The Hudsucker Proxy

The Hudsucker Proxy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen
Produced by	Ethan Coen
Written by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen Sam Raimi
Starring	Tim Robbins Jennifer Jason Leigh Paul Newman
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Edited by	Thom Noble
Production company	Silver Pictures Working Title Films PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (United States) Universal Pictures (International)
Release date	January 1994 (1994-01) (Sundance) March 11, 1994 (1994-03-11) (United States) September 2, 1994 (1994-09-02) (United Kingdom)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$2.8 million

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The Hudsucker Proxy is a 1994 comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Sam Raimi co-wrote the script and served as second unit director. The film stars Tim Robbins as a naïve business-school graduate who is installed as president of a manufacturing company, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a newspaper reporter, and Paul Newman as a company director who hires the young man as part of a scam.

The script was finished in 1985, but production did not start until 1991, when Joel Silver acquired the script for Silver Pictures. Warner Bros. subsequently agreed to distribute the film, with further financing from PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films. Filming at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina lasted from November 1992 to March 1993. The New York City scale model set was designed by Micheal J. McAlister and Mark Stetson, with further effects provided by The Computer Film Company. Upon its release in March 1994, The Hudsucker Proxy received mixed reviews from critics.

In December 1958, Norville Barnes, a business college graduate from Muncie, Indiana, arrives in New York City looking for a job. He struggles due to lack of experience and becomes a mailroom clerk at Hudsucker Industries. Meanwhile, the company's founder and president, Waring Hudsucker, unexpectedly commits suicide during a business meeting by jumping out of a top-floor window. Afterwards, Sidney J. Mussburger, a ruthless member of the board of directors, learns Hudsucker's stock shares will be soon sold to the public; he mounts a scheme to buy the controlling interest in the company by temporarily depressing the stock price by hiring an incompetent president to replace Hudsucker.