After 13 years in business, it’s the end of the line for the venerable Lovinger/Cohn & Associates, the New York-based production house that bore the name of company partners, director Jeff Lovinger and president Jack Cohn.
Cohn resigned from the company several weeks ago. He told SHOOT he will be opening a new shop, Cohn & Company in New York, and is taking former Lovinger/Cohn directors Paul Cade and Paul Goldman with him in the new venture. Also part of Cohn & Company, said Cohn, are executive producer Tony Cunningham, who had been Lovinger/Cohn’s production manager for the past five years, and New York-based sales rep Randi Arnold, who formerly repped Lovinger/Cohn on the East Coast.
Meanwhile, Lovinger has kept two key members of his support team: the company’s
long-time executive producer Andy Adelson, and producer Sheila Mahoney. Mahoney has been Lovinger’s producer for the past 20 years. Lovinger declined to comment for this article, but Adelson said they will remain in the same building, which the director owns. Lovinger’s new shop is yet to be named.
Director Kim Dempster said she departed Lovinger/Cohn prior to Cohn’s resignation. She is currently exploring her options and intends to sign with another production house soon. Dempster explained that she left Lovinger/Cohn because she realized there was a major change in the offing. "There was something going down between [Cohn and Lovinger] but I don’t know what it was," said Dempster.
Adelson refuted prevailing rumors that the break was prompted because Lovinger disagreed with Cohn’s desire to expand Lovinger/Cohn. "I just don’t think that’s true," said Adelson. "We always wanted to expand; it was a question of finding the right people. At one point when we had [director] Michael Grasso, we had a large L.A. office, but that changed. I always was pushing for [expansion]. Maybe the disagreement was more how we were going to do that. I think it just never got off the ground. But certainly, Jeff and I always wanted to continue to make it grow. Whether it was a difficulty in landing the proper directors or a difference of opinion over how to do it, I don’t want to say."
Lovinger/Cohn has had a West Coast presence in the past, including the aforementioned full-fledged L.A. office when Grasso-now at bicoastal Omaha Pictures-was on the then-company shingle of Lovinger/ Grasso/Cohn & Associates. Grasso then left in ’93 (SHOOT, 1/8/93, p.1). Lovinger/Cohn later had a Southern California foothold via a short-lived relationship with Scream (SHOOT, 5/31/96, p. 1), a company that continues to operate in L.A. under the aegis of exec. producer Charles Salice.
Cohn said he and Lovinger are moving on for "philosophical reasons," but declined to elaborate further. He added that the company’s 13-year run was a great experience, and that he and Lovinger are parting amicably. "People are in business [together] and can change their attitudes about how they approach business," said Cohn. "It really is philosophical; it’s not just, ‘He wants to expand and I don’t’-that’s really not it. He’ll continue his career and so will I."
Cohn & Company will be looking for more directors, related Cohn. Arnold will be repping Cohn & Company on the East and West Coasts, with Chicago-based Nikki Weiss handling the Midwest and Texas.
Adelson noted that he hopes to build the directorial roster of Lovinger’s new company, and intends to open a West Coast branch at some point. "We’re definitely going to add new directors," said Adelson.
