Director John Zissimos, formerly of bicoastal/international Hungry Man, has joined Fools and Horses, the Los Angeles-based production house headed by owners/executive producers Shelly Townsend and Cyn Guzman, for exclusive U.S. representation in commercials.
A former creative director with TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, Warwick Baker Fiore, New York, J. Walter Thompson (JWT), New York and San Francisco, and McCann Erickson, San Francisco, Zissimos has done award-winning creative work for such clients as Nissan, Nestle, Lipton and Amstel.
As a spot director specializing in comedy/dialogue, he has helmed campaigns and commercial projects for assorted clients, including Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Airborne, PG&E and the Inside Out Film Festival, all of which he wrapped as part of the directing team Zissimos+Rowan (in tandem with former agency creative colleague Greg Rowan).
Zissimos was repped by Hungry Man initially as a member of that directing duo and then as a solo helmer. Among Zissimos’ individual directorial credits are spot work for Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants, and his first two assignments under the Fools and Horses banner: a Sprint viral campaign that came out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and the comedic tongue-in-cheek “Quick, Get that Dog Some ALPO” campaign from Fallon Minneapolis.
Zissimos observed that his agency background has proved invaluable when engaging in collaborations with creative and production teams.
“I know what it’s like to spend a year with a :30 script and at the one-yard line hand it off to a director. I know how hard that is so I try to make something good and bring to life these ideas.”
During his agency tenure, Zissimos directed select projects for clients, including Mike’s Hard Lemonade at McCann Erickson, San Francisco. That work set the tone for what turned out to be a successful campaign for several years running.
Zissimos rounds out a Fools and Horses directorial roster comprised of David Denneen, Fuzzi Galuzzi, Kai Sehr, Laurence Thrush, Francois Valla, and Erik Van Wyk.
Justin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds For $400M As “It Ends With Us” Fight Continues
"It Ends With Us" actor and director Justin Baldoni has sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, "Deadpool" actor Ryan Reynolds, for defamation on Thursday in the latest step in a bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama.
Baldoni's suit seeks at least $400 million for damages that include lost future income. The lawsuit from Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios, which also names publicist Leslie Sloane as a defendant, comes about two weeks after Lively sued Baldoni and several others tied to the film, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set.
That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.
The new lawsuit filed in federal court in New York says the plaintiffs did not want to file the suit, but that Lively "has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight in response to Lively's accusations, but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of."
An email seeking comment from Sloane, whose PR company represents both Lively and Reynolds, was not immediately answered.
The two actors are also both represented by agency WME, which dropped Baldoni as a client after Lively filed a legal complaint that was a precursor to her lawsuit and the Times published its story on the fight surrounding the film.
The surprise hit film based on the novel by Colleen Hoover has made major waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the treatment of female actors both on sets and in media.
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