Accomplice, a transmedia house active in commercials, branded entertainment for the web, mobile and social media, and feature films, has signed comedy director Trevor Cornish whose spot credits include McDonald’s, Budweiser and Comcast. Cornish had previously been repped by TWC, Santa Monica, and prior to that Twist, Minneapolis and New York.
Cornish broke into spot directing in his native Canada and then successfully extended his reach stateside. Back in 2006, his One Show Gold Pencil-winning spot, “Vending Machine” for Canadian football team The BC Lions Via Vancouver, B.C. agency Rethink, garnered him considerable attention from the American ad market. That same year he came aboard TWC.
At Accomplice, Cornish joins a directorial roster that includes Nicholaus Goossen, Jasper Gray, David Jellison, K+P, Guy Sagy, and Jamin Winans. With offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver. Accomplice–which is under the aegis of founder/executive producer Jeff Snyder–also maintains a strategic partnership with Futuristic Films, a sister shop specializing in digital advertising and branded content.
Snyder was key in Cornish’s decision to join Accomplice. “Jeff has built Accomplice from the ground up to accommodate a new way of working,” said Cornish. “It’s not just about commercials, or even me being a commercial director. It’s about media from the traditional, to digital, to feature films; and how, in the end, we’re trying to tell a story or translate an idea to capture the audience’s attention, no matter what the medium is.”
Keeping true to this ethos, Cornish is currently in the midst of shooting an episode of Air Crash Investigation, a top-rated TV series for the National Geographic/UK and Discovery Channel. This fall, he will shoot his short film called Roland, which will hit the festival circuit next year.
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