E-News Article - We Love You Man

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    By Tracy Bell for the Mount A Alumni Mag

    Rubbing shoulders with such A-list celebrities as Jennifer Anniston and Ben Stiller is just one of the perks of the job for Anders Bard ('91). The co-producer of the recent feel good blockbuster movie I Love You, Man is making his mark in Hollywood.

    His attraction to movies started at Mount Allison. "I became the film critic for the Argosy - not because I was moonlighting as a journalist or because I actually felt that I had a voice as a critic. It was because I got two free movie passes every week, so not only did I get to see a movie, I could also bring a date with me," he jokes.

    Unsure of his next move, Anders moved to Toronto after school and worked in sales. "That's what people told me I should be doing". A two-week stint volunteering for the Toronto International Film Festival convinced him otherwise. But success didn't come overnight for this now-acclaimed film and television producer. And it was a far cry from glamourous.

    "I had no money. I was living in my friend's basement. And in interview after interview I was being told that I should do something else."

    Not to give up easily, Anders enrolled at the University of Southern California's film school and moved west. His first big break came as a result of a gutsy phone call that led to a meeting with one of the biggest names in film and television - Jerry Bruckheimer, the man behind such smash hits as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, and the CSI series.

    A promised five minutes of Bruckheimer's time turned into an introduction to the president of production at Bruckheimer Films and a first job for Anders as an assistant in Hollywood. The job entailed answering phones, scheduling meetings, and getting coffee, but also afforded him a front row seat in the industry. "While I was performing the low-paid, low-brow work of an assistant, I was also witnessing firsthand how movies such as Gone in 60 Seconds, Coyote Ugly, Remember the Titans, and Pearl Harbour were being put together."

    From there he gained valuable "production" experience working as Sylvester Stallone's assistant on the set on Driven. Anders then made a move that he would later look back on as the turning point of his career. He was working as an executive assistant to the CEO/Producer at Jersey Films (Danny Devito's company) when he first met John Hamburg - the man who would later become his business partner. The creative behind the hit comedies Zoolander and Meet the Parents, John wanted Jersey Films to produce his latest script Along Came Polly. He needed an assistant and offered Anders the job.

    "I became involved with all aspects of producing - hiring crew, building sets, creating shoot schedules, scouting locations, lighting, parking, rain machines, rain covers, hair and makeup stations, food, props, drivers - anything to create a space where the talent can just show up and work. It was extremely exciting, and led to my credit being changed to associate producer," he says.

    When Hamburg was approached to write Meet the Fockers, he and Anders started up there own company, based at Universal Studios. And after three-and-a-half years his assistant days were behind him.

    That was in 2005, and since then the pair have been developing numerous projects, including four comedy films in the works, and a television series for CBS. Anders spent much of this spring walking red carpets alongside the stars of I Love You, Man at movie premieres across the US an in Europe. Another hit at the box office, it had grossed $65 million domestically after just five weeks.

    But once the toasts have been made and the tuxedos put away, Anders admits life still feels a little surreal. "If you told me five years ago that I would have a bungalow office on the back lot of Universal Studios and a golf cart and a parking spot with my name on it, I wouldn't have believed you."

    It seems this rising star is getting his happy ending. Well, almost. He's working up the nerve to ask Jennifer Anniston out on a date. M