Jeremy Thomas Dies at 77, Producer of 9-Oscar Winner The Last Emperor

Q: What secret negotiations granted this indie producer unprecedented, unrepeated access to Beijing's Forbidden City for an Oscar-winning masterpiece?

They were quiet, high-level negotiations with the Chinese government that secured *The Last Emperor* permission to film inside Beijing’s Forbidden City — access no other Western film or TV production has been granted since. Jeremy Thomas, working with director Bernardo Bertolucci, spent years assembling the independently financed project and persuading Chinese authorities to back an unprecedented production about Puyi, the last emperor. The result was official approval from the People’s Republic of China for eight weeks of location shooting inside the Forbidden City, making it the first Western feature ever allowed to film there. That access was central to the film’s impact. Rather than recreating the imperial palace on sets, Thomas and Bertolucci were able to stage key scenes in the actual historic complex where Puyi had lived. The production’s scale, authenticity and political sensitivity made the permission exceptional, and reports note that no crew has since received comparable access. The film went on to become Thomas’s signature achievement. Released in 1987, *The Last Emperor* won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, including best picture, and earned Thomas the Academy Award as producer.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Sep 12

Jeremy Thomas, the British producer who won an Oscar for The Last Emperor, died peacefully at his Oxfordshire home on Friday aged 77, his publicist said.
Five decades of filmmaking made Thomas a leading backer of independent and mainstream cinema, with credits spanning directors Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Nicolas Roeg and Julien Temple.
Nine Academy Awards went to Bertolucci's 1987 drama The Last Emperor, including best picture, cementing Thomas's reputation and leading to later collaborations including The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha and The Dreamers.
Thomas also helped launch or support British filmmakers including Stephen Frears, Jonathan Glazer, Ben Wheatley and David Mackenzie, while earning a 2006 European Film Academy honor and a 2009 CBE.
His final project, Takashi Miike's Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, is still set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.