The Lumière Bros, Auguste and Louis, held the first commercial movie screening at the Grand Cafè in Paris in late 1895, which makes the business of moving pictures 117 years old. And amazingly, Paramount Pictures, in one form or another, has now been around for 100 of them. That's quite an achievement and testament to the quality of the product which is why the studio already marked the historic occasion with this rad '100 Years of Paramount Pictures' poster from Gallery 1988.
This time around, however instead of celebrating the acclaimed films from the studio, Vanity Fair and Paramount Pictures looked to the stars. And to some big name directors and suits too. Assembled for this massive photograph are 116 familiar Hollywood faces (I'm not sure why they didn't go with 100 even) who at one point or another over the last century made a major impact at the major studio. You'll see a few true legends, like Kirk Douglas and Robert Evans, some of the film brat crowd, including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, and, (not) surprisingly a lot of J.J. Abrams. Seriously, Star Trek and MI4:Ghotocol take up like half the photo. So why does Simon Pegg look so unhappy? Maybe cause he's sitting so far away from them?
Simply called 'The Paramount Picture,' you can click on the image below for a better look or you can head over to Vanity Fair for the full, vibrant and scrollable print by Art Streiber. Seriously, you can 'mouse-over' the names to figure out the ones you don't know (or can't recognize, Michael York!). Plus, there's also a blurb from Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, that introduces the photograph far better than I can, "founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film Company, it more than lived up to its billing..."
I'm a little surprised that, besides the text, there is absolutely no indication that the pic is even for Paramount. Take away the typeface and it would be hard to tell. They could have at least shaped the bleachers to look a little more like some version of the 'Majestic Mountain' but hey, it's still pretty amazing to see that many huge and respected stars in one place for what is essentially a large classroom photo. Some of my favorites include a grumpy looking Robert De Niro (oddly right behind the similarly unimpressed Pegg), George Takei giving a big ol' lean, and bewildered Jason Reitman (perhaps wondering why he's not standing beside his pops). I also played 'Where's Waldo' forever with Tom Cruise because, with it being Paramount, I knew he had to be there. He is.
The 'The Paramount Picture' is included in the July 2012 Issue of Vanity Fair which hit newsstands on June 7. Kristen Stewart is on the cover promoting SWATH and, even without her mail, she's looking as fetching as ever.
