Curious Pictures has signed director Shyam Madiraju and his Mumbai, India-based content studio Gobsmack! for exclusive representation for TV commercials and other advertising assignments in North America.
In turn Gobsmack! will rep many Curious directors for ad projects in India. The move gives the New York-headquartered Curious its first base outside the U.S. and opens the door to assignments from agencies throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Madiraju first made his mark as an agency creative before moving into the director’s chair. He won the Kodak New Director of the Year Award at the 2006 Cannes Lions Festival, shortly after being included in SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase that same year. At the time his roost was V3, which at the time was a division of Anonymous Content representing up-and-coming directors and specializing in alternative advertising and marketing forms. The V3 moniker was later dissolved and the operation was folded into Anonymous Content. In 2008, Madiraju moved on to Backyard.
Madiraju was introduced to Curious by one of its directors, Rohitash Rao, a former agency colleague at TBWA/Chiat Day who is also represented by Gobsmack! in India.
After meeting Curious exec producer Mary Knox and touring the studio, Madiraju related, “I was blown away by the experience. I had no idea they’ve produced so much original content and that they’re actively engaged in areas such as feature films, TV series, books, even games and toys. On top of that, they have all these tools at their disposal, from motion capture to CGI to animation and effects. It’s like being back in art school again, in that it allows for a kind of uninhibited creative tinkering. I found it very appealing.”
“This signing represents our future as a production company,” said Knox. “Shyam is a real thinker, who expresses himself as an outstanding filmmaker and content creator. His ideas employ many different forms of creative expression, including animation and graphic design.”
Madiraju got his start in the agency business in the U.S. at Lowe & Partners in the 1990s, then moved on to The Martin Agency, where he first worked in Richmond, Va., and then helped to open its L.A. office. After that he freelanced at a number of West Coast shops, among them Goodby Silverstein & Partners, TBWA/Chiat/Day and Saatchi & Saatchi, and also spent a year on staff at Ogilvy & Mather, where he headed up creative on its Cisco Systems account.
While there he collaborated with director Joe Pytka, whom Madiraju said played a key role in his transition to directing full time. “Joe inspired me and challenged me to be a filmmaker, which is something I had always dreamed about, going back to my art school days in India,” he explains. Upon learning that Madiraju wanted to direct, Pytka offered up a few choice words, along with his studio and equipment to help Madiraju shoot his first independent directing project, a series of subtly comic commercials for the L.A. Film Festival. Two of those spots, “Nocturnal” and “Checkout,” helped earn him a slot in the SHOOT New Directors Showcase.
Since then Madiraju’s work includes a series of branded content shorts for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel produced through Anonymous, as well as spots for brands such as Fox Sports, McDonald’s, Vicks and VW. He recently shot an ambitious campaign for Wieden + Kennedy launching the compact Chevy Cruze in India, which includes long-format TV spots as well as web videos.
The signing of Madiraju continues an effort to reimagine Curious Pictures as an entertainment and advertising production company that works across disciplines, genres and media platforms. The initiative is being driven by the studio’s new management team, Jan Korbelin and Marina Grasic. Both are veteran feature film producers (Crash and New York, I Love You) and management executives with broad-based experience in the television and entertainment industry.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More