Cowboy Films, London–which has maintained a 15-year reciprocal sales relationship with Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago–will become Crossroads Films U.K. effective April 1. Triggering the move was the decision by Cowboy managing director Lisa Bryer to retire from the company next month to become a full-time mom to her eight-year-old twins. Crossroads partners/execs Cami Taylor and Dan Lindau then finalized a deal to round up Cowboy and become its co-owners.
Cowboy mainstay Carly Stone will continue as executive producer in charge of production for Crossroads Films U.K. Plans call for Taylor to shuttle back and forth as needed between Crossroads’ stateside and U.K. operations. Crossroads’ U.S. directorial roster will for the most part be repped in the U.K. via Crossroads, London. Conversely the Crossroads U.K. directors will be available to American agencies.
Tanya Cohen, Crossroads’ West Coast rep, has been tabbed to additionally serve as exec producer in charge of sales for Crossroads U.K. She too will go back and forth between the U.S. and U.K. At press time, Cohen was seeking a London-based sales associate.
In addition to commercialmaking, Crossroads will have footholds on both sides of the Atlantic for music videos. U.S. music video house merge@crossroads will now have a counterpart shop in London, under the merge@crossroads U.K. banner. As SHOOT went to press, merge executive producer Joseph Uliano was slated to pay a visit to London to help facilitate the merge@crossroads operation there.
Cowboy (soon to be Crossroads U.K.) helmers such as Nick Lewin, Julia Jason, Mike Leigh, Tim Pope and TV director Jon Sen are available to the stateside spot market via Crossroads in the U.S. Pope, a lauded music video director who founded Cowboy with Bryer, will remain active in clips in the U.S. and U.K. Crossroads’ directors pretty much across the board will have the opportunity to cross over between commercials and music videos.
Crossroads’ U.S. directorial roster will have a conduit to European business and production via Crossroads U.K. Those helmers include Kieran Walsh, Salvatore Totino, Kevin Samuels, Paul Schneider, Lloyd Stein, Gillean Proctor, Jesse Peretz, Mark Pellington, Wayne Isham, Bruce Hurwit, Steve Eshelman, Russell Bates, Marcus McCollum, Mike Nelesen and Terri Timely.
Furthermore, Crossroads’ stateside representation of international directors via its reciprocal sales agreement with Velocity Film, Johannesburg and Cape Town–reflected in the U.S. label Velocity@Crossroads–will also extend to the U.K. This means that Crossroads U.K. will rep such Velocity directors as Keith Rose, Greg Gray, Lourens van Rensburg, Sergio, Mark Lawrie and Mickey Madoda Dube.
Still to be determined is what directors, if any, from Avion Films, Toronto–which also has a longstanding reciprocal representation agreement with Crossroads in the U.S.–might be repped in the U.K. via Crossroads.
And there are directors on the Crossroads roster–such as Wilfrid Brimo and Sebastien Grousset–who will continue to only be handled in the American ad market by the company.
While Crossroads grows its global footprint, Cowboy’s Bryer is going out on a high note, not only wrapping a successful tenure at Cowboy but also producing director Kevin Macdonald’s upcoming feature for Cowboy and Slate Films: The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker. (Macdonald directs spots via Rogue Films, London.)
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More