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Veteran Producer Of 'The Mummy' And 'Dazed And Confused' Dies
Producer James Jacks died in L.A. from a heart attack (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Longtime film producer James Jacks died from a heart attack on Monday in his Los Angeles home, according to Variety.Jacks, 66, had produced The Mummy franchise as well as Dazed and Confused, Raising Arizona, A Simple Plan, Intolerable Cruelty, and Tombstone. He's worked with notable filmmakers such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard Linklater, and Sam Raimi, according to The Wrap.
Sean Daniel, his longtime producing partner who worked with him on The Mummy franchise, wrote about Jacks on his Facebook page:
Here's to Jim Jacks. Nobody loved movies more. Passionate, loyal, generous, accomplished, noble, caring, heavily armed, creative, dare I say obsessive on occasion. A good man, a good friend, a wonderful partner, a loving son to his family. You will be missed.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith also wrote a tribute to Jacks on his Facebook page. Jacks was the producer for Smith's 1995 Mallrats. Here's an excerpt:
Scott Mosier and I were so close with Jim Jacks during MALLRATS that we moved into his house for post production. At the time, Jim was an unmarried, childless 46 year old, so he loved having "kids" in the house. We'd go to movies, go out to eat (Dan Tana's and The Daily Grill), or order in and watch flicks in his home theater. It was the dorm life film school experience all three of us had never had, with said dorm being in the Hollywood Hills and said film school being the movie business. When Jay Mewes was in town, he was another welcomed freeloader, enraging Jacks only once when he left fried chicken grease stains on Jim's kitchen phone. Those were halcyon days...
He added:
Jim Jacks made movies everyone loved, but the big commercial success he craved eluded him... until he struck gold with THE MUMMY franchise. I was so happy for him when the flick became a phenomenon because it was clear Jim finally felt he'd made a real impact in Hollywood. But the truth is, he made giant contributions to the movie business long before Imhotep turned into a giant sand cloud. Back in his Circle Films days, he backed the Coens. He brought Sam Raimi and John Woo to Hollywood. He brought in Richard Linklater, and he let me make the movie I grew up watching in my Jersey youth and never dreamed I'd get a chance to make: a juvenile morality tale with lots of dick jokes and heart. Sometimes, people credit me with the earlyrise of Ben Affleck, but really, it was Jim Jacks - who put Ben in both DAZED and 'RATS. Jim Jacks loved the movies, but he was never sure if the movie biz really loved him. I can't speak for the biz, but I know the AUDIENCE loved Jim - even though they rarely knew his name. To borrow a phrase from Dire Straits, he dreamed these dreams for us, so now those dreams are real. But aside from his good taste in flicks, I'll always remember Jim Jacks as the the Godfather of MALLRATS - the guy who wanted to make it the most (after me). That flick led directly to CHASING AMY, and later, DOGMA, so MALLRATS is a big part of my mythology and who I became - not only as a filmmaker, but also as a person. None of it would've happened were it not for Jim Jacks.
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