor and political activist Richard Gere were evident in this Hitchcockian thriller that sought to expose the civil and human rights abuses of that country's legal system. Gere stars as Jack Moore, counsel to a large media conglomerate seeking to open trade Read More

D3: The Mighty Ducks

Crew: Producer

Actors: Emilio Estevez, Jeffrey Nordling, Joshua Jackson, David Selby, Heidi Kling

Synopsis: Everybody's favorite underdog youth hockey team hits the ice for a third adventure in D3: The Mighty Ducks. This time out, the Ducks' improbable success under lawyer-turned-hockey player Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) has earned the group of misfits a certain degree of fame, and the entire team is Read More

Up Close & Personal

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Daniel Zacapa, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna, Kate Nelligan

Synopsis: A story about a career television journalist who eclipses her mentor, this drama's plot resembles that of A Star Is Born, and it shares the same screenwriters as those who penned the 1976 version of that film, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. It's based loosely on the real-life story of Read More

Miami Rhapsody

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Sarah Jessica Parker, Gil Bellows, Antonio Banderas, Mia Farrow, Paul Mazursky

Synopsis: The discovery of marital troubles in her family causes a young woman to question her own upcoming nuptials in this clever romantic comedy. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Gwyn, a bright, slightly neurotic advertising copywriter who is initially thrilled when her boyfriend Matt (Gil Bellows) finally Read More

Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Ashley Judd, Kathleen York

Synopsis: The struggle of country music's mother-daughter duo The Judds is told in this made-for-television drama. Kathleen York stars as Naomi Judd (then known as Diana Judd) a single mother of two daughters, who turned to music as way to help positively influence her increasingly belligerent and Read More

The War

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, Lexi Randall, Christine Baranski

Synopsis: Jon Avnet's The War is set in the rural south and brimming with lessons on social consciousness, much like his previous effort, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). During the summer of 1970 in backwoods Mississippi, Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner) is struggling to be a breadwinner for his family while Read More

D2: The Mighty Ducks

Crew: Producer

Actors: Emilio Estevez, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Tucker, Jan Rubes, Carsten Norgaard

Synopsis: In this sequel to the kid-friendly sports comedy The Mighty Ducks, Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) takes one more shot at a career as a professional hockey player, but a severe knee injury sidelines him for good. However, his success coaching a rag-tag pee-wee hockey team in Minneapolis (as Read More

When a Man Loves a Woman

Crew: Producer

Actors: Andy Garcia, Meg Ryan, Lauren Tom, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tina Majorino

Synopsis: A dramatic treatment of a family torn apart by alcoholism and recovering from it, this was a star vehicle for popular actress Meg Ryan, who plays Alice Green, a school counselor who has a serious drinking problem. Her husband is Michael (Andy Garcia), an airline pilot. Though she's lighthearted Read More

The Nightman

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: A daughter haunted by the memory of a morbid love affair suspects that the man who once seduced her has returned to kill her after eighteen-years after being convicted and imprisoned for murdering her mother. Mother and daughter have both had a torrid love affair with the same man, and in the end Read More

The Three Musketeers

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry

Synopsis: This comedy-adventure is one of several adaptations of Alexadre Dumas' (pere) classic novel. Provincial swordsman D'Artagnan (Chris O'Donnell) travels to Paris to follow in his father's footsteps and become a king's guard, a musketeer. Meanwhile, the evil royal advisor Cardinal Richelieu (Tim Read More

For Their Own Good

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Corporate women launch a bitter courtroom battle when their avaricious employer tells them that they will lose their jobs if they do not get sterilized. The fight takes the women through a disillusioning jungle of government red tape. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Mighty Ducks

Crew: Producer

Actors: Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Heidi Kling, Josef Sommer

Synopsis: This fill-in-the-blanks children's comedy from Disney was such a success that it spawned a number of fill-in-the-blanks sequels -- along with a real-life professional hockey team. The basic story -- outcast coach handles a team of outcast kids and turns them from losers into winners -- has been Read More

The Switch

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gary Cole, Craig T. Nelson, Beverly D'Angelo, Hinton Battle

Synopsis: Based on a true story, this is the saga of the survivor of an automobile crash who is left wheelchair bound and bitter. Ignoring friends and family, it becomes his sole quest to end his life with dignity. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Fried Green Tomatoes

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, Cicely Tyson, Nick Searcy

Synopsis: A woman learns the value of friendship as she hears the story of two women and how their friendship shaped their lives in this warm comedy-drama. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is an emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. Her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) Read More

Backfield in Motion

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Tom Arnold, Roseanne, Johnny Galecki

Synopsis: Roseanne Arnold, her then-husband Tom Arnold and Shelley Duvall teamed up to produce the made-for-TV Backfield in Motion. Roseanne plays a widowed real-estate agent who lives with her teenaged son Johnny Galecki. Mother and son have moved to an upstate California town where high school Read More

Funny About Love

Crew: Producer

Actors: Gene Wilder, Christine Lahti, Mary Stuart Masterson, Robert Prosky, Stephen Tobolowsky, Anne Jackson

Synopsis: The once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between star Gene Wilder and director Leonard Nimoy resulted in the charmingly haphazard and anachronistic Funny About Love. Wilder plays political cartoonist Duffy Bergman, who falls in love with much-younger Meg (Christine Lahti) during a book-signing Read More

