1988–1997: Early producing roles
In 1988, she joined Silver Pictures as director of film development.[6] She was later head of development at MacDonald/Parkes Productions before she joined Universal Pictures as senior vice president of production.[6] There, she took part in the development and production of such projects as Twelve Monkeys and Dazed and Confused.
Later, Jacobson became a senior film executive at DreamWorks SKG where she was responsible for developing What Lies Beneath. She also takes credit for the idea behind DreamWorks' first animated feature Antz. Speaking of her mode of working while listening to pitches for new films, she said, "We start with the obligatory chat about the weather, traffic, sports or politics. Then somebody concludes the chitchat (usually me) and the writer does his or her schpiel. The 'dog and pony.' The desired outcome is for me to love the story and want to buy it. But a big part of my job is to pass. I leap only once every six to eight weeks."[7]
1998–2006: Disney executive
In 1998, she moved to Disney where she was responsible for developing scripts and overseeing film production for Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. Among her projects as studio executive were The Parent Trap, The Sixth Sense, Remember the Titans, Pearl Harbor, The Princess Diaries, Freaky Friday, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. For her efforts at helping expand the role of women in the entertainment industry, Women in Film awarded her the Crystal Award in 2003.[8] In 2005, Forbes magazine named Jacobson one of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in acknowledgement of her success.[9]
Closely associated with film director M. Night Shyamalan at Disney (besides The Sixth Sense, she also worked with him on Unbreakable, Signs and The Village), she and Shyamalan clashed during pre-production of his 2006 film,
2007–present: Color Force
Immediately after the birth of her third child on July 17, 2006, while still in the delivery room, Jacobson was fired over the telephone by Richard Cook, studio chief for The Walt Disney Company.[11] Apparently as part of a studio restructuring, she was replaced by Oren Aviv, marketing chief of the studio. Soon after she was fired, Jacobson quoted Jerry Bruckheimer saying, "There are two kinds of people in this job: the ones who think they'll have it forever and the ones who know they won't." She said she had treated her own job at Disney "as a privilege, not an entitlement."[12] Among her last projects as production executive was The Game Plan, a family comedy released in late September 2007. The film opened number one in its first week at the box office and held the top spot through the second week of release.
By the start of 2007, she was back at work, this time at her own newly established production company, Color Force. Color Force signed a three-year "first-look" production deal with DreamWorks in December 2006. The first feature project released in theaters was Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010).[13] She also produced the 2011 feature One Day.[14]
Other
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. In the video, Jacobson and others told the stories of the people killed there.[21][22]
