Jonathan Eirich AB '03 began his journey at Harvard as a History and Literature concentrator with a passion for film, taking all his electives in screenwriting and directing. After interning at Gold Circle Films, where he got to be one of the first people to see MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, and then later at Scout Productions, where he worked on QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY, he moved to L.A. to pursue screenwriting. While working on a book and a script, Jonathan was advised to work at an agency to build industry connections. He landed a role at CAA assisting a young agent, which provided incredibly valuable exposure to the pace and structure of the business. 

Eventually, Jonathan was recruited to work for Stacey Snider, who was head of Universal at the time. He followed her to DreamWorks, where he got his first taste of what it was like to be involved in the creative process directly. Jonathan recalls giving notes on TRANSFORMERS that he says he thought almost got him fired. “It was the most amazing experience, as a child of the eighties who grew up loving the toys, getting to read a big blockbuster movie executive produced by Steven Spielberg before almost anybody else had…” Jonathan recalls. “And I literally wrote full Harvard-essay-style notes on TRANSFORMERS, which, by the way, I loved.” But he also listed out five things he thought needed to change. 

After radio silence for a full 48 hours, Jonathan was “spiraling as [he drove] into work on Monday morning. Did I just criticize Steven’s favorite script? Do I still have a job?” Until an email from Stacey came in, not to Jonathan, but directly to the president of production and the producer, agreeing with all his notes and crediting him for them. “It was like that first time where you felt that ability to shape the process, and that your thoughts could actually be meaningful. And this thing that the whole world was going to see could be affected by your creative opinion.” That was when the film development bug bit Jonathan hard and incited the rest of his (very successful) career.

As he gained responsibility and sway to offer creative input, Jonathan became a junior executive who found and championed two books: THE HELP and I AM NUMBER FOUR. While I AM NUMBER FOUR suffered some on-set drama (but became an invaluable learning experience), THE HELP ran smoothly despite initial skepticism, ultimately becoming a breakout box office success with critical acclaim and Oscar recognition. This experience, along with working on other projects like BRIDGE OF SPIES, which he heard from a writer over breakfast with no producer attached and immediately pitched to Spielberg that day, deepened Jonathan’s passion for storytelling and solidified his role as a creative executive who values specific, constructive notes and authentic creative voices.

After working at DreamWorks on a wide variety of films, Jonathan began contemplating a shift toward producing rather than being an executive. Though encouraged to partner with a specific filmmaker or actor, he realized he valued the breadth and diversity of projects he had been able to work on. That desire for creative range led him to conversations with fellow Harvard alum Dan Lin MBA '99, who had recently had a major success with THE LEGO MOVIE. Dan pitched him on joining his company, offering Jonathan the chance to run the film division with significant autonomy. Inspired by Dan's bold vision and sincerity, Jonathan took the leap in 2015, trading his studio executive role and inbound calls for a producer’s life of outbound calls, hustle, and creative problem-solving.

Almost ten years later, Jonathan’s latest upcoming project is the LILO & STITCH live-action remake, which also involves fellow Harvard alums Dan Lin MBA '99, Ryan Halprin AB '12, and Courtney B. Vance AB '82, and opens Memorial Day Weekend. The idea started as a passion project involving writer Mike Van Waes, who had penned a script that carried a similarly heartfelt tone to the beloved animated film. Though initially not a top priority for the studio, the project's emotional core resonated with Jonathan and the production team, and they successfully pitched the idea to the studio. Just like with Jonathan’s 2019 live-action adaptation of ALADDIN, his favorite childhood film, Jonathan recognized the potential in LILO & STITCH. ALADDIN had captivated him as a child, and just like that story, this one also held powerful nostalgia for a whole generation, as well as the opportunity to introduce new generations to a beautiful modern-day story. 

However, the journey to bring LILO & STITCH to life wasn't easy. Despite early interest from top-tier directors (first Jon Chu and then Destin Daniel Cretton), budget constraints and Disney+ limitations made it difficult to secure those directors. But everything fell into place when Jonathan saw MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, a tender and visually inventive film that embodied the same tone he wanted for LILO & STITCH. Its director, Dean Fleischer Camp, signed on, bringing with him the right mix of animation expertise and emotional storytelling. With Dean on board and Hawaiian screenwriter Chris Kekaniokalani Bright adding rich cultural authenticity, which Jonathan and the rest of the team knew was crucial to making this adaptation a success, the production was finally ready to move forward.

