Cutter Productions, a NYC-based house headed by founder/executive producer Hillary E. Cutter, has signed director Jim Fabio who’s been a director for NFL Network and NFL.com since 2008, chronicling the pro football season from training camp through Super Bowl for the Emmy-award winning series, The NFL Season. He also won the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Short Feature for NFL’s Immaculate Remembrance in 2013. Additional directorial credits span such clients as Bloomberg and the University of Notre Dame. His series of live-action documentary segments on social issues, produced in collaboration with PBS, Lookalike Productions, and Sesame Workshop for When Families Grieve, earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Children’s programming, a Voice Award and three Cine Golden Eagle awards….Experiential agency Fake Love has added NYC and Dubai-based Kamil Tyebally as global brand engagement lead. His experience ranges from Bollywood to police work and most recently a position at Le Book. Tyebally has found creative opportunities with companies like Nike, Virgin America, Mercedes-Benz, Burton, and Droga5. He will be in charge of expanding Fake Love’s global footprint using his experience and cultural sensibilities. Fake Love’s addition of Tyebally signifies its continued development, particularly in the thriving Middle East market. Fake Love has worked on campaigns for clients such as Google, M∙A∙C Cosmetics, Samsung, Vice, Nike, Heineken, Def Jam, Volvo, Lexus, Marc Jacobs, Shen Wei Dance Arts, British Airways, Microsoft, Acura, U.S. Air Force, Coke, Levis, Universal, and Spin Magazine…Culver City-based VFX house Zoic Studios has added veteran Flame artist Toby Brockhurst. He has contributed to effects-driven spots for major brands such as Kia, Guinness, Volvo, EA Sports and BMW, and worked for shops including MPC, Framestore, The Mill, and most recently Method Studios. He has also amplified the visuals on music videos for the likes of Tori Amos, Air, Annie Lennox, George Michael, Jamiroquai and Missy Elliot, and feature films such as Transformers 3D, Pearl Harbor, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Harry Potter and The Big Lebowski. Brockhurst has collaborated with such notable directors as Dante Ariola, Tarsem, and Johan Renck….
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