Michael Romersa, owner of the Stoney Road family of commercial production houses, and Tom Korsan, former executive producer of bicoastal Stoney Road shop Bedford Falls, have entered into a partnership with Laura Gregory, managing director of London-based production company Great Guns, to form a U.S. operation for Great Guns. Repped stateside via the new venture will be Great Guns’ European directors Luke Forsythe, Michael Fueter, Johnny Maginn and the directing teams of Who? and Daddy. Word is that the U.S. directorial roster will include former BBDO New York creative Tim Ward; Jim Manera, who’s slated to come over from Santa Monica-based The Joneses; and Kevin Bourland, formerly of Random/Order, Culver City, Calif. Additionally, director Gord McWatters of Spy Films, Toronto, will be repped for American work via Great Guns. Korsan will serve as managing director/executive producer of Great Guns in the U.S…. Director Melodie McDaniel has left Los Angeles-based Palomar Pictures to join bicoastal/international Satellite….Meanwhile, Palomar has added director Darren Grant, formerly of Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart….Director Leonardo Ricagni and his New York-based shop Babilonya have come under the banner of bicoastal commercial production house First Look Artists for exclusive representation in the U.S. and Canada, and nonexclusive representation in Europe….Director Thomas Mignone has shut production house Doom Inc., Los Angeles, to join Shooting Gallery Productions, the commercial/music video arm of New York-headquartered The Shooting Gallery, for spot and music video representation….Dominic Ferro, formerly a senior producer at New York agency Merkley Newman Harty, has joined bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures’ Los Angeles office, where he will serve as executive producer. Meanwhile, Chelsea’s senior executive producer, Allison Amon, has been promoted to managing director….Publicly traded iNTELEFILM, which maintains a family of commercial production houses and ad industry service companies, has been granted a new trial for damages in its case against ABC-Disney for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. In September 1998, a jury ruled that ABC-Disney engaged in unfair business practices relative to its children’s radio network planning and programming. The Minneapolis jury awarded Children’s Broadcasting Corp. (the predecessor to what is now iNTELEFILM) a total of $40 million in damages. But in January ’99, a U.S. District Court in Minnesota, while upholding the liability finding, set aside the jury’s verdict on causation and damages. Now, though, the U.S. Court of Appeals has given the go-ahead for a trial on the issue of damages….Minneapolis-based production house Salvation has signed comedy director Chuck Statler and motion graphics/design director Ed Raeker….Editor Kim Bica is set to come aboard Spot Welders, Venice, Calif., and San Francisco, on May 1. Bica is currently wrapping up commitments at FilmCore, San Francisco, where she’s been on staff since ’96….Former freelance editor Jeff Malmberg has joined Tuki Edit, a Santa Monica house headed by executive producer Jeff Beverly. Tuki opened its doors earlier this month with editors Richard Clark, Wiliam Bullen and Bill Yukich….
