Brad and Jen's Plan B Goes On
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are still together, at least in Hollywood business terms.
Personal publicists for both stars say the pair hope to remain partners in their joint production company, Plan B Entertainment, continuing their work as budding producers even as they separate after four years of marriage.
Meanwhile, the dozens of people developing Plan B's films continue to write screenplays, negotiate for actors and arrange shooting schedules.
After a few weeks of uncertainty, the actors' representatives now say the split will not halt the work. Among Plan B's high-profile titles:
* The Mariane Pearl memoir A Mighty Heart, about the kidnapping and murder in Pakistan of Pearl's husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The project is in the script phase.
* Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling novel The Time-Traveler's Wife, a romantic fantasy about a man who becomes unstuck in time. A script is finished, and the search is on for a director.
* The Departed, a Martin Scorsese crime thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. It's scheduled to start shooting this spring.
* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on a novel about an autistic boy who tries to solve the murder of a neighborhood canine. It's being adapted by Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves.
* Running With Scissors, a dark comedy based on a memoir about a boy who grew up with a mentally unstable mother. Shooting with star Annette Bening starts in the spring.
Don't expect to see Pitt and Aniston star together in any of these movies, although at least two projects -- The Time Traveler's Wife and A Mighty Heart -- were possibilities at one point.
Plan B's fate was plunged into doubt two weeks ago when Brad Grey, the talent manager who co-founded the company, announced just days before Pitt and Aniston publicly split that he would become head of Paramount Pictures.
With one boss gone and the other two engaged in disengaging, some Plan B projects in the earlier stages of development could still fall by the wayside.
If their so-far amicable separation leads to a combative divorce, Pitt and Aniston probably would fight over the box office profits rather than try to stall the movies nearer to completion. Otherwise, that could open them to legal action from the people already committed to the productions, says Sorrell Trope, a veteran Hollywood divorce attorney.
Plan B's other employees might shoulder more of the work, says Ron Bernstein, the literary agent who brokered the Mighty Heart deal on behalf of Pearl.
''There are other real people doing the work at Plan B,'' Bernstein says, ticking off a litany of producers, presidents and executives.
''The company will go on.''
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