THE PRINCIPALS
Walter Josten | Jeff Geoffray
WALTER JOSTEN
Producer, Chief Operating Officer
 Walter Josten is one of a select group of producers in Hollywood who is involved in every aspect of filmmaking. Josten's immersion in the process gives him the necessary perspective to guide his ideas from the development of the script through the financing, production and post-production stages, into the marketing and distribution of a motion picture.
As a producer and a screenwriter, Josten has developed numerous projects. Since he started working with Blue Rider co-founder Jeff Geoffray in 1984, Walter has produced, financed and distributed more than 100 feature films (in all the major genres), TV movies and documentaries. Josten has also distributed films, both in the competitive U.S. theatrical market and internationally.
A student of art, photography and film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Josten has also enjoyed a career as professional artist. His passion for art carries into motion pictures as well, as Josten has art-directed many of his films' marketing campaigns.
Josten and Geoffray’s first film together as producers was Witchboard, a financial and critical success. Josten has been executive producer and producer on a wide variety of films since he and Geoffray founded Blue Rider Pictures in 1991.
During the next seven years, Blue Rider continued developing, producing and domestically distributing movies. In 1998, Geoffray and Josten created Blue Rider International and began attending major world sales markets, including Cannes, MIFED and AFM, where they began distributing their films globally.
Also in 1998, Josten wrote the story and was executive producer for Silver Wolf starring Roy Scheider. This Family Channel Premiere won the prestigious Star Boy Award at the 18th Oulu International Children’s Film Festival, in Oulu, Finland.
Walter is proud of his role as executive producer of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild,, a film that won critical acclaim. Based on one of Josten’s favorite boyhood books, Blue Rider’s film version of this classic tale has an enduring emotional appeal.
Walter Josten was executive producer of two Showtime Premieres. One of them, The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie—starring James Caan (Oscar nomination for The Godfather) and Gena Rowlands (Oscar noms for Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence)—won Josten a 2004 Emmy award, with co-producer Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook). Josten also exec produced the Showtime family drama Behind the Red Door, which starred Kiefer Sutherland and Kyra Sedgwick.
In the documentary Uncommon Kindness: The Father Damien Story, co-writer/co-director/co-producer Walter Josten tells the story of Father Damien, a Belgian priest who dedicated his life to the abandoned victims of leprosy in 19th century Molokai, Hawaii. Robin Williams narrates this moving historical drama, which won the prestigious Ciné Golden Eagle Award.
Josten was also executive producer of the comedy My 5 Wives—starring and co-written by Rodney Dangerfield—and of the family adventure comedy Kids World, starring Christopher Lloyd and Blake Foster.
 His fondness for horses led Josten to his 1999 role as producer of the award-winning family adventure thriller Shergar, starring Mickey Rourke and Sir Ian Holm. This exciting true story tells of the politically motivated kidnapping of one of Britain's most famous racehorses.
In 2001, Blue Rider began its collaboration with Walden Media, a company headed by Cary Granat and owned by the visionary entrepreneur Phil Anschutz. Walden Media produced The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history.
Blue Rider served as Walden’s first and only production-services entity as the Anschutz firm evolved into a major force in the industry. While working for Walden, Walter co-executive-produced Around the World in 80 Days, starring Jackie Chan and featuring John Cleese, Sylvester Stallone, Owen Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Macy Gray. Josten also served as production executive on the critically acclaimed Walden Media/Disney hit Holes starring Sigourney Weaver, John Voigt and Tim Blake Nelson. This inspiring desert drama was nominated for eight major American awards, winning the Las Vegas Film Critics' Sierra Award as Best Family Film of 2004.
Josten’s love of family films led to his founding of The Entertainment Experience, an acting and film school for kids that developed an experimental curriculum, which he and the Company are still exploring on an ongoing basis with their partner Joey Travolta.
In 1998, Blue Rider entered the emerging field of Bridge Financing, and in only eight years the firm has grown into an industry leader. The Company has bridge-financed more than 70 films, representing over $560 million worth of production.
 Movies that Blue Rider has bridge financed include: Asylum (which earned several honors, including a major 2005 British acting award for star Natasha Richardson); Thief Lord (starring Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave); O Jerusalem (Sir Ian Holm); The Flock (Richard Gere, Claire Danes); Slow Burn (Minnie Driver, James Spader); 2001: A Space Travesty (Leslie Nielsen); ABC's Eloise at The Plaza (Julie Andrews); Flawless (Michael Caine, Demi Moore); The Groomsmen (John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy); Canes (Edward Furlong); The Tiger's Tale (Kim Cattrall, Brendan Gleeson); Rescue Dawn (Christian Bale); Back in the Day (Ving Rhames, Ja Rule ); Modigliani (Andy Garcia); Bar Starz (Charlie Murphy); Say Nothing (William Baldwin); Wake of Death (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Death Defying Acts (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Guy Pearce); Beautiful Ohio (William Hurt, Julianna Margulies); Outlander (Jim Caviezel, John Hurt); I Could Never Be Your Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer, Henry Winkler) and Then She Found Me (Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick).
In Milwaukee, Walter Josten was a high school football quarterback, baseball player, wrestler and track athlete. While at UWM he majored in fine arts and won the Best Painting award at a gallery show for Wisconsin college artists.
After college, Josten moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he enjoyed a career as an artist—painting in oils, watercolors and other media. Walter supported himself with his art, painting swimming pool and restaurant murals and commissioned portraits. He also designed menus and logos for many area eateries.
“Shortly after the popular King Tut exhibit toured the U.S. in 1977, I was commissioned to paint a swimming pool mural featuring Ancient Egyptian motifs,” Josten recalls with a smile. “That led to other murals, some of which still exist today—nearly 30 years later.”
His locally famous, eight-foot-square interpretation of Reubens' The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus was a beloved fixture and offbeat tourist attraction for 30 years at Yesterday’s restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale.
Walter, wife Patricia and young son Patrick then moved to New York City, where he worked at the New York Commodities Exchange in the World Trade Center. In 1983, the Jostens journeyed on to Southern California. There Walter soon got into the independent movie business—discovering that his art and financial backgrounds made him uniquely suited to the field.
Walter Josten and his son Patrick, who recently signed to play quarterback for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League, produced the instructional sports video The Moss Method, featuring and completely financed by football superstar Randy Moss of the Oakland Raiders. The Moss Method aired on cable in 2006 and is currently out on DVD. Blue Rider is distributing it to all media.
Today, Walter continues to both run and paint. He has completed four L.A. Marathons in recent years. His favorite media are oils and watercolors.
“Within Blue Rider, my areas of focus involve finding new bridge loan opportunities, working with our investors and helping to finance viable motion picture projects, but I actually get involved in every aspect of the filmmaking process—from story idea to script through financing to overseeing production and theatrical distribution,” Josten explains. “One reason I enjoy my work so much is that it requires a rare mix of creative and business skills. Every day I’m involved with the full range of creative professionals and switch from that to the intricacies presented by lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs and financiers.”
“Now that we are opening up a new array of financial services, we have been able to create novel solutions to the various challenges brought to us by an ever-more-complex market. When Pam Koffler of Killer Films came to us with a unique set of requirements for Then She Found Me, where Helen Hunt was attached not only to star in but also direct her first feature, we were able to create and extend a hybrid of Bridge and Super Gap loans and enable the production to move forward.”
With his Midwest upbringing, Walter Josten understands what kind of films most Americans want to see. With each project he undertakes, he hopes to enrich people's lives and imaginations through the art of story telling.
Walter Josten's Internet Movie Database page
|
