Aaron Kaufman, who directed the documentary Superpower about the battle in Ukraine alongside Sean Penn and was a longtime producing accomplice of Robert Rodriguez, has died. He was 51.
Kaufman died Thursday in Las Vegas, Verdi Productions President Chad Verdi advised The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday. Experiences indicated that Kaufman died of an obvious coronary heart assault.
“It’s a very sad time for everyone who loved Aaron,” Verdi wrote in an e-mail to THR. “Aaron passed away Thursday night. He and I spoke by phone about 20 minutes prior to 911 being called. He was in great spirits and was headed to dinner. Life is short and family and friends are everything. I miss him a lot already.”
Kaufman could also be finest recognized for the Emmy-nominated documentary, however he additionally wrote, directed and produced a number of movies, together with Machete, Machete Kills, Urge and Sin Metropolis: A Dame to Kill For. He additionally government produced The Best, Powder Blue, Unfold, 13 Chef and Flock of Dudes.
Earlier than Superpower, Kaufman additionally produced and directed Crusaders: Ex Jehovah’s Witnesses Communicate Out, which blew the whistle on the spiritual group’s alleged defending of hundreds of admitted pedophiles worldwide.
Whereas Penn turned the face of their documentary, Kaufman was the director on the floor when the battle started in February 2022, after being in Kyiv in the weeks following Russia’s invasion. The undertaking was initially meant to shine a lightweight on President Volodymyr Zelensky and inform a “whimsical tale of a comic actor turned president.” However, when the invasion occurred, the movie’s topic modified radically.
“Ukraine is not just a national interest for the United States, it is the United States – or at least a fledgling version trying its best to grow up,” Kaufman wrote in an op-ed in Newsweek about his expertise in the nation’s capital. “We simply cannot ignore this. If we do, we have lost all sense of who we were, who we are, and who we will become.”
Born in Lengthy Island, New York, Kaufman started a small animation firm in his 20s. He offered the agency after a yr, after which started working for Chris Blackwell’s Palm Footage. In the early 2000s, he based his manufacturing firm, Barbarian Movies.
Kaufman met Rodriguez via an agent, and so they labored collectively for six years at Troublemaker Studios and Fast Draw Productions. After their collaboration concluded, he began following his ardour and directing extra movies.
As a director, Kaufman had two upcoming tasks, Stealing Don Ho and Iron Birds — and each have been accomplished earlier than his dying. He was additionally set to function a producer on The Jet, which remains to be in pre-production.
Kaufman is survived by his three youngsters and his accomplice Kea, Don Ho’s daughter.