11. BRIAN GRAZER
AGE 56
JOB TITLE Producer
SMART BECAUSE He has mastered
the art of the successful adult drama. There's no tougher
genre to ram through the studio system, but Grazer does it
year after year, producing box office hits as varied as The Da
Vinci Code and 8 Mile, while folding in Academy-friendly fare
(often directed by partner Ron Howard) like A Beautiful Mind.
THIS YEAR Ridley Scott's American Gangster, a violent period
film that had seemed impossible to make, has reaped $116
million so far and could make a run for Oscar gold.
QUICK STUDY Grazer consistently meets with experts in various fields
to expand his worldview. He recently sat down with Harvard
professor Howard Gardner, a leading theorist of intelligence.
