Crooked Cynics, the duo comprising directors Tom Middleton and Jack Scott, has signed for exclusive U.S. spot representation with bicoastal Cultivate.Media, the commercial and content production company overseen by managing director/executive producer Mark Thomas and executive producer Stuart Wilson. This marks the first U.S. spot roost for the directors who hail from the middle of England, but have been raised on an all-American diet of World Wrestling Entertainment, MTV and The Mighty Ducks. The result is an oeuvre that includes the popular UK mockumentary series Community Patrol, and spots for Angi, Visit Florida, MeUndies, and a project for Arsenal starring the legendary footballer Ray Parlour in his new role…as a fashion designer.
โOur style is rooted in the delusions of everyday people,โ shared the directors in a joint statement. โWe let the self-deception play itself out without nods or winks to the audience.โ
It was โRay Parlour: Fashion Designerโ for Arsenal that caught Wilsonโs eye initially. He and Thomas were bidding on a sports comedy project at the time. โThe spot succeeds or fails based on how straight Ray and the Arsenal team members play it,โ Wilson said. โIt succeeds brilliantly, because the audience expects something completely different from these footballers.โ The directors hopped on a call with Cultivate, and while the project went away, the relationship clicked.
โMark and Stu immediately grasped our sense of humor and what weโre trying to do,โ Middleton recalled. โWe appreciated what Cultivate is about in terms of developing and working with new talent to draw out the potential they see.โย Scott added, โTheyโve been great in helping us look at our work differently as well.โ
โWe see our role as nurturing and investing in directorial talent, growing them into ๏ฌlmmakers who can artfully bring stories to life,โ Wilson said. โEmerging commercial directors like Crooked Cynics should be bidding on and winning some of the best creative opportunities in the industry, and weโre excited to introduce them to the U.S. market.โ
Of the Crooked Cynics moniker, Scott said, โWe showed my dad a list of our favorite names to call ourselves. He said youโll never get a dayโs work being called Crooked Cynics. That made us laugh. It was perfect.โ Middleton affirmed that, โMe and Jack naturally take the piss out of ourselves, so comedy is really the only option.โ
Scott and Middleton share a love for professional wrestling, and for the MTV shows they grew up on, like Jackass. โWeโre also too weak to get in the ring, and too scared to be like Johnny Knoxville,โ they said. โBut we excelled at watching it on TV.โ When they met through a mutual friend, Scott was working full-time as a commercial editor, cutting branded work for Adidas and the Olympics. Middleton was a band videographer, gaining lots of experience documenting reality in the U.K., U.S, and more.
โWe started directing music videos together, where ideas often got all too serious,โ Scott recalled. As music video directors, the guys found themselves succeeding in a medium where bizarre ideas were routinely treated with tremendous gravity. โItโs the things people have no sense of humor about that can be truly funny,โ Scott said.
Clearly, Crooked Cynics are funny, having been featured in British Comedy Guide, popular comedy aggregator Mr Box, and having screened at a number of film festivals where they picked up the Top Short Festival award for “Best Comedy.” Together, they have worked with a wealth of award-winning music artists and BAFTA-winning comedy performers, but deep down all they really want is to be the WWE duo, Dudley Boyz.
โCrooked Cynics could very well become the winningest tag-team in sports-entertainment,โ Thomas deadpanned. โAnd thatโs a story they would tell with a very straight face.โ