Men Don't Leave

Crew: Producer

Actors: Jessica Lange, Chris O'Donnell, Arliss Howard, Kathy Bates, Joan Cusack, Charlie Korsmo

Synopsis: Weighed down by her late husband's debts, widow Beth Macauley (Jessica Lange) is compelled to sell her home and move to a less costly locale. She relocates in Baltimore with her resentful sons Chris (Chris O'Donnell) and Matt (Charlie Korsmo) and takes a job at a ramshackle gourmet food store Read More

Tango & Cash

Crew: Producer

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance, Brion James

Synopsis: Sylvester Stallone tries his luck with his first cop buddy movie in Tango and Cash, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. Stallone is Ray Tango, a Los Angeles narcotics cop who dresses in fancy suits, wears wire-rim glasses, and talks to his stockbroker more than he talks to his mother. Kurt Russell is Read More

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: John Shea

Synopsis: Do You Know the Muffin Man? was the first of a brace of TV movies about day-care abuse (see also Unspeakable Acts). Pam Dawber and John Shea play the parents of a preschool child who comes home one day with horrible stories about the staff of his day care center. The owners of the center are two Read More

Breaking Point

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joanna Pacula

Synopsis: Breaking Point is a TV remake of the 1965 theatrical feature 36 Hours. Corbin Bernsen plays a wartime US intelligence officer, who carries within him secrets of the upcoming D-Day invasion. Captured by the Germans, Bernsen refuses to buckle under torture, and passes out. He wakes up in an American Read More

Side by Side

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Three giants of early television--Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Danny Thomas--combine their talents in the made-for-TV Side by Side. Berle and Caesar play a couple of 65-year-olds who've just been forcibly retired; Thomas portrays a widower, who's been aimless and lethargic since the death of his Read More

Less Than Zero

Crew: Producer

Actors: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey, Jr., James Spader, Michael Bowen

Synopsis: This drama about affluent Los Angeles teens is taken from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Clay (Andrew McCarthy) is a college freshman who returns home during Christmas break. Clay's old flame Blair (Jamie Gertz) is now more interested in her new beau Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.), the fun-loving Read More

Between Two Women

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Farrah Fawcett, Colleen Dewhurst, Michael Nouri, Bridgette Andersen, Daniel Bryan Corkill

Synopsis: The old reliable movie title Between Two Women was activated once more for this made-for-TV film. Farrah Fawcett and Colleen Dewhurst star as, respectively, a domineering ex-opera star and a shy schoolteacher. The ads for the film suggested that Michael Nouri played the apex of a romantic triangle Read More

The Burning Bed

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Farrah Fawcett

Synopsis: Farrah Fawcett earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of Francine Hughes in the television movie The Burning Bed. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Francine's character endures a murder trial after she poured gasoline on her sleeping spouse and burned him Read More

Triplecross

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Ted Wass, Markie Post, Gary Swanson

Synopsis: A trio of rich ex-cops begin to investigate a murder involving baseball and gangsters. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Deal of the Century

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, Gregory Hines, Vince Edwards, William Marquez

Synopsis: The humor in this Chevy Chase comedy lies solely in the eyes of the beholder. The comic plays Eddie Muntz, an arms dealer looking to make a big sale of war planes to a South American dictator. In order to do so, his girlfriend (Sigourney Weaver) has to sleep with the dictator and his friend (Gregory Hines Read More

Risky Business

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Curtis Armstrong, Bronson Pinchot, Raphael Sbarge, Joe Pantoliano

Synopsis: Risky Business is the film in which 19-year-old Tom Cruise dances around his living room in his underwear. He does this to celebrate the fact that his parents have left him alone while they go on vacation. Somewhere along the line, hooker Rebecca De Mornay, fleeing her vicious pimp, hides out in Read More

Something So Right

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: James Farentino, Rick Schroder

Synopsis: Something So Right was a November 1982 entry in CBS' series of GE Theatre movie specials. Ricky Schroder plays the trouble-prone son of divorcee Patty Duke Astin. Upset that his idolized football-jock father is gone, Schroder has developed into a petty thief. Unable to handle the boy herself, Duke Read More

Prime Suspect

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: In this thriller, a snoopy and ambitious television news reporter causes an average citizen to become suspected of being a serial killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Homeward Bound

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Homeward Bound is the story of a dying teenager who spends the summer with his divorced father, who has been estranged from his own father for many a year. All three spend the summer at the grandfather's vineyard, learning about love and life. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Coast to Coast

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dyan Cannon, Robert Blake, Quinn K. Redeker, Michael Lerner, Maxine Stuart

Synopsis: Comedy falls as flat as a blowout in this film by Joseph Sargent about a down-to-earth trucker (Robert Blake) and the rich and looney witch (Dyan Cannon) he is forced to take on a haul from New York to L.A. Madie (Cannon) is running away from her money-grubbing husband who is conniving to get the Read More

No Other Love

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: The made-for-TV No Other Love stars Julie Kavner as a marginally retarded young adult. Sent to live in a hostel for the mentally challenged, Julie falls in love with similarly afflicted Richard Thomas Jr. Despite the misgivings of their families and the prejudices of outside world, Kavner and Read More

Checkered Flag or Crash

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joe Don Baker, Susan Sarandon, Larry Hagman, Alan Vint, Parnelli Jones

Synopsis: In this chase movie (also titled "Crash") greedy and desperate race car drivers must rip through a thousand miles of the Phillippine jungle to win $100,000 dollars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More