Director, writer and comedian Rob Schrab has joined Paydirt for commercial representation in the U.S., U.K. and Japan. Schrab, the co-creator and director of The Sarah Silverman Program, recently completed his first commercial work for Paydirt, a comedic short for Nintendo Wii U that premiered at the E3 Conference. He has directed episodes of NBC's Parks and Recreation, Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital, and the sitcom Blue Mountain State….Production company Stardust has brought Dexton Deboree on board as partner and managing director. The new appointment coincides with a realignment of the Stardust brand marked by a new website. The realignment of Stardust includes a heavier emphasis on projects that will leverage the company's all-in-one model whereby all creative, from concept to editing, VFX and finishing, can be done in house. Deboree most recently served as executive VP and partner at Psyop, and finished a brief stint as a partner in the West Coast office of Free Agents….
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More