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Charles D. King made history tonight, becoming the first Black producer to accept the PGA Milestone Award.
It’s an award that’s bestowed to producers or production teams that have made historic contributions to the entertainment industry. The Producers Guild’s 2023 recipients were Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. Other past honorees include Louis B. Mayer, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, Sherry Lansing, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron and more.
When the Macro founder and boss said that when he first got the news of the honor, “I was a little shocked and surprised. I was without words. I was filled with tremendous gratitude.
“I stand on the shoulders of all the incredible producers, executives, my parents and our ancestors who kicked down doors, made sacrifices and blazed a trail for me to be able to do what I’m blessed to do,” added King, who shared the leap of faith he took when he exited WME nine years ago to launch Macro.
King told the room here at Hollywood and Highland’s Ovation Ballroom how the night was one coming full circle: For just a street away on Orange Drive was where King and his family first lived when he was a young assistant at WME back in 1999.
Black Panther and Creed filmmaker Ryan Coogler presented the Milestone Award to King, remembering when he first began working with the former William Morris Endeavor partner.
“He was so calm and relaxed,” Coogler said. “I shared with him what my film Fruitvale Station was about. He shared with me a story that happened to him when he was coming out of law school. He’d never shared the story with anybody else in the industry.
“He gave me some game on how he would help me with the film and the other films I’d be doing,” added the filmmaker. “I mentioned I had this idea for a Rocky movie.
“By the end of the conversation, I asked him, ‘How much longer you plan on being an agent? This dude thought he was really going places. He took a long pause. ‘What makes you ask that?’ I realize he didn’t answer my question. So it probably meant not that much longer. I said: ‘I want to sign with you. Make me a deal — if you switch jobs, you’ll still work with me.’
“A few years later, I got the call from Charles he was launching his own studio, Macro,” said Coogler.
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It was King who inspired Coogler to start his own production company, Proximity, during a time when the filmmaker was cutting Black Panther. Coogler and King’s Macro later would to make the Oscar-winning movie Judas and the Black Messiah.
“To know him is to know he’s a rock,” said Coogler, “Anything he has in his mind he’s going to will it to exist.”
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