Steve & Paula Mae Schwartz
Chockstones are typically round stones lodged between two opposing rock faces–a metaphor for the film company Chockstone Pictures, dedicated to developing and producing films in the space where art and commerce meet.
Chockstone Pictures is a production company on the following movies:
ANNIVERSARY (2025)–Directed by Jan Komasa, starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Madeline Brewer, Zoey Deutch, Phoebe Dynevor, Mckenna Grace, Daryl McCormack and Dylan O’Brien.
ALL THE OLD KNIVES (2022)–Directed by Janus Metz, starring Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Jonathan Pryce and Laurence Fishburne, from the novel and script by Olen Steinhauer.
HOMELESS: THE SOUNDTRACK (2018)–Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky. Documentary short premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention.
THE COUNSELOR (2013)–Directed by Ridley Scott, from a script by Cormac McCarthy, starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt.
THE HOST (2013)–Directed by Andrew Niccol, based on the Stephenie Meyer novel, starring Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt and Diane Kruger.
SERENA (2013)–Directed by Susanne Bier, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2012)–Directed by Andrew Dominik, starring Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn. KILLING THEM SOFTLY was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
THE ROAD (2009)–Directed by John Hillcoat, starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. THE ROAD was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
Chockstone Pictures provided seed capital for Terrence Malick’s celebrated movie, THE TREE OF LIFE (2011), starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. THE TREE OF LIFE was nominated for Best Picture, 2012 Academy Awards.
In theatre, Chockstone Pictures was a producer of Deaf West Theatre’s musical revival of SPRING AWAKENING (2015) at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and a producer of the Broadway production at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (2015-2016), which was nominated for multiple Tony and Drama Desk awards.
Chockstone Pictures was founded in 2004 by the husband-and-wife team of Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, who are also the founders of a technology marketing agency, which made the Inc 500 List of the fastest-growing private companies three times, and was acquired by Publicis.
