At 10:45 on May 31, 2018, after posting ‘Call Me Blue’ I got on my sofa, picked up my tablet, and read this. To suggest that my late sister, Christine Rosamond Benton, would approve of what Patrice and Heather Hanson have done to me, is a outrage! I link Liz to my artistic tales via Augustus John, and Ian Fleming. I think Christine would rather be associated with Liz, than Patrice and Heather.

Jon Presco

EXCLUSIVE: Bad Robot has set its first episodic television documentary since making a deal earlier this month with Undefeated producer Glen Zipper to generate non-fiction fare. It’s a documentary series on iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor. Bad Robot will do a series sanctioned and in partnership with House of Taylor.

The aim is to make the definitive look at the iconic Elizabeth Taylor as one of the originators of our contemporary concept of celebrity, as a trailblazer for women working in Hollywood, and for the way she used her elevated status to forge frontiers in her activism and charitable work. The film will also examine Taylor’s role in the lives of her family and friends, in addition to her roles onscreen.

Zipper is producing with Sean Stuart, Bill Gerber. Producing from Taylor’s estate is estate trustees Barbara Berkowitz, Tim Mendelson and Erin Dawkins.

 

Bad Robot is an American film and television production company led by J. J. Abrams. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, Revolution and Westworld alongside the feature-length films Cloverfield, Star Trek, Super 8, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Star Trek Beyond and The Cloverfield Paradox.

History[edit]

Bad Robot was originally based at Touchstone Television, but was moved by Abrams to Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television, after his contract with ABC expired in 2006. Bad Robot produced Lost in association with ABC Studios, formerly Touchstone Television. The two companies jointly produced Six Degrees and What About Brian.

Abrams is Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Bad Robot, and Katie McGrath serves as the Company’s Co-Chief Executive Officer. In June 2017, Bad Robot announced that Brian Weinstein would become President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing daily operations and spearhead the company’s growth strategy in its existing businesses, while developing new areas of expansion across the entire Bad Robot platform and pursuing alternative financing options.^[1] In May 2015, Ben Stephenson left the BBC where he had been head of drama to helm Bad Robot Television. Lindsey Weber leads Bad Robot’s feature film division.

The production logo has appeared since 2001, featuring a red rectangular headed robot running through a meadow silhouetted until it appears suddenly in front of the camera, followed by voices provided by two of Abrams’s children, Henry and Gracie Abrams, saying “Bad robot!”^[2] Although some fans believe that the name comes from a line in the animated film The Iron Giant, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that it simply came to him during a writers’ meeting.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2013, it was announced that Bad Robot would be partnering with the Valve Corporation to produce possibly a Half-Life or Portal film in the distant future.^[3] In August 2015, Valve released a new beta game mode to Team Fortress 2, PASS Time, which Bad Robot worked on.^[4] On July 7, 2016 the PASS Time game mode became official.^[5] Bad Robot released a trailer entitled “Stranger” (otherwise known as S.), rumoured to be Abrams’ next film or television project, perhaps even a Lost spin-off, but it was finally explained to be promoting S., Abrams and Doug Dorst‘s new novel, as a new trailer for S. was released.^{[citation needed]} In February 2017, it was announced Julius Avery is attached to direct a Paramount coproduction, the World War II zombie film Overlord, from screenwriter Billy Ray.^[6]

Bad Robot Productions is currently based in Santa Monica, California,^[7] in a building which is incorrectly labeled on purpose as the home of the fictional “National Typewriter Company” because Abrams “likes typewriters — and misdirection.”^[8]