The New York film scene lost a friend on Sunday when Gary Winick, 49, died of brain cancer. Comfortable in commercial film—Winick directed a number of movies the average filmgoer would know from 13 Going on 30 to Charlotte's Web to Letters to Juliet—he was also a real force in what remained of independent film in the aughts. The independent film company he founded in 1999, InDigEnt, produced a number of flicks including Pieces of April, Personal Velocity, Tape and Tadpole (which he also directed and sold to Miramax for $6 million at the 2002 Sundance festival).
Winick fought brain cancer for a long time. Even recovering enough from his first surgery to go and shoot Letters to Juliet. His manager Rosalie Swedlin told the Post that "It was a battle that we thought he had won, and ultimately they just didn't get it all."
While we never met him, our friends who did only had the nicest things to say about him.
A memorial service is being planned but Winick's funeral service will be private.
