41 PRODUCER CREDITS ON THE BUTLER “EMBARRASSING” FOR PGA

The controversy over multiple producers’ credits has reared its head again with the box-office and critical success of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. TheWrap.com noted today (Wednesday) that the movie lists 41 producers in the screen credits. Each presumably was given credits in exchange for their contributions — financial and creative — to the film’s production. “I wish that there weren’t so many producer credits on this picture, because it is a little embarrassing for everyone within our community,” Producers Guild of America Co-president Mark Gordon told TheWrap. “But I do understand that there’s very little that someone won’t do to get a movie made. And in the end, if you look at that movie and you appreciate what its message is, and you weigh what they had to do and what they ended up with, I get it.” Currently five of the 41 receive the “Produced by” credit (the others are listed as executive producers and associate producers). They are: Lee Daniels, Cassian Elwes, Buddy Patrick, Pam Williams and the late Laura Ziskin. If the film receives an Oscar nomination for best film, rules of the Academy require that the number be narrowed to three. “It will be arbitrated, and if it gets nominated we’ll announce who the real producers are,” PGA Co-president Hawk Koch told The Wrap.