Though it began filming in 2023, production hit a snag due to the industry strike. However, Jonathan acknowledged that this unexpected pause actually gave the team valuable time to reflect on and refine their footage. Jonathan recalls, “We sort of knew what the movie was missing and recalibrated, and honestly, probably were more efficient about what we shot as a result.” And then there was the somewhat enormous post-production process of editing Stitch into each shot. “Every shot, you had to put under a microscope and say, ‘Could this be a little bit funnier? What if he looked left? What if he reacted to this? What if he was over there? What if you slid him to this spot?’ So it was such a painstaking process but one that was so full of love and care in every single frame.” Jonathan smiles.

Jonathan is especially proud of helping to find and champion Maia Kealoha, the young Hawaiian actress playing Lilo, whose first audition at age five won her the role. The casting process for finding Maia involved both a local Hawaiian casting agency and a global search coordinated by Disney. Although they received audition tapes from Los Angeles, Arizona, Seattle, and even internationally, they believed the right actor would most likely be found in Hawaii. The team was specifically looking for a six-year-old, because after watching so many auditions, they decided that age embodied the right level of innocence and authenticity. But whoever was cast also needed the stamina and personality to handle the demands of a feature film. Maia’s tape was a late addition to the pile, but she stood out and impressed during a long and rigorous callback day that proved her resilience and on-set readiness. Her charm, presence, and endurance made it clear she was the perfect fit.

Jonathan sees LILO & STITCH as a heartfelt narrative about loss, love, and the resilience of found family. In this version, he notes, “There's some big changes. There's a completely different villain in our movie.” But he says that the filmmakers earn a lot of trust with the audience because there’s a faithful and loving adaptation that stays true to the original animated movie. When previewed, Jonathan says that between the tone, the look of Stitch and our cast, the audience knew, “‘Okay, I'm in good hands. I know these are filmmakers that love the thing I love, and they got it right’.” Once they feel that, the audience gives you a “license to explore, and take more chances with the story.”

When asked what the one common misconception about being a producer was, Jonathan laughed. “You only want ONE misconception of being a producer?” He continued, “I would say there are probably two big misconceptions we fight: First, that we finance the movie. Because producers are ‘responsible’ for the budget there is also the perception that we are the ‘money guys,’ which couldn’t be further from the truth. We are sellers, not financiers… We fight the good fight to make the best possible movie or show, but the studio holds the cards at the end of the day. And the second misconception is just the financials of being a producer… We do not get paid a dime until a movie is getting made. So you can birth your own original idea, give that to a writer, work with them on a pitch and sell it, put a director on, cast the movie, develop it for years and if at the last minute, the movie falls apart as these things often do, that could’ve been five, six, or seven years of work that was unpaid.”

Jonathan is now involved with a group called Producers United that is trying to make the producer job a more financially sustainable one, while also bringing back the importance of being a “career producer” (these are producers who have no other title or role on the movie other than to service the film and be responsible for quality control and keeping the budget and production on track). This is because, Jonathan says, “Everyone wants a Producer credit on a film these days and it’s diluted the notion of what the job is for the ‘career producers’ who live and die with these movies, so that’s what we are trying to reclaim as a group.”

Finally, Jonathan had some advice for these aspiring “career producers.” Like all good things, his advice comes in threes: “One, come into this business with pure love for making movies and shows. If you’re coming in trying to guess what the business is going to be, or how you can make as much money as people did a decade or two ago, it’s going to be a tough road.  But if you have the attitude of, ‘I get to talk about movies and TV and books and new ideas for a living, how lucky am I?’, then this will be a fun ride.” 

Next, Jonathan said, “Work at a talent agency. These are the hubs of information for the entire business and the pace is as fast as it gets. There is no better training ground, no better way to meet your ‘graduating class of assistants’ and no better way to understand how things get done than to start on the inside of a talent agency.”

And his final nugget of wisdom? “Three, read and watch everything. There is absolutely a Malcolm-Gladwell-10,000-hours component to this job – you only get better at identifying what feels like a movie or a show by reading so many scripts and getting a feel for your own taste and development instincts, and it’s a skill-set that you just have to refine again and again. And also, if you want to be a film exec, watch every movie on the AFI’s Top 100 list… it’s an incredible foundation of cinema history, and you’re never going to have time to do it later on once the pace of these jobs consumes all your time!”