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.
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