Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg has landed her first career representation as a spot director, coming aboard the roster of Los Angeles-based production house Hello!
Berg is best known for her Oscar®-nominated documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, an exposé on the Catholic Church’s cover up of serial rapist Father Oliver O’Grady. The director has also produced Emmy®-winning documentary segments for CBS, ABC News and CNN to name a few.
“Amy infuses her work with a raw realism that we think will translate well to spots,” said Carl Swan, executive producer at Hello!.
Berg recently completed a national PSA campaign for the RAINN Network starring Dylan McDermott, Kevin Bacon, Gabrielle Union and Christina Ricci.
Also among Berg’s credits is Polarized, one of the spotlight short films for the Live Earth campaign sponsored by Al Gore. Polarized, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, explores consumer habits and their contribution to the decline of the planet.
Currently Berg is working on two documentaries in different phases of development. The first chronicles the life of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto while the other centers on the infamous Bernard Madoff.
Berg is attached to shoot her first feature, Since Walker Left, which is a remake of the French film Since Depuis Qu’Otar Est Parti. Produced by Anonymous Content, Since Walker Left stars Catherine Keener with production slated for next summer.
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