The Zanucks: Reel Royalty

On an estate high above Los Angeles lives a man who has made quite a splash in the film industry, reports CBS News Correspondent Rita Braver.

His name is Richard Zanuck, and if it does not sound familiar, well that's OK. You will certainly know his films.

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Sound of Music," "Patton," "Planet of the Apes," "Mash": Zanuck has been making films for nearly 50 of his 70 years. He produced his first film when he was 24. At 27 he became head of production at 20th Century Fox, where he green-lighted some of the studio's biggest hits.

Zanuck explains, "I've been on both sides of the desk. I've been a producer, as I am now; I've been a suit, in the days when the suits actually wore suits."

No matter what he's wearing, these days, when other men his age are slowing down, Zanuck is one of the hottest producers in town.

Johnny Depp stars in Zanuck's latest production, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which opens later this week.

Depp says, "Dick Zanuck is one of those guys who is so incredibly encouraging and coming from a veteran like him, it gave me great confidence."

The actor would like to repeat the experience, working with Zanuck on "everything. Anything. I love the guy."

Zanuck, who is on-set every day while his movies are shot, says a lot of filmgoers don't understand what a good producer is supposed to do.

Zanuck says "a producer, if he's doing his job, is the creative force. He doesn't tell the director how to direct but he hires the director, hires the writer and has picked the story. He's kind of the grand master of it all."

Zanuck himself is the son of one of Hollywood's Grand Masters of all time, 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck. The elder Zanuck was responsible for such classics as "Miracle on 34th St.," "The Grapes of Wrath" and "How Green was my Valley." He also signed contract players like Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and Tyrone Power. Growing up, Zanuck says he was aware of the importance of his father's films. "Very much aware, so I knew who he was. I knew how important he was. I knew he was one of the kings."

Little Dickie Zanuck was the crown prince, the youngest of Virginia and Darryl's three children and the only boy. His childhood was filled with Hollywood-style glamour, like riding elephants in the yard or duking it out with Jack Palance. In the 1930s, when few families even had home movies, the Zanucks' were in color. But nothing compared to the circus-themed birthday parties.

"Well, you'd be surprised who would come to these birthday parties," Zanuck says. "Shirley Temple. The parties cost more then some of the pictures they were making."

As with any Hollywood Story, there's a twist. Although Zanuck's parents never divorced, they were not as happy as they might seem. It's been said his father invented the "casting couch." Zanuck confirms he had one, but laughs, "I don't know if he invented it or not."

"He introduced me at a young age as the head of the studio and also the head of the casting couch," he adds.

Zanuck was pushed forward as the president of the company but was also later fired by his father. He says it was because he had given the OK for a string of box-office bombs.

This caused a major falling out between the two. Zanuck was even debating whether or not to give up on the film industry, but concluded he didn't know how to do anything else.

Instead, he joined forces with another Fox refugee, David Brown, and together they produced a movie about two con artists. "The Sting," starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman, was a commercial sensation and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Soon, Zanuck and Brown hired a promising young director named Steven Spielberg to direct "Sugarland Express." The film was a success, so Zanuck signed Spielberg to direct his next film, too.

Not even Zanuck expected "Jaws" to be such a mega hit. He explains, "Not until the shark jumped out of the water, did we know that we had a monster hit."

What happened?

"There was a scream. Pandemonium. We had touched a primal nerve. We knew that whether you were living in Miami Beach, or Long Beach or Phoenix, Ariz., where there is no water, there'd be that scream." Though his career was on a roll, Zanuck's personal life was not.

Zanuck had two marriages that didn't quite succeed.

Then in 1978, he went on a blind date with Lili Fini, a 24-year-old manager at Carnation, the evaporated milk company, who had been living in Los Angeles just 6 months.

Lili describes it as love at first sight. She continues, "We were only dating four months when we got married, and we've had an incredible 27 years. We've had so much fun. We've accomplished wonderful things together."

Some of those wonderful things are movies. Lili Zanuck started learning the business at her husband's side. Then she became fascinated with a story about aliens and old people.

Obviously aliens and old people is a really hard pitch.

But she convinced her husband and David Brown to let her co-produce "Cocoon" with them. It was a surprise hit. Ron Howard was the director.

Howard says of the Zanucks: "They're quite different people. Lili is kind of everyday, magazine-reading, kind of earthy, cut to the chase, basic sort of logic, extremely intelligent, but just very outspoken. Richard plays his cards a little bit more closely to the vest, but equally passionate about movies, ultimately as decisive. And you know together they're quite dynamic."

After the success of "Cocoon," David Brown left the partnership and Lili and Richard founded the Zanuck Company.

The Zanucks went on to do "Driving Miss Daisy," a film that a lot of people didn't want to make.

"Nobody wanted to make it, not a lot of people. Everybody, nobody wanted to make it," exclaims Richard Zanuck.

Even without aliens, "Driving Miss Daisy" was made, and won critical acclaim and the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Today, the Zanuck Company includes Richard's two sons, Harrison and Dean, whom he and Lili raised. Zanuck's close relationship with his sons has led him to reflect on his struggles with his own father.

He explains, "One of my greatest regrets in retrospect is that I didn't treat him as sensitively as I should have. No one on Earth do I owe more to than him. I never played ball with him. We never played catch. We never did things together but in the big things, when it really counted, he took great chances with me."

Zanuck did reconcile with his father before his death in 1979.

In contrast to his father, Zanuck describes himself as "a family man." In the office, the walls are adorned with posters from Zanuck family classics - and one that's anticipated to become one.

That's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and Zanuck feels it may be bigger than all the other movies combined.

How would Zanuck describe these films? He says, "I like to make entertaining pictures but entertaining pictures that have even just a seed of something people benefit from — that aren't mindless. Whether it's 'The Verdict', whether it's 'Driving Miss Daisy,' even 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' has a very strong family underpinning to it. It's not just entertainment. That's what I would like after my name: It's not just entertainment."