By Kristin Wilcha
NEW YORK --Celia Williams has returned to the ad agency arena, joining Arnold Worldwide, New York, as director of broadcast production. She comes over from music house Endless Noise, Los Angeles, where she served as executive producer. Prior to that, Williams served as director of broadcast production at DDB Worldwide, New York.
Williams succeeds Debbie Dunlap and Lisa Young, who served as co-heads of production; Dunlap has left the agency, while Young remains as an executive producer, overseeing entertainment and talent. In joining Arnold, Williams is reunited with John Staffen, executive creative director of the shop. The pair worked together at DDB, where Staffen served as a co-executive creative director. He left the agency in late ’03, and joined Arnold last year.
“When this position was offered here, I didn’t hesitate,” noted Williams. “There’s just something about the agency–you walk in the door and you feel supported and welcomed, and the company is extremely staff conscious and I think the creative is fantastic.”
Williams, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, began her career in advertising on the production company side, working as a line producer at Mark Berndt Productions, Chicago. She then moved on to Creative Fields–the in-house agency for department store chain Marshall Fields–and later worked as a freelance producer at DDB Chicago, before joining on staff there. She later transferred to DDB New York, becoming head of production in 2001, and joining Endless Noise in ’03.
She hopes to impart some of the knowledge and experience she gained on the music side of the business to her staff. “Part of my job as a head of production is to help, to a certain extent guide and educate the people who work with me,” said Williams. “… As a producer you have to know so many different things but at certain points in time, not necessarily the intimate details of it. Working at Endless Noise offered me several things, first of all to really understand the music business better.”
Williams will oversee a department comprised of 14 staffers, including executive producers, producers, assistants, the business management team and traffic. Williams, who joined the shop in early January, related that several clients, including the Bermuda Department of Tourism, GlaxoSmithKline, and Parker Brothers, all have new work breaking in the coming months.Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Ends Retirement For A Film Directed By His Son
Daniel Day-Lewis is coming out of retirement, seven years after his last movie, for a film directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis.
The project was announced Tuesday by Focus Features and Plan B, who are partnering on "Anemone." The film, Ronan Day-Lewis' directorial debut, will star his father along with Sean Bean and Samantha Morton. The film was co-written by the two Day-Lewises.
Earlier Tuesday, Daniel Day-Lewis and Bean were spotted driving a motorbike through Manchester, England, stoking intrigue about his impending return to acting. After making Paul Thomas Anderson's 2017 film "Phantom Thread," the 67-year-old had said he was quitting acting.
"All my life, I've mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don't know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion," he told W Magazine in 2017. "It was something I had to do."
Since then, his appearances in public have been infrequent. In January, though, he made a surprise appearance at the National Board of Review Awards to present an award to Martin Scorsese, who directed him in "Gangs of New York" (2002) and "The Age of Innocence" (1993).
"Anemone," currently in production, is described as exploring "the intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds."
Ronan Day-Lewis, 26, is a painter who has previously exhibited his works in New York. His first international solo exhibition debuts Tuesday in Hong Kong.
"We could not be more excited to partner with a brilliant visual artist in Ronan Day-Lewis on his first feature film alongside Daniel Day-Lewis as his creative collaborator," said Peter Kujawski, chair of Focus Features. "They have written a truly... Read More