LOS ANGELES—Director Phil Joanou has joined bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ) for exclusive worldwide commercial and music video representation. He leaves bicoastal Villains, where he secured his first spot representation in 1999.
"I owe my entire commercial career up until now to the start Villains gave me—they launched me," Joanou shared. "I’m very grateful for what they did for me and they know that. We left it on that note."
Joanou has helmed spots for clients like Nike, T-Mobile, Gatorade and Lexus. His reel showcases story-driven commercials like "Horror" for Nike through Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., where a masked intruder confronts a woman preparing for her evening bath. He chases her outside, but she outruns him in her Nikes. In "Nocturnal," for T-Mobile via Publicis, Seattle, a man roams his neighborhood in the nighttime like a raccoon while talking on his cell phone—he became a creature of the night to avoid expensive daytime calls on his cell phone.
With solid experience in the spotworld, Joanou said it was time to adjust his routine. "What happens after five years is you start forming a way of working that can get into a pattern, and I just felt like there might be a chance for me to discover some new things about the work and about myself by shaking it up a bit," he related, adding jokingly, "[Partner/executive producer] David Zander is a very persuasive man."
For Zander, Joanou’s pursuit of good ideas and performances were the primary reasons for signing him. "It’s classic storytelling and filmmaking. … He’s really a proper filmmaker; he knows what he’s doing," Zander said.
As his first project through MJZ, Joanou was slated at press time to direct a music video for U2’s song "All Because of You" from their new album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Joanou rarely helms videos, but this job arose from his longstanding relationship with the band. In ’87, he directed a documentary, U2: Rattle and Hum, about their North American tour. This will be the sixth video he has shot for the legendary group.
Joanou graduated from University of Southern California (USC)’s film school in ’84, and it was DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg who gave him his first jobs—directing two episodes of Amazing Stories, as well as the feature Three O’Clock High. He is currently working on two movies—Hammer Down through DreamWorks and Gridiron Gang for Sony Pictures; the latter will star The Rock. His other feature credits include movies like State of Grace, Final Analysis and Entropy.
It is in the commercial arena, however, that Joanou spends 90 percent of his time. "Because commercials need to stand out in the marketplace, I find there is more encouragement to try and do unique and different things," he said. "Films are so expensive and they put such a huge bet down. In the experiences I’ve had [with commercials], people are always encouraging me to try things and push it … to really be aggressive. I find it to be really liberating."
Joanou joins a roster at MJZ that includes: Dante Ariola, Fredrik Bond, Jonathan David, Lenard Dorfman, Nicolai Fuglsig, Elma Garcia, Victor Garcia, Craig Gillespie, Annabel Jankel, Spike Jonze, Kuntz & Maguire, Rocky Morton, Marcus Nispel, Sean Thonson, Matthijs Van Heijningen and Clay Williams.
Tim Merjos, an in-house rep at MJZ New York, represents the shop on the East Coast. Steven Monkarsh of the company In House Reps handles the West Coast. Gay Guthrey of Gay Guthrey & Associates covers the Midwest.
