Producer Blatt Dies @76

Daniel Blatt, who produced the 1981 cult
horror film The Howling , the 1976 telefilm
Raid on Entebbe and the epic 1984 sci-fi
miniseries V: The Final Battle, died Oct. 9 of
pancreatic cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles. He was 76.
Blatt, who started his career as an attorney,
served as a vice president for Palomar
Pictures from 1970 to 1975, overseeing such
films as Sleuth (1972), The Heartbreak Kid
(1972), The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974) and
The Stepford Wives (1975) before
transitioning into producing.
Blatt was nominated for an Emmy Award for
outstanding special drama or comedy with
Edgar J. Scherick for producing NBC’s Raid
on Entebbe (1976), an account of the daring
Israeli raid to rescue Jewish hostages held at
the Entebbe airport after a hijacking.
The film, which aired just six months after the
real-life drama, was directed by Irwin
Kershner, starred Peter Finch , Charles
Bronson and Martin Balsam and won a
Golden Globe for best telefilm. In fact, many
of the TV movies that Blatt produced were
fact-based.
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Those included Common Ground (1990),
about desegregation in Boston in the ‘70s;
Kissinger and Nixon (1995), starring Ron
Silver and Beau Bridges , respectively; A
Brother’s Promise: The Dan Jansen Story
(1996), about the star-crossed Olympic
speedskater; and Never Give Up: The Jimmy V
Story (1996), starring Anthony LaPaglia as
the legendary college basketball coach.
Earlier, Blatt produced the werewolf-themed
The Howling, which was directed by Joe
Dante from a rewritten script by John Sayles
and noteworthy for its stunning
transformation sequences and other state-of-
the-art special effects.
His other feature-film credits included I
Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977),
The American Success Company
(1980), Independence Day (1983), Cujo
(1983), Let’s Get Harry (1986) and The Boost
(1988).
In addition to his work on the three-part V:
The Final Battle -- a ratings smash that
averaged a 19.6 rating/31 share -- Blatt also
produced a 1984 to 1985 NBC series based
on the alien-invasion miniseries as well as a
handful of episodes of the CBS crime
drama The New Mike Hammer , starring Stacy
Keach.
His last credit was the Lifetime telefilm Twist
of Faith (2013), starring Toni Braxton .
Blatt was born in Rockland County in New
York and attended Duke and Northwestern's
School of Law. He represented freedom riders
and civil rights protesters in Jackson, Miss., in
1964 before eventually making his way into
entertainment law.
Survivors include his wife, literary agent Marti
Blumenthal, daughters Jessica and
Chelsea, grandson Benjamin , sister Ruth and
brother Philip .
Source: hollywoodreporter.com