David Heyman, the producer of the “Harry Potter” movies, has been named recipient of the 2016 David O. Selznick Achievement Award by the Producers Guild of America.
The award will be given to Heyman on Saturday, Jan. 23, at the PGA’s 2016 awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
In addition to his eight-film “Harry Potter” series, Heyman’s films include “Gravity,” “Paddington,” “I Am Legend” and “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” He is currently at work on “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a film starring Eddie Redmayne, written by J.K. Rowling and set in the Harry Potter universe that Rowling created.
Past recipients of the Selznick award, which is given out for a film producer’s body of work, include Stanley Kramer, Billy Wilder, Jerry Bruckheimer, Brian Grazer, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Scott Rudin and last year’s recipient, Gale Anne Hurd.
“With ‘Harry Potter,’ David Heyman set the standard for contemporary franchise filmmaking, demonstrating an unerring ability to translate a cherished literary universe to the screen, with all of its depth, humor and heart intact. He has embraced innovation, taking the technical production challenges of ‘Gravity’ as a mandate to imagine and execute wholly new ways of shooting film,” Producers Guild Awards co-chairs Michael DeLuca and Jennifer Todd said in a statement.
“His work has consistently elevated our profession and our industry; in his hands, the movie screen offers the same satisfactions as the literature that often inspires his stories.”