Age: 70
female
Denise Di Novi is an American film producer and director. Denise Di Novi is one of the most prominent producers in Hollywood, producing dozens of films for most Hollywood studios. Her most popular include Heathers, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Crazy, Stupid, Love and Practical Magic, and Little Women starring Winona Ryder and Little Women starring Saoirse Ronan. She is the daughter of jazz musician Gene DiNovi; when Di Novi was three years old, her family moved to Los Angeles from New York, where her father had been a prominent Bebop jazz musician in many of the Big Bands, as well as serving as Musical Conductor for Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Anne Margaret and Dinah Shore. In the 70s, the family moved to Toronto, Canada. Her mother, Patricia McNeil Di Novi, was a dancer in New York City on Broadway. Di Novi studied communications at Simmons College in Massachusetts and earned a journalism degree. After working as a copy editor at the National Observer and staff writer for Canada AM, she became a reporter for Toronto's Citytv. However, she left to take a job as a unit publicist for Final Assignment. She became a principal in the Montreal-based production company Filmplan International, acting in various production capacities on nine major studio releases, including films with David Cronenberg. In 1983, Filmplan relocated to Los Angeles and merged with Arnold Kopelson's Film Packages.[citation needed] Di Novi joined New World Pictures as Executive Vice President of production. She later shifted into an overall deal as an independent producer, producing Heathers (1988) starring Winona Ryder. Di Novi then headed Tim Burton Productions and was responsible for producing several films. She set up her own production company, Di Novi Pictures, 1993 at Columbia Pictures. She then entered into a producing deal with Warner Brothers Pictures. Di Novi has produced over 40 films. These include six from her partnership with Tim Burton: Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Cabin Boy (1994), Ed Wood (also 1994) and James and the Giant Peach(1996). She produced four films based on books by Nicholas Sparks: Message in a Bottle (1999), A Walk to Remember (2002), Nights in Rodanthe (2008) and The Lucky One (2012). For four years, Di Novi was executive producer of The District, a CBS primetime series created by Terry George. Di Novi made her directorial debut on the thriller Unforgettable (2017) for Warner Bros. Di Novi completed a series for FX, The Veil, starring Elisabeth Moss, that aired in 2024.
James Henry Trotter is a young boy who lives with his parents by the sea in England. On James' birthday, they plan to go to New York City and visit the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world. However, his parents are killed by a ghostly rhinoceros from the sky and James finds himself living with his two abusive and cruel aunts, Spiker and Sponge, in a run-down house on top of a high hill. He is forced to work all day and they antagonize him by threatening him with beatings to keep him in line and torment him about the mysterious rhino and other hazards if he ever attempts to escape. After rescuing a spider from being squashed by his aunts, James meets a mysterious man with a bag of magic green "crocodile tongues", which he gives to James to make his life better. The man instructs him not to lose the "tongues" and disappears. When James is returning to the house, he trips and the "tongues" escape into the ground. This transforms a peach on a withered old tree into enormous proportions. Spiker and Sponge sell tickets to view the giant peach. James crawls inside a large hole he inadvertently creates in the peach, and he finds and befriends a group of life-size anthropomorphic bugs (Mr. Grasshopper, Mr. Centipede, Earthworm, Miss Spider, Mrs. Ladybug, and Glowworm). As they hear the aunts search for James, Mr. Centipede cuts the stem connecting the giant peach to the tree and the peach rolls away to the Atlantic Ocean. Remembering his dream to visit New York City, James and the insects decide to go there with Mr. Centipede steering the peach. They use Miss Spider's silk to capture and tie a hundred seagulls to the peach stem, while battling against a giant robotic shark. Miss Spider reveals to James that she was the spider he saved from Spiker and Sponge. The next day, James and his friends find themselves in The Arctic; the Centipede has fallen asleep while keeping watch. After hearing Mr. Grasshopper wishing they had a compass, Mr. Centipede jumps off the peach into the icy water below and searches a sunken ship for a compass but is taken prisoner by skeletal pirates. James and Miss Spider rescue him and the journey continues. As they reach New York City, a storm appears, along with the ghostly rhino. James is frightened but challenges the rhino and gets his friends to safety before the rhino strikes the peach with lightning; James and the peach fall to the city below, landing on top of the Empire State Building. After he is rescued by police officers, firefighters, and the largest crane in New York City, Spiker and Sponge arrive and attempt to claim James and the peach. Finally having had enough of his aunts' cruelty, James stands up to Spiker and Sponge and reveals their abusive behavior towards him to the crowd, who gasp in shock at the revelation. Spiker and Sponge become enraged by James' betrayal and attempt to kill him. The bugs arrive and tie up Spiker and Sponge with Miss Spider's silk and both aunts are arrested. James introduces his friends to the New Yorkers and allows the children to eat up the peach. The peach pit is made into a house in Central Park, where James lives happily with the bugs, who form his new family and also take important jobs in the city. James celebrates his ninth birthday with his new family and friends.
