Director Rob Legato has signed with bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures for exclusive global spot representation. Legato has served as second unit director/cinematographer on such films as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and The Aviator, and Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd. Additionally, Legato is an Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor for such movies as Titanic and Apollo 13….Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) has hired Tyler Whisnand as co-creative director for the Nike team based in Portland, Ore. He succeeds Steve Luker who was promoted in January to co-creative director for W+K, Portland. Whisnand will partner with Mike McCommon who previously served as W+K creative director for the Electronic Arts account team. Whisnand comes to W+K from KesselsKramer, Amsterdam, where he was a creative director/partner….Director/DP Ben Dolphin has joined the roster of cineconcepto, Miami and Mexico City, and is now exclusively represented in the U.S. Hispanic market by Reel Reps….Editor Geraldine Garcia-Esquivel has joined wild(child) editorial, New York. After attaining a Master’s degree in communications in Chile, she moved stateside, interning at The Well, New York, and then working at 89 Editorial, New York…..Editor Tommy Harden, most recently at Chrome, Santa Monica, has come aboard Portland, Ore.-headquartered Joint, a digital media and post company housed within W+K. Joint operates offices in Portland, New York and Amsterdam….Copywriter Stephanie Crippin, formerly of 180 and W+K, both in Amsterdam, has joined McCann Erickson, New York….
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More