Bill Reilly, owner and executive producer of the L.A.-based live action production company Space Program, has been named the new executive producer for commercials and advertising content at animation and mixed-media production house Curious Pictures, New York. Reilly will merge Space Program into Curious Pictures, bringing with him directors Zach Braff and Scott Duncan. Braff has already landed his first project at Curious, a comedy job for a Procter & Gamble brand that combines live action, visual effects and tabletop for Saatchi & Saatchi, New York.
Additionally, Curious is opening an office in Santa Monica, the first outside N.Y. in its 18 year history, and has named new representation for the East Coast. The new office will provide a base of operations for the studio’s growing involvement in feature film, TV programming and other entertainment projects, as well as service the work of its West Coast-based directors. Reilly will divide his time between the New York and Santa Monica offices of Curious. He takes charge of commercials and advertising content at Curious, a province previously headed by Mary Knox who served as managing director of commercials for the company before moving over to Red Car New York as its managing director (SHOOTonline, 3/16).
Jan Korbelin, managing partner of Curious, noted that the studio has steadily been adding live-action directors to its roster over the years and extending its production footprint to the West Coast in terms of advertising and entertainment. The hiring of Reilly, an experienced live action EP with a background in visual effects and animation, along with the new office in Santa Monica, furthers Curious’ growth in both regards.
As for the alluded to new East Coast representation, Curious has secured the services of independent firm Hello, Tomorrow, consisting of reps Michelle Stuart and Mary Eiff, who previously repped Space Program in the East.
“We’re continuing to lay the groundwork for the future of commercial content at Curious,” said Korbelin about Reilly’s signing. “As advertising is now incorporating so many new forms–everything from games to apps to long form–the signing of Bill is going to go a long way to ensuring our role as partners and producers for both agencies and brands.
Reilly sees joining Curious as way for him to offer a broader range of creative options and resources to his agency clients. “At Space Program, we were frequently asked to provide different kinds of deliverables that we didn’t have the capability of executing on our own,” he said. In his new post he’ll work closely with Camille Geier, Curious Picture’s head of production/exec producer, who’s joined the studio last year from the New York visual effects shop Rhino (now Gravity). She had previously worked with Reilly on numerous projects, handling visual effects on jobs shot by his Space Program directors.
Indeed, Reilly initially viewed Curious as a potential co-production partner for Space Program, but the more he learned about the studio, the more compelling he found the idea of joining in a full time capacity. “Being here gives me so many more things to talk about with agencies,” he explained.
The move brings Reilly back to his roots in visual effects–he got his start in the industry fresh out of UCLA’s film school with a job at Dream Quest Images, a visual effects studio in Simi Valley, Calif. He later worked at ILM (where Geier is also an alum) before teaming up with comedy director Mike Bigelow, his UCLA classmate, to launch Space Program after a stint together at now defunct Coppos Films. While Bigelow eventually moved on from Space Program, Reilly continued to build the company.
Curious is currently producing a network pilot and is working on various development projects for both advertising and entertainment. The workload has increasingly seen Curious’ producers and directors travelling to California for meetings and shoots, making the L.A. office a needed outpost to complement the work of its New York studio. That’s where the bulk of its staff of 150 producers, directors, animators, CG artists and other specialists are based, working out of a 30,000 square foot studio housing a shooting stage, a full CG department and motion capture capability.
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