“It’s good to see a brilliant smaller movie capture the Academy’s excellence quota. “We make films that are big audience pleasers,” said Bruckheimer on the phone. Over the decades Bruckheimer’s movies have ranked him as the third highest-grossing producer worldwide, with $12 billion in total tickets sold.ĥ0th Student Academy Award Winners Revealedīut arguably he also turned out Oscar-caliber fare that just didn’t make it to the Best Picture race, even if some of the players were nominated, including Ridley Scott’s war picture “Black Hawk Down,” submarine actioner “Crimson Tide,” sports saga “Remember the Titans,” and teaching drama “Dangerous Minds.”

On his own in the ’90s and early 2000s, Bruckheimer was cock of the walk at the Disney studio, churning out high-testosterone, actioners from Bruce Willis vehicle “Armageddon” and Nic Cage in “Con Air” and “National Treasure” to Will Smith in “Enemy of the State” and the Johnny Depp “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, which proved that movies could string together VFX-heavy action sequences without worrying about the vagaries of plot.

He remembers the go-go days at Paramount Pictures in the ’80s with his coked-up partner Don Simpson, which yielded the original “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Flashdance” and “Top Gun.” Simpson had incredible story instincts - he invented the “high-concept” movie - and networked Hollywood parties while ex New York ad-man Bruckheimer kept his head screwed on straight and made sure the visually stylish movies were delivered on time and on budget.

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