Jeff Dowd - Executive Producer of Far from Gloy

Jeff Dowd is a Los Angeles-based writer/producer, producer's representative and a nationally recognized authority on marketing, distribution and exhibition. Mr. Dowd  helps represent projects to distributors and exhibitors, plus consult with regard packaging, marketing and creative aspects.

"the Dude" Mr. Dowd was a producer of Zebrahead, which Oliver Stone Executive Produced. Zebrahead won the Filmmakers Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Sony Pictures. He Co-Executive Produced Ferngully... The Last Rainforest, the animated feature starring Robin Williams, Tim Curry and Christian Slater. It was released by Twentieth Century Fox and won the Environmental Media Association (EMA) Best Picture Award.

Jeff Dowd has helped raise in excess of $26 million of financing for independent pictures in recent years.

Jeff is also writing Nifty, a wildly optimistic story about how one family turns the worst of times into the best of times-- "A War Games for the nineties."

He has been involved in the marketing or been producer's representative of such diverse films as: Blood Simple; The Black Stallion; Chariots of Fire; The Grey Fox; Ghandi; Heart like a Wheel; War Games; Hoosiers; The Stunt Man; Hearts and Minds; and, Desperately Seeking Susan.

Jeff recently sold Finn Taylor's Dream With the Fishes to Sony Classics for North America and Lakeshore Entertainment for foreign at the Sundance Film Festival. He is also representing Erin Dignam's Loved for the United States, for which MDP is handling foreign. It stars Robin Wright, William Hurt, Amy Madigan, Sean Penn, and Joanna Cassidy.

Jeff has been on the Board of the Independent Feature Project, the International Documentary Association, the Sundance Film Festival and the Advisory Board of the Sundance Institute.

He was formerly associated with the Seven Gables Theatre Circuit of Seattle Washington. During his tenure there, Seven Gables had the highest screen gross in the United States -- on dozens of pictures. In addition, Mr. Dowd often developed and supervised Seattle test markets for pictures requiring special handling. While in Seattle, he was Co-Director of the Seattle Film Festival.

Mr. Dowd was involved in the planning stages of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. He worked with many noted screenwriter and directors. These talented artists have all helped to enlarge and refine his knowledge and technique in film development.

"The Dude" with the Coen Brothers

He has also worked with many directors on their first films: Joel and Ethan Cohen on Blood Simple; John Sayles on Return of the Secaucus Seven; David Anspaugh on Hoosiers, Carol Ballard on The Black Stallion; Tony Drazan on Zebrahead; Bill Kroyer on Ferngully... The Last Rainforest; and Phil Borsos on The Grey Fox, to mention some of the most notable.

"The Dude"

Jeff has had the nickname "the Dude" since kindergarten. It probably has something to do with his last name being Dowd and the fact that he has always been a big guy.

In Joel and Ethan Coen's movie The Big Lebowski, the lead character, "the Dude" aka Jeff Lebowski, is inspired by Jeff "the Dude" Dowd: "His rumpled look and relaxed manner suggests a man in whom casualness runs deep."

Jeff Bridges played "the Dude" and John Goodman played his best friend Walter.