Bicoastal Hungry Man has signed director Bennett Miller for commercial representation. Miller, a New York-based filmmaker, first attracted notice last fall with the release of The Cruise, an acclaimed documentary he directed about an eccentric New York bus tour guide.
Hungry Man partner/director Hank Perlman related that he and his collegues had heard the buzz about Miller and The Cruise, which has been making the rounds of various film festivals and was acquired by Artisan Entertainment. Upon viewing the film, Perlman said, they were struck by Millers talent for storytelling.
Hes this great, smart, young filmmaker, said Perlman. Whats so great about this film is its not like a typical documentary … there was a story involved and there was a structure to it that was different from a lot of documentaries Id seen. It felt like a fictional film. I felt myself really getting involved in it. Its very emotional and has an impact on you, and I was so impressed by that.
Perlman added that after he, partner/director Bryan Buckley and partner/executive producer Stephen Orent met with Miller, they came away convinced hed be a natural at spot directing. You could tell right away that hed be good for commercials, said Perlman, because as opinionated and as good as his instincts seemed to be, he also really listens to other people. You could tell he could handle dealing with agencies and clients. We knew from seeing his film that hes talented but from talking to him, we could tell hed be great to collaborate with.
Miller, a NYU Film School dropout, started out doing a variety of jobs in the film industry, including a yearlong stint as an assistant to feature director Jonathan Demme. Miller has directed several music videos and short fund-raising documentaries; among these was a piece for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
A self-described bit of a slacker, Miller said he spent three years making The Cruise. He explained he was drawn to its subject, double-decker bus tour guide Timothy Levitch, who is a brilliant, passionate, half-cracked guy who lives his life outside the currents of mass culture.
After The Cruise garnered positive reviews from such papers as the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly, Miller said he began getting calls from production companies. He found a natural fit with Hungry Man. Without bullshitting at all, theyre very solid people, said Miller. Theyre very honest and decent; they made me feel really good about committing myself to them.
Miller has just wrapped his first Hungry Man job: three spots for Top Driver driving school out of New York agency Dweck & Campbell. The premise of the spots involve comedic interactions captured by hidden cameras in the cars of competitive driving schools. Ironically, back in 1997, Dweck & Campbell also gave documentarian-turned-Hungry Man director John OHagan his first spot job, for Dial-A-Mattress. One of the spots, Arctic Ground Squirrel, went on to win a Gold Lion at last years Cannes International Advertising Festival.
I dont want to follow in [OHagans] footsteps per se, said Miller. But there are some similarities. You could do a lot worse than John OHagans done. Miller adds that he finds comedy to be a natural fit, although he doesnt want to limit the possibilities. I do want to be flexible, and learn and grow.
Miller joins a Hungry Man directorial roster also composed of Perlman, OHagan, Buckley, Mark Foster, Angel Garcia, Paul Norling, David Shane and Lara Shapiro. Hungry Man is represented on the East Coast by New York-based Chris Messiter, Ann McKallagat and Barrie Isaacson and in the Midwest by Chicago-based Monaghan/Halpine. The West Coast is handled by exec. producer Dan Duffy, who heads Hungry Mans Southern California office. Duffy, formerly a producer at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., joined Hungry Man a couple of months ago and helped launch its L.A. operation (SHOOT, 11/27/98, p. 1).